Rapping about real estate
David Dallas’ new album is about finance companies and the cost of housing. Glenn McConnell finds out why.
Whatever you do in Auckland, it seems there are two topics you simply can’t escape from: finance and housing.
On his return to Kiwi shores, rapper David Dallas has been pulled into the whirlwind that is Auckland’s housing nightmare. It made him angry, he says, which is why his new album focuses so heavily on the matter.
The album, Hood Country Club, comprises 13 tracks crafted after he returned to New Zealand. It’s Dallas’ fourth solo album and, unlike most of his work, it was made completely at home, he says.
Coming home to South Auckland got to him, Dallas says. The Papatoetoe rapper took an early swipe at finance companies that have sprung up along the streets of his old neighbourhood. Almost two years before his album went live, Dallas had released Don’t Rate That. It set the tone for his album to come.
Don’t Rate That’s first verse starts: ‘‘Cause of where I’m raised at, single parent household ... I wouldn’t trade that. Wish that I could aim at these finance companies in the hood, posing like they doing something good. F... outta here.’’
The lyrics are blunt. Dallas has a clear message with a pinpoint target. He says his latest release isn’t trying to be fashionable either; he’s angry for a reason.
Being at home has had an influence on Dallas: ‘‘It just made me just analyse things a lot more, like analyse what the state of things are.’’
The new album has been more than four years in the making. As its name suggests, his last release
Falling Into Place was like candyfloss compared to Hood Country Club. Its lead track, The Wire, features the sickly-sweet tones of singer and former X-Factor judge, Ruby Frost. She duets with Dallas as they sing about success and selfconfidence.
The album’s four years in the making have been, Dallas says, far too long.
All going to plan, he says, ‘‘I’m never having a gap this long between releasing projects again’’.
Early on, Dallas says he knew what he wanted to say in Hood
Country Club. It took a while to get there, but he says he couldn’t have released the record without achieving the message and tone he was looking for.
‘‘If you’d ask me what sort of things I’d write about, if I’d write about the things I wrote about on this record, five years ago, I would’ve been like...’’ he pauses, makes a sound like a train coming to a halt, and continues, ‘‘finance companies and house prices and it’s stuff like that. I never thought I’d rap about stuff like that.’’
Now 14 years into his rapping career, Dallas says it’s about time he grew up. His rapping career kicked off when, as a computer science student, he featured on the remix of Scribe’s Not Many in 2003.
His work since has steadily taken a more serious tone, Dallas says. Although he won’t give too many hints away, he says it his next album could be even heavier.
He’s already working on it. When once he would have settled for a good rhyme, Dallas now says he’s looking to add more meaning to his lines.
‘‘It’s not necessarily that this is darker sounding, but in terms of the themes and stuff, the stuff I’m talking about is a lot more serious, more grown up,’’ he says.
Dallas’ favourite song from his new album, track one Probably, gets to business straight away. It starts with an attention-grabbing horn to announce keys most likely borrowed from a nightclub horror film.
‘‘Why should I be so lucky?’’ Dallas asks over the tense chimes, alluding to the thousands of children who grew up just like him.
‘‘Probably because I’m not talking it up, because I’m South Auckland as f...
‘‘The media just seem to be a little caught up, saying that we’re beneficiaries, that we’re poor c..., that we’re relying on the government to support us. Fact is, most of us have got a lot more sussed.’’
In the end, Dallas says he’ll be happy if his new music makes people ponder his opinions.
He hasn’t become any more political, he says, he’s always been political – but that doesn’t mean he wants to be in politics.
Hood Country Club is, Dallas says simply, ‘‘my opinions of this time’’. It’s his homecoming album, but the rapper admits, it’s a fair bit more sombre than most people’s ‘‘homecomings’’.