After hearing his star-making performance on Hermitude's smash hit "The Buzz", it's clear that while New Zealand-based artist Young Tapz is only twenty years old, he has a clarity of vision in his music that's well beyond his years. At the same time, it's his youthful charisma and sharp sense of humour that will truly engage the growing audiences he'll be set to perform for in 2016 and beyond.
Growing up in Zimbabwe, her remembers hearing only local music and Michael Jackson. Later, after moving to New Zealand at a young age, he fell in love with the wide variety of music available to him. He recalls listening to Lionel Richie and even delving into the country genre – the only two things that his dad would let him listen to in his car.
The second artist to record in Red Bull Studios Auckland, his work there eventually led to a full-length project called Forest just before he turned 18. He's since toured with the likes of G-Eazy, A$AP Ferg and Hermitude, and has collaborated with a variety of artists, including producer Branchez and indie rock band No Wyld.
He's unusually tight-lipped about his upcoming EP, offering only human meme Lil Terrio's catch-phrase "ooh kill 'em" as his response to any questions about it. Knowing that what's left unsaid is perhaps most important, we can haphazardly guess that there's probably some pretty exciting stuff on there.
Despite being on the verge of blowing up, Tapz is confident without being arrogant – he knew his collaboration with Hermitude would be a hit, but he only recently became aware that the the track managed to reach the Top 20 of the ARIA charts. He had the same feeling about his latest single "Killa", which sits at over 14,000 Soundcloud plays, and has reached #2 in America and #3 Worldwide on the Spotify Viral Charts already.
On Thursday night, he took a star turn on the ARIAs stage performing with Hermitude. Needless to say, Tapz is one to watch for 2016, and that's why Complex AU decided to get the jump on his hype early. Check out his latest single "Killa" below, then scroll down as we present you with ten things you need to know about the NZ rapper.
"My parents just kind of thought the country was going down hill and if we didn't move any sooner it would have been way harder to move and who knows, I may not be Young Tapz today. When I moved to New Zealand, it was so crazy because there were so many white people and I wasn't used to that [laughs]. I was like 'whoa, this is crazy man'. It was like TV in real life."
"I started music at the age of 15, and being the black kid at school, you're automatically supposed to freestyle [laughs]. And I wasn't that good but hey, it's the thought that counts. When I was 16 that's when I started growing a passion for the art of music and the cultural aspects of it, and searching more and spreading my horizons. Then I started researching more about it and learning about the culture and falling in love with music in general.
When I started influencing people and when I started making people feel something I was like 'I want to make the world feel something', you know? And that was probably 17, and at that age that's when I think Red Bull Studios Auckland contacted me and asked me whether I wanted to record a couple songs in their studio. And that was like the first proper studio session that I ever had, so that was crazy. Working there brought the vision to life, and that's where I think I realised that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life."
“I remember when I first moved to New Zealand I discovered new music and I fell in love with the punk band Green Day. The freedom in their lyrics, especially American Idiot – that was crazy how they could say that, it was like offensive, and just fucking awesome. So I was inspired to, I guess, inspire other kids to have freedom of speech and just move the youth. That was massive as inspiration as a teenager and as a person, as an artist.”
“I want to major in design, I'm going to minor in marketing. So I do a lot of my graphic work and I run my campaigns and take charge on that. I like to be involved creatively on everything that I do.”
“I learned don't call shit 'albums'. I think I was young, I was very young and I just liked the term album. I don't look at it as an album now, I look at it more as a project. I don't even look at it as a debut or as a milestone. It was just me finding myself and I love it because it was me at that time and it represents how I was feeling as a 17-year-old, which is 100 percent different to how I feel as a 20-year-old Young Tapz right now.”
“It's all about the people. It's bigger than any nigga's ego. The main goal is to serve the people no matter who you are, whether you're the headline act or you're the opening act, it's all about the people."
"I was booked by Nissan and Quiksilver in Russia. I didn't know that I had a fan-base over there, but they told me that we're going to make you headline in this 3000 people venue. I was like okay. The cheque was good and I'm all about travelling. So I signed the contract and then I went over there. There were no black people. Zero. I remember seeing young kids pointing at their mamas and saying 'mama, what's that?'. And I would wave and they would shit themselves [laughs]. The venue was three levels, every level was packed and everyone was out. Beautiful country, and it was crazy man, they didn't understand what I was saying but they were going ham. They were vibing off the energy."
“They flew me from New Zealand to work on one of their songs ‘Through The Roof'. We just finished working on it and I asked if I could hear some of the songs that they'd been working on and they played ‘The Buzz”’ I was like 'man, please, you’ve got to get me on this song" [laughs]. And yeah, the rest is history.”
“There's this girl who fucked one of my homies over, and she was just a player. She tried with me at some stage and I was like 'nah, bitch, I'm good'. I'm trying to warn my niggas out here you know, there's killas in the streets. No one is safe [laughs]. I think everyone has experienced that and those girls as well. We all have experienced killas in our lives, I'm just warning my niggas, be like Young Tapz and say no.”
"It stands for bravery in the name of, which consists of me, Mzwètwo and one of our other close friends, Otis, who's on the creative side of things. I feel me and my crew are the best thing in New Zealand and are the best in Australiasia, and the best in the world. We have an international appeal and aim to speak to everyone beyond New Zealand. We're all children from overseas. Mzwètwo's also from Zimbabwe, Otis is from Germany, so we're nomads. We're children of the Earth."
