New Zealand hip-hop was forged on the elements of New York’s true school in the ’80s, breaking out in the mid-’90s with the politically minded rhymes of DLT and evolving into King Kapisi’s pan-genre protest music and Nesian Mystik’s laidback, Polynesian-flavored funk. However, it was such artists as Deceptikonz, P-Money, and Scribe (whose 2003 landmark The Crusader topped the local charts) who would ultimately usher in NZ’s defining moment. Reminiscent of both New York boom bap and Midwestern independent rap, they used rapid-fire flows and classically minimal beats to speak on the struggle and grind, celebrating hip-hop and community. Today, modern Kiwi rap moves with the wide-open freedom of the internet, embracing EDM textures, trap rhythms, melody, lo-fi confessionals, and more, keeping a thriving scene alive and evolving.