Aotearoa Hip Hop: The Music, The People, The History · rova | Original

EP12 - Savage & David Dallas

·1 hr 22 min·5 clips

Savage says “Swing” was number one in city after city, and he beat Ice Cube on radio adds.

Everything starts after a collapse. Dawn Raid has come through liquidation, investors are back in, and Brother D with Andy Murnane are trying to turn survival into forward motion. Then Universal Publishing in Australia calls: Savage's Swing has landed in Knocked Up, the Judd Apatow rom-com that gives the record a shot beyond home. Savage does not quite clock the size of it until the trailer hits and he spots the Grey's Anatomy actress. Suddenly the placement feels bigger than a nice sync. Back to the grind. The episode shifts to Lady and Parks, where Time Is Not Much is less a breakthrough story than a long wrestle with the tools. Four years is the frame. Lady remembers gear stacking up, Parks only recently having a computer, and both of them cutting loose anyone who was not fully in. Parks is learning as he goes. He has barely touched an MPC before Auckland, then starts piecing production together through Jeremy, Toy, Julian, and later Moo's Wellington studio setup. Moo gives the story some weight. He puts money back into equipment, keyboards, microphones, and a studio that lets the record stretch. Still, nobody makes the work sound clean or easy. The days are long. The nights are long. MIDI, beat-making, production, and recording all become part of the same education. Around that main thread, the archive keeps opening up: Scribe's national explosion, Verse 2 recording Gold, Tom Scott coming through Avondale. The scene is moving quickly, but the episode keeps returning to craft. By the end, the contrast is simple: today's easy software access beside an earlier life of pads, pens, tapes, and stubborn practice. Aotearoa hip hop grows through breaks and placements, sure, but mostly through people teaching themselves before anyone hands them a shortcut.

As heard by us

An insider-led chapter on Dawn Raid, Swing, and the long studio grind behind Time Is Not Much.

This episode follows Dawn Raid's reboot after the IRD skirmish and the voluntary liquidation of its subsidiary businesses, then turns to the call that set Swing on a wider path.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play if you want the backstory behind the moments that actually changed the scene.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Aotearoa Hip Hop: The Music, The People, The History