Upper Hutt Posse
| Upper Hutt Posse | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Wellington, Aotearoa / New Zealand |
| Genres | Reggae - Rap Fusion |
| Years active | 1985–present |
| Labels |
Jayrem Records Southside Records Tangata Records Universal Music Kia Kaha Productions |
| Website | |
| Members |
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| Past members | |
Upper Hutt Posse (UHP) is a musical band in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The progenitors of Hiphop music in the South Pacific originally formed as a four-piece reggae group in 1985, the Posse emerged at the forefront of the local response to emerging rap culture. Their unique fusion of rap and reggae (in both English and Māori languages) has been an inspirational injection into the national music scene, and a powerful vehicle for their revolutionary socio-political perspectives. Influenced primarily by socio-politically conscious reggae and rap music, from Bob Marley to Gil Scott-Heron to Public Enemy. The band name is derived from Upper Hutt, the city in which they formed.
UHP formed as a four-piece reggae band in 1985. Since their inception, Dean Hapeta (also known as D Word or Te Kupu) and the Posse have been fighting racial injustice through their music. In 1988 they released New Zealand's first rap record and their first 12-inch hip hop record, "E Tū", through Jayrem Records. The song combined African American revolutionary rhetoric with an explicitly Māori frame of reference. It pays homage to the rebel Māori warrior chiefs of Aotearoa's colonial history, Hone Heke, Te Kooti, and Te Rauparaha.
Releasing their debut album, Against The Flow in 1989 through Southside Records, the group performed nationally and the following year in Sydney Australia and in Detroit America. Against The Flow consists of sequenced/programmed rap and reggae songs and a political slow jam titled "Stormy Weather", the unique lineup of two rappers, a reggae toaster, a female singer, a male singer, and a DJ allowed main songwriter D Word to compose without having to use 'featured' vocalists outside the group. In 1990, the group toured marae (Māori community centers), and supported Public Enemy when that group visited New Zealand, and performed with the ragga artist Macca B and the Zimbabwean group the Bhundu Boys in Australia. October 1992 saw the completion of a music-documentary, Solidarity, showing the UH Posse's visit to America. Co-directed by Dean Hapeta and Rongotai Lomas, the music-documentary was aired on TV ONE's Marae. With the departure of Darryl Thompson around this time, and then Teremoana Rapley 1993, who became a member of Moana and the Moahunters, and a presenter on television series Mai Time, being joined later by MC Beware who had left the group back in 1990. D Word formed Kia Kaha Productions Ltd and continues up to the present day as the leader of UHP through various lineup changes. Upon the release of the movie Once Were Warriors, the group's single "Ragga Girl" appeared on the soundtrack, with MC Wiya and D Word making cameo appearances.
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