rss feedMY STYLE JOURNEY: PART 1
In this first part I want to shed some light on perhaps one of the biggest influences in my career. It’s not one specific person but more a place and the people that live in it. I’m speaking about my Neighbourhood!
It’s amazing to consider how the course of your life can changed so dramatically with a move from small town to the big dirty inner city. In 1984 my Mother and Stepfather packed us up and we made the move from Palmerston North to Auckland. Initially we lived around Levonia Street in Western Springs, spent some time in Grey Lynn but eventually ended up settled at the bottom of a dead end street on the cusp of Morningside and Kingsland.
First Avenue, Kingsland 1987.
These two suburbs (which are almost the same suburb, only divided by a park and a bend in the road) are two old but small inner city suburbs located in the Mt Albert ward in Central Auckland. When we moved there the area was in a transitional stage, an eclectic mixture of industrial area, run down shops and old villas inhabited by a diverse range of people from many cultures. Our street was mainly Samoan and Cook Island families, a handful of Pakeha families and one Maori family who were part of the Twelve Tribes Of Israel and threw epic parties at the bottom of our street. My school, Mt Albert Primary was even more diverse. My class had every type of pacific people you could think of from Maori, Cook Island, Samoan, Tongan, Niuean, Tokelauan, Fijian, Fijian Indian, Korean, Malaysian… The list goes on. It’s fair to say that 1980’s Auckland city was as stark a contrast to Palmerston North as you could get and one I’m very thankful to have experienced first hand.
In the park next to my house was an old school building owned by the Waipereira Trust and practise room for the legendary Herbs and later on Che Fu and the Crates. Across the park was School Road and parallel to that the infamous Don Croot Street. It’s hard to fathom that these were considered some of the roughest parts of town when compared to today but my first experiences walking down Don Croot left me in shock.
Directly across the road from our house lived the Satele family. It’s still their family home ’til this day and at any time as many as Four generations of family have been in that household at once. The father, Fatau Satele (Perhaps someone from the Satele family can help me the that spelling? The whole Samoan T as K’s thing gets me all the time!) is an icon of First Avenue, the neighbourhood patriarch. As a kid I always remember him being out the front of his house, just chilling on the steps, almost keeping an eye on the street and keeping up to date with his neighbours and everything going on in their lives. Any one that was around the Auckland scene during the 80’s and 90’s will talk about the Satele’s because brothers Marvin (R.I.P), Junior and Andrew were some of the earliest B-Boy’s and DJ’s in my neighbourhood. My awareness of Hip-Hop as a culture that you participate in as opposed to one you merely consume literally came from seeing and hearing these guys hone their respective crafts in their basement bedroom and front carport.
The Megazoids: Junior Satele, Troy O’Dea, Lua Iusitini, David Lynch, Jason Rowe. Lua, David and Jason were also members of Smooth Inc, one of New Zealand’s Pioneering graffiti crews. Photo from Nick D’Angelo
Having never seen much more than the odd bit of political or crudely done gang graffiti in Palmerston North, the standard of the writing around my area was hard not to notice or be impacted by. I used to walk to school Through the School Road Park, past the ‘FLY’ piece on the old school building then on to the Morningside shops, dropping in to Sima’s Superette, then continuing on to the tracks across from the KDV building and down past Morningside Station. There were some pieces painted there by the first Auckland kings of graffiti ‘Smooth Incorporated’ or ‘Smooth Crew’. The ‘Merry Xmas Smooth’ piece with the two characters really stuck in my mind for a long time and particularly the way the characters were depicted, specifically their outfits which shaped my primary school aged perception of what writers must look like. Even after the council buffed the center portion of the wall, the characters on the raw brick remained for another few years.
Image taken from the 1986 book ‘Street Action Aotearoa” by Mark Scott. These photos were taken by Gil Hanly.
Morningside Station. Photos by Jamie McCready
The Book ‘Street Action Aotearoa’ by Mark Scott came out in 1986 although I only discovered it by accident at the Auckland City Library one day in the mid 90′s. The book is very rare given that Mark Scott ended up self-publishing a very limited run after struggling to convince any mainstream publishers of the projects historical and cultural importance. The book mainly focuses on the explosion of Hip-Hop, mainly the B-Boy element throughout New Zealand during the 1980′s. It is a really special book in that it discusses Hip-Hop in the Aotearoa context and why it resonated with Maori and Polynesian youth at that time. The last section of the book is a feature on the Smooth Crew with incredible photos by legendary photographer Gil Hanly. This section shows my neighbourhood the way it was when we moved there and has some quotes from Claude Iusitini, the leader of Smooth that still hold true today.
“Our initial ideas might come from New York but we have to fuse our own identity as well… Eventually our bombing in Aotearoa will become our own style, not an imitation.” -Claude Iusitini/Street Action Aotearoa
A photo of Claude From Street Action Aotearoa, Photo by Gil Hanly
Smooth Crew at work. Later on I sort of took ownership of these walls and painted them into the mid 00′s. It was always felt like it was my duty as one of the only writers from that area painting pieces to represent there. once again, photo by Gil Hanly
“They can say, Shucks, them’s my roots up there… All the kids who don’t know about their culture in the broad spectrum of things, it would help in a really big way to bring all of us together.” -Claude Iusitini/Street Action Aotearoa
Smooth planning a wall. I love this shot, so crazy seeing such young photos of Lua and Jason Rowe. Jay has always been one of those iconic Auckland Hip-Hop people. Photo Gil Hanly
The Pacific Cinema in kingsland, now the Royal Jewelery Studio. Photo by Gil Hanly
“Every group here has its own culture, its own art and we can bring it together for everyone with our art… Take the designs you get in Tapa… Or like Maori has a flowing style, Rarotongan has a natural style wit flowers, hibiscus – You could use Hibiscus instead of clouds and the Samoans have a formal style, straight organised style… All these styles we could use. Do Koru instead of arrows.” -Claude Iusitini/Street Action Aotearoa
Smooth Crew ‘Monster Sale’ wall on Queen St, 1984. Photo by Gil Hanly
Another really influential piece from my area during that era (1985). I will discuss this more but note the Copyright signs on the tags. Photo by Nick D’Angelo
Of course for good measure here is a really classic joint and maybe one of the better known works by Smooth as it was printed in Spray Can Arts Auckland section. Photo by Nick D’Angelo
I will continue this soon with more great old stuff and tributes to NZ’s kings of old. Thanks again to Nick D’Angelo for use of the photos and thanks to all the influences mentioned in this post. If you ever get your little mitts upon a copy of Mark Scott’s book, know you are holding treasure!
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Nice one bro … last time I saw you in St.Kevs we spoke about your fams and old hood.
Makes me wanna go burn some paint!!!
Do it bro! Do it! haha
What a wonderful, evocative read. Anyone got any shots of the Smooth Crew’s work at The Galaxy?
The Gil Hanly shots are both evocative and a truly historic document of such an important part of Auckland’s soul.
Where’s Claude these days?
Cheers man..
I got in touch with Claude via his nephews who are Fire & Ice, the beat making duo behind a ton of great local Hip-Hop like a good amount of David Dallas’ last album. They are featured in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJoUP0Rx93o
Claude is a graphic designer with his own company based on the shore. It was awesome to meet him late 2008 and shoot his portrait. It seems that even after so long out of the game, he’s still a true writer at heart. He really gave me a lot of insight into how they worked in those days and with what. Despite the lack of materials and tools he was surprisingly resourceful and had different all the different caps etc.. The man.
I remember a mad bomb I used to see while on the train to into wellytown for uni all the time. was a picture of a girl with a ray gun and the classic line “the revolution will not be televised” unfortunately by the time I came returned and wanted to take a picture it was gone. which sucks.
Hey Elliot!!! A well constructed Blog!!!…What great insight!!!… you are a very humble person paying homage to those who have contributed in making you who you are today…I can remember you always playing with my nephew Darnell after school and you were quite the creative kid i remember it so clearly and im know we have some of those photos in the 1st ave archives! LOL…I could empathize with your every description of growing up around our hood (Tags, Herbs etc)…My pops is still doin his security rounds Lol…We have a good close knit neighbourhood down there and we always have time to say helloo and catch up with each other…
Well, Im just glad to be apart of the NZ Hip Hop pioneers…Starting from Breaking & Popping as a “Megazoid” to becoming a DJ 1986 till Present day…I never realised you actually noticed us in the basement…You guys were always playing around the street…and so now i see how influencial it can all be!!!…Thanks for your kind words towards our family and know that we are grateful to be apart of who you are…Much love & Respect to you, and to your family!!!…You are certainly blessed with a Talent…and its good to know you havent swept it under the carpet but display it for all to see…Take care bro…look fwd to reading some more!
Junior Satele aka DJ JAM 
Sup, Elliot.
Damn, that is one dope piece you’ve put together. A great read indeed!
And big props to Marvin Satele (RIP). He booked me on my first ever gig in a nightclub (Summer Jam at the Siren, late 80s).
Respect, bro 
Love this post I know a lot of the Satele fam, great people and this is purely coincidence but my Dad’s name is Mark Scott hehe.
Hey Junior! Thanks for stopping by! haha.. Yeah, I would say I was pretty aware of what you guys were up to all the time because generally you guys had the sounds cranked up so loud it shook the whole street! I always remember my Stepfather being like “Oh those boys are trying to be DJ’s again!” haha. But yeah.. I was a weird I mean ‘creative’ kid, usually dressed in a super hero outfit. Mind you, Darnell spent most of his child hood thinking he was Richie Valance and performing La Bamba to the street from your front deck.. I swear he used to make up all the words too! So yeah, perhaps me and him were both the ‘creative’ kids of the street!
First Ave is a really rare place, one of the few streets in Central Auckland that feels like a real community. I think a lot of that has to do with certain families being there for so long and that people still talk and look out for each other. Even if it got a little gentrified through the 90′s, families like yours and mine did their houses up slowly over time but stayed on instead of selling to yuppies. I really like that… Was sad old Merv passed away last week, I think him and Thelma have been there since the late 40′s or early 50′s!
Yo Manuel, that’s so crazy! Marvin was always really cool to me when I was young. He was actually one of the brothers I had the most interaction with. It was cool on our street, almost like an open door policy. I feel like I just walked in and out of everyone’s houses like I lived in them! I remember hanging out with Marvin just after they brought a brand new baby Lorenzo home from the hospital. I was just asking mad questions about what it was like to be a dad and he was being super patient with me, random… Sad to think about but cool to consider he impacted people the way he did.
Hey Chavah,
Glad you like the blog eh.. Good to see your site as well and see what you guys are up to! Was just thinking about a really random get together out at Brett and Aria’s house in 2001. I remember you and your man there (perhaps you guys weren’t even a couple yet?), Ray Ray, Dane and David Dallas there plus Jillski and later on Mareko and the Dkonz rocking over. Actually that was the most out of it gathering.. so funny to think back.
Oh gosh, I remember that night. You’re right, we weren’t a couple then! I got ridiculously drunk and he took care of me without ever trying it on. Won me over by being so nice to me lol. Had a fun night with everyone. Wow taking it back.
Hey Elliot, thanks for a wicked piece, great read. Fascinating to hear about Mark Scott’s book, I’d never heard of that.
Cheers that was an inspiring read – reminiscent for me of my childhood spent growing up in Lyall Bay, Wellington. A multicultural landscape & a burgeoning Hip-Hop culture….
Loving this sort of stuff, as a current resident of “The Croot” . I’m keen on more history from the area… its amazing how much its changed just over the last 3 years!
Oh yeah. I have some crazy memories of Don Croot. When we lived on Levonia St, fresh from Palmy we walked up Don Croot to Sima’s Superette when the Levonia Store was closed. I mean I’m sure it wasn’t THAT bad but my little 5 year old memories are of kids running half naked in the street, snotty nosed, a couple of burnt out cars stray dogs, the whole nine haha! I apparently told my mum never to take me down that street again haha! But yeah, a few years later and that was the stomps. I had a lot of friends on that street and looking back it was amazing to think that some of them lived with as many as 3 generations of family crowded into a 1-2 bedroom flat. One mate of mine slept in a makeshift bed made out of a box under their staircase… I’m not kidding! School Road and Fourth Ave were each as notorious in their own way. There were a couple of pretty insane murders on School Road, one that left one of our school friends as the only survivor in his family. That was crazy. School Road park was also pretty sketchy. A friend and I got rolled by some dudes with hammers when we were about 12ish. Actually, that park is still dodgy as…
haha…good lookin out mang !
Great blog, really well written and true… It’s awesome to see DJ Jam responding and still owning the name… MC Slam & DJ Jam at the Box and the Powerstation 1989 and all those AndyVann organised gigs with Semi-MCs and Ned Roy… Aaah – memory lane. Cheers Askew.
ZOMG, that’s my street! I moved there in early 1983 when I was at Kowhai Intermediate. I remember Fly – I mean, I didn’t know him, but everyone at school was in awe of his talents, and I would look forward to him doing new pieces in the neighbourhood.
Made me all nostalgic to read this. Nice piece of social history.
That’s funny because I believe for a while Fly also lived on First Ave but up the top. Well, that’s what he told me anyway. I don’t think he did when I moved there… The Fly with wings painted on the school building is something I really regret never taking a photo of.
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Great story man. keep em coming