Recreation

Scribe

Rap artist Scribe was born Malo Luafutu, in Christchurch in 1979 and grew up in Philipstown.

Describing his upbringing in the Sunday Herald Sun in 2008 he says, “there are heaps of cousins and we all grew up together. All our parents were musical and we kind of honed our skills entertaining our parents and aunties and uncles”.

Later he developed his rapping skills with local rap group Beats n’ Peaces and the Pacific Underground theatre company.

He was brought to prominence by a guest appearance on P-Money’s album Big Things.

His debut album Crusader was released by Dirty Records in 2003. It debuted at No. 1 and his single Stand Up/Not Many was No. 1 at the same time. It was a first for a New Zealand musician to hold both top spots simultaneously. The album went platinum by the end of the first week and stayed in the Aria Top 40 for 75 weeks. He was the first Australasian hip hop artist to sell over 180,000 copies of one album in both New Zealand and Australia.

His first solo show held at Club 77 after the Big Day Out sold out in five minutes.

Influenced by NWA and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony his style is described witty, conversational, emotive and inspiring, P-Money describes his music as having integrity and truth and the energy to get you out of your seat.

His second album Rhyme Book was released in Australia in September 2007 and in New Zealand in October of the same year. The album went top 10 on its release, instantly achieving platinum sales. Singles released from the album were My Shit, F.R.E.S.H. and Say It Again. However it did not sell as well as his first album and in 2011 he publicly admitted to problems with drug and gambling addictions between 2005 to 2007, citing this as one of the triggers.

He released a remix of his single Not Many following the Christchurch earthquake and shortly after, announced that he was working on a third album, which he hopes to release in mid-2012.

Awards

  • 2004 won seven awards at New Zealand Music Awards (the "Tuis") including:
    • Best male solo artist
    • Single of the year
    • Best music video awards for Stand Up.
    • The Crusader was honoured as album of the year and best urban/hip-hop album
  • 2004 APRA Silver Scroll for songwriting with P-Money
  • 2008 Pacific Music Awards: NZ Music Commission Best Pacific Male Artist
    and co-winner APRA Best Pacific Song.
  • 2011 Nominated for an APRA Silver Scoll Maiho Award for contemporary Maori music

Websites

Newspaper articles