Sunday Star★Times November 15, 2009 C2 COVER STORY

ate the label. Ermehn, an Otara-bred musician who was the country’s first gangster rapper, describes the footage: ‘‘[Founder] Brotha D was pretty much begging not to get a hiding. [Co- founder] YDNA was like a headless chicken,’’ he says. ‘‘Dawn Raid shut THE KING their shops up for a week. They lost face, people seeing them drop their nuts like that.’’ News of the trouble reached as high as Dawn Raid’s corpor- ate backer, South Pacific Pictures head John Barnett. (Says YDNA, also known as Andy Murnane: ‘‘As far as I’m con- cerned there was no real incident.’’) OF STING The episode only bolstered the Killer Beez’ status, strengthening its claim as a strident new voice of one of From Focus, C1 the country’s most influential youth subcultures, in one of its traditional His promise of a hustling, hedonistic strongholds. The real sound of Manu- lifestyle proved nearly irresistible to kau’s streets, they said, was gangster many from disadvantaged back- hip-hop; few dared argue with them. grounds who sought a richer source of They launched their album in tri- identity and income than they could umphant fashion, popping champagne derive from a blue collar job. Masters at a bar at Auckland’s Viaduct. A few embodied the naked, unpalatable days later the Operation Leo raids reality of the appeal of gang member- were executed. Operation head Detec- ship: that by aligning with a bullying, tive Inspector John Tims called it ‘‘a antisocial mob, those with limited good day for New Zealand’’. prospects and social standing could grab a modicum of power, money and LTHOUGH MASTERS’ ascendancy even a degree of respect – albeit a hol- Aset a dangerous precedent, it low kind, built on fear and borrowed remains to be seen whether the next time. generation of aspiring strongmen will Mostly though, they thought the look to emulate him in every respect. Killer Beez were cool. Masters was a Something was not quite right with the boss. He lived the idealised lifestyle of brand’s business model; all that rapid their American ghetto heroes: gang Maori youth, suggests the gang prob- upbringing and was passed around growth had to end in a crash. Says strongman, rap star. He drove a 2007 lem is a far more complex and stub- from house to house as a child’’, being Peter, ‘‘He had his faults. He was draw- Mercedes, rode a 2008 Harley-Davidson born challenge than the politicians’ Verne Wilson’s son provided a strong ing attention to himself, and he was and, if he wanted to show off, wore a tough talk would indicate. sense of identity. Masters held on to it being watched. That was his downfall, kickboxing championship belt around Observers attribute much of the tightly. Says Va’a: ‘‘When the realis- more or less: being too flamboyant.’’ his waist. ‘‘Everyone in the ’hood gang’s ascent to the singular qualities ation came that Josh was the son of Granting a major television inter- wanted to be him,’’ says ‘‘Peter’’, a for- of Masters, an alpha gangster with Verne, a lot more mana and kudos view, as the head of one of the mer Otara gang member who has pedigree and ambition. ‘‘We haven’t came from that. He’s the offspring of country’s most notorious gangs, was known Masters through the under- seen anyone like Josh come along one of Otara’s most notorious.’’ A an act of hubris, as the raids just three world for more than a decade. ‘‘Every- before,’’ says Peter. ‘‘He’s one of a framed portrait of his stepfather would months later proved. Similarly, one who had nothing wanted to be a kind.’’ later hang on the wall of Colourway’s Masters’ efforts to court attention as a Killer Bee.’’ Himself the product of a gang recording studio. gangster rapper can only be read as a And becoming a Killer Bee was environment, Masters belongs to a gen- In his parents’ absence, Masters catastrophic own goal. Masters easy, Masters told Campbell. ‘‘All eration of children of Otara’s was raised principally by Wilson’s announced his arrival on the musical you’ve got to do is hang with us.’’ Tribesmen who have survived their mother. ‘‘He would end up lost in the The influence of the Killer Beez spread to the youngest residents in South Auckland, scene with a verse declaring: ‘‘I’m a The news, then, in May 2008, that upbringings to emerge with a cut- streets; she would come pick him up top. Gang members in their distinctive colours pose with their bikes. real live gangster.’’ As Thomson points scores of Killer Beez, Tribesmen and throat world view – one which has and help him,’’ said his relative. When out, for all its bluster, gangster rap is associates had been arrested, and enabled them to grab success on their his grandmother died, he was bereft; really a deliberately oblique fiction. $500,000 of drugs and $200,000 cash own terms. One of his mates, ‘‘Young by the time he attended Nga Tapuwae Blood or Crip who’s never been to LA.’’ project, or some harmonious conflu- ‘‘Anyone who says on record what they seized, was met with widespread cel- Sid’’ Diamond, the breakout star of College, he was already recognised as To announce his arrival as a serious ence of the two, the label dramatically do in real life is an idiot.’’ ebration. More than 120 police were chart-topping rap group Smashproof, is a serious troublemaker. Masters’ life player, Masters invited the established lifted the gang’s profile. A music video But whatever mistakes Masters deployed in the raid, the conclusion of son to a former Tribesmen president, story, in his own rapped bulletpoints: gangs of Auckland to send their for their first single, featuring Young made, they haven’t cost him the Killer a six-month investigation dubbed brother of a Killer Bee, and has ‘‘This is my life, born and raised on the hardest men to go toe-to-toe with his Sid, has been watched more than Beez. Jail doesn’t break gangs. If it did, Operation Leo. Twenty-five of those appeared on Colourway tracks. Dia- southside, / I used to play innocent own at organised ‘‘fight nights’’, held at 430,000 times on YouTube. About 200 the Mongrel Mob would have disap- arrested have pleaded guilty to various mond, who spent a year of his child- games before my dad died. / But when a forgotten council hall in Otara’s people were treated to a barbecue and peared in the late 1980s when a great charges, with a remaining 21 proceed- hood growing up in his aunt’s tinny my nan died, I contemplated suicide; / Sandbrook Reserve. In 2004, the local a bouncy castle for the kids when they proportion of its members was ing through to trial, including Masters, house, has drawn on the street credi- I raised my middle finger, gang-bang, community board had signed over the turned out for the shooting of a second incarcerated. As ‘‘Bones’’, a member of who faces 17 charges of selling or con- bility and narrative material provided yeah I wanna ride.’’ building to a boxing trainer; Masters video in parks around Manukau. the Mob’s Notorious chapter, told a spiring to sell methamphetamine. by his upbringing to fuel a successful Masters’ whakapapa opened up an promptly claimed it for use as the Colourway T-shirts became hot conference in 2007: ‘‘Being locked down Police and social workers say the rap career (his group took home three gang’s personal gym-cum- items in the community. ‘‘There’s still together made our bonds stronger.’’ streets have been quiet since the raid. gongs, including highest-selling single, clubhouse. The meets – a people wearing them; the police even The self-perpetuating system of shared ‘‘But it’s touch wood, eh,’’ says Otara from the New Zealand Music Awards ‘That was his downfall, more or less: visceral reminder of the put little notes in school newsletters values, allegiances, prohibitions and youth worker Alan Va’a. Nobody really last month). Like Masters, he is gang’s power to those in the telling parents not to buy their kids rituals that gang identity is based on believes they have heard the last of the strikingly confident, and entirely being too flamboyant.’ community who might have Colourway gear,’’ says Mark Thomson, only becomes more entrenched behind Killer Beez. undaunted by any moral judgements opposed it – continued until who runs independent West Auckland- bars. society might direct at him or his fam- early pathway into the Tribesmen, and, February 2007, when police with semi- based rap label 833 Records, and who A rival gang leader says the Killer HE DIZZYING rise of the Killer ily. says Peter, by his early 20s he was automatic weapons turned up to dis- helped Masters set up his label by pro- Beez leader is still very much calling TBeez, and the receptive following it According to a family member, who running a strip club in Auckland’s Fort perse a crowd of more than 100 who viding recording equipment and the shots. The gang is said to be among found among alienated Pacific and did not want to be named, Masters’ Lane, building a prodigious under- had gathered to watch the action. introductions to industry contacts. the most active participants in the mother was ‘‘troubled’’; his stepfather – standing of the workings of the under- ‘‘People would turn up at the studio ‘‘slave trade’’, as the recruitment of ‘‘the only real father he ever had’’ – world. His reputation as a fearsome HAT MONTH, Colourway Records who had memorised the whole CD unaffiliated young brown men in the was senior Tribesman and legendary hardman helped him quickly rise to a TLtd was founded. Masters’ partner, word for word and rap it back to him. prison system is known, aggressively Otara hardman Verne Wilson. Having position of leadership. Following his and mother of his children, Natalie They instantly latch on to things they targeting new inmates at Mt Eden, made attempts to move his life in a stepfather’s example that macho sport- Eyles, became its company director have pride in.’’ Paremoremo and the recently built more constructive direction, Wilson, a ing prowess could complement a gang and Masters began devoting much of Colourway released two albums in Spring Hill jail. beast of a man with a gang patch reputation, Masters trained as a kick- his energies to his new project: six months, selling their CDs at flea Outside, the gang continues to oper- Summer tattooed on his throat, devoted himself boxer under K1 fighter Jason ‘‘Psycho’’ launching a career as a gangster markets and their retail store in East ate, albeit in a depleted fashion: a to league, representing Auckland with Suttie. He would later win a heavy- rapper, under the stage name Gravity. Tamaki, but gaining greater exposure phase of retrenchment and consoli- distinction in Sydney’s Panasonic Cup weight belt in front of scores of fren- ‘‘I think he had a story behind him; through posting YouTube clips, their dation. ‘‘They’re still doing their thing; against the teams which now make up zied Killer Beez. that’s what inspired him to get into it,’’ songs accompanied by posturing slide they’re just a little wiser since the the NRL. The explosive prop forward Leveraging his power within the says a former Colourway staff member. shows. Not content with that level of busts,’’ says Peter. In the neglected Loving was regarded as a certainty for the Tribesmen, Masters had free rein to ‘‘The whole idea was to break into the attention, Masters started a one-sided neighbourhoods of Manukau, scores of Kiwis’ 1984 end of year tour when he grow his hip-hop-styled offshoot, a music industry, make some money, feud with pioneering South Auckland young children in Killer Beez-affiliated was killed in a motorcycle accident strain of gang culture more relevant to bring the family out of poverty.’’ hip-hop label Dawn Raid. families are still growing up mired in .50ct Diamond while returning from a funeral, his and younger generations. He found The ex-employee says Colourway is The bad blood stemmed from a gang culture; two of Masters’ three Solitaire occasioning 22 death notices in the no shortage of young men willing to not a Killer Beez business, and only grievance by a top Colourway rapper, young children were among those in a newspaper. ‘‘If he hadn’t had that acci- prove their allegiance to a brand which two of the label’s rappers are members Face Killah, who believed he had been recent newspaper sting of websites NOW $1,990 dent, he would have definitely made had more prestige than the disorgan- of the gang. Police saw the enterprise deprived royalties, while in jail, from a featuring photographs of children in Also available in white gold the Kiwis, and I have no doubt he ised, territorial ‘‘colour gang’’ rabbles in a different light. Last month, Police track he had recorded on a Dawn Raid- the gang’s colours and apparel. Face would have been part of the side for which predominated, and for whom the Minister Judith Collins singled out the run music course. The Killer Beez Killah has an album out soon. Says the some time,’’ says former Kiwis player prospect of ‘‘patching up’’ held dwin- Killer Beez in a keynote speech in the initially attacked Dawn Raid, in the former Colourway worker: ‘‘Colourway and coach Dean Bell, who went to dling allure. ‘‘A kid growing up in government’s war on gangs, describing time-honoured hip-hop form of a ‘‘diss will eventually be back, when the school with Wilson, played alongside Otara doesn’t really want to be like the Colourway’s music videos as ‘‘thinly track’’. The antagonism boiled over artists are out.’’ him for Manukau, and regarded him as old school Maori gangsters, with their disguised recruitment advertise- from the rhetoric of a rap ‘‘beef’’, when By then, as demanded by the law Newmarket I Queen St I Albany one of his best mates. Wilson was in patches and that; the ‘Black Termin- ments’’. Eyles is facing charges for Masters and his associates imposed and order hard-liners, the Killer Beez his early 20s when he died. ator’ kind of dude doesn’t really look laundering money through the label. themselves on Dawn Raid at their will have had ample time for reflection. Anzac Ave I St Lukes I Botany For a young Otara boy who, in his cool,’’ says Peter. ‘‘They don’t want to Whether Colourway was principally offices, recording the encounter and They will have learnt from their Airport I Lambton Quay I Panama St relative’s words, ‘‘didn’t have a proper represent themselves as a wannabe a criminal enterprise, a musical vanity circulating it online to further humili- mistakes. www.walkerandhall.co.nz

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