THE WAVE INK: AUGUST '18

M.C. WOODY
@parrotgang
M.C. Woody, you have been featured in The WAVE
Ink back in Dec ’17, so would you please reintroduce
yourself to our readers and let them know where
you’re from?
Hey, my name is Woody, I'm a rapper, drum n bass
MC and recording studio owner from Gisborne,
Aotearoa (New Zealand), a small island in the South
Pacific that consists of a mixture of Maori (indigenous)
and Pakeha (Euro Settlers)
Musically how would you describe your style?
On the drum n bass front I've been performing with
Drum n Bass duo State Of Mind since I was a baby
in 2009 it's Neurofunk a sub Genre of Drum N Bass,
they are signed out of Blackout in Europe. They've
had a world no 1 alb and continue to tour the world
asmashomg massive festivals globally. I'm very
proud of them Pat and Stu.
On the Hip Hop side I guess it's dark af. Like I write
about my life, the shit I grew up with, the shit that
I've seen and my country. I guess Aotearoa is kind of
marketed as this beautiful place full of happy people
and dont get me wrong, it is we are a very powerful
and beautiful people. But. we have some of the worst
violence, rape, crime, domestic abuse stats and the
highest rate of suicide in the known world. 5x that
of the States (US). We don't have guns so we're doing
it the hard way too, the bloody fucked up way you
see in movies. That's New Zealand suicide, bruh. We
kill ourselves more then anybody else.
People have always told me I write about ugly.
...Yeah I write about ugly!!! And I write about pain
because that's where I find the most beauty but I'm
fucked up man.
You’re touring right now, how’s that going?
It's been fantastic we've pretty much sold out most
shows we've done this year on the State Of Mind
(Land Of The Blind) album tour. And since I haven't
completely finished this crazy hip hop show.
Where are you touring and how long is it for?
With “State Of Mind”, it's all year around as part
one of a three part album is out so, it won't stop
for a while and we're still selling out shows and
there's still two parts the boys are set to release so
that should keep us busy. We have the summer and
NYE festival circuit here to finish off the year with
so, it's all fun ATM. As far as the hip hop thing it's
still not finished, but it's got a tour waiting to go
once I fucking finish it, (the live show) but I did do
a one off show in my homown a few months back to
feed kids that could not afford lunches at school in
my hood, so that was pretty dope. I wrote a single
called “Clustered” for my girl, Chalese, like the
week before, so I got to played that live to her, and
an audience at the war memorial theatre. So that's a
highlight to be able to give back... She's a real one.
Who are some of the artist that you like right now?
I'm absolutely in love with the Manchester UK boom
bap. ATM, mainly High Focus records. Ocean Wisdom,
Four Owls and shit like that. It makes me want
to make something with those elements in it. Like, I
think the UK has a great hip hop formula, ATM with
Skepta and stuff bridging into US. I kinda want to
use some of that sound in the near future, eh. And
all of Kanye's new work has me hype.
What is the difference, if there is any that you see
between hip-hop in other places around the world and
the US?
Well I think that music as a whole is two parts, one
is the culture of the area you are from, combined
with the shit you're influenced by, so if you mix
those two with a personality, boom you have urban
music. So, nah not really. It's all subjective. They just
tell it their way, just the trends and accents go into it,
so really it's all just music