Auckland beatmaker Haz Beats has won multiple awards for producing hip-hop but these days he's appreciating smoother sounds, too.
"I like the rap but the RnB has taken me into a different place. I've won an award for it ... [Best Soul/RnB Artist at the 2020 Aotearoa Music Awards with RnB singer Miloux]. So I might just hang on to this little ride that I've got and run with it all the way," he tells Charlotte Ryan.
Haz Beats Photo: Tom Grut
Haz was just 19 when he started making beats on a "big dinosaur" of a home computer in the family lounge.
Given all the music he's downloaded for free in the past, he's happy to share his own creations with anyone who wants to use them.
"We came up through stolen music and us stealing other people's music… we came from nothing and we downloaded all this stuff for free so it's us giving back ... Now I'm just like 'steal my music - it's all good'."
Haz says he got rebellion out of his system during his time in the Kiwi hip-hop group Home Brew.
A stint of "bad boy" behaviour made him and controversial frontman Tom Scott grow up a lot faster, he says.
"We did all the dumb stuff and now we can look back and go 'we're never going to do that again. we don't want to piss people off anymore."
These days, Haz isn't into having swear words in the music he produces - partly influenced by Team Dynamite bandmate Lucky Lance who doesn't curse in his raps.
"If you're gonna swear just swear, but you don't have to", he says.
"There's a lot of English words out there that we can use."
As well as his personal nomination for Best Producer at the upcoming Pacific Music Awards, Team Dynamite is nominated for Best Pacific Group and Best Pacific Hip Hop Artist.
It's "a kick in the gut" that legal issues prevent the group from touring their hit album Respect the Process beyond Aotearoa, Haz says.
This year, he's focused on releasing new music he's made with hip-hop artist Diggy Dupè and with Miloux.
Haz says it was a shocking moment when he and Miloux won the Best Soul/RnB Artist award back in 2020.
"I was like 'we're not gonna win' so we started getting drunk. and the camera came and it was like 'no way, we won!"
Haz Beats played:
Daru & Rena - 'Take Your Hand, Pt 5'
Drummer and beatmaker Daru Jones and his sister Rena are the duo behind this tribute to one of Haz's favourite artists - American rapper and music producer J Dilla.
"He gave me my swing... play with your ear and just be free with it, really.
"[J Dilla will] sample anything, so that gave me freedom... the way he manipulated samples. I was like 'damn, man...'
"[This track is] all over the place, but it goes."
Mark Rae ft Veba - 'Lavish' (Deadbeats Remix)
Haz's one-time manager DJ Substance used to play this track a lot and he still throws it into his DJ sets.
"The vibe of that song always peps people up … and it's a b side. if you listen to the single, it doesn't even sound like this song."
Haz & Miloux - 'Problem'
This is the first song Haz made with Miloux and one of six on their 2021 EP Blonde.
"When I met [Miloux] it was a whole different buzz. She was just so good at what she did with her vocals and stuff... I just catered for her voice and we mixed it together and put it out there.
"She knew what she wanted and I liked what I was hearing so we just ran with it. We had six songs and went to Red Bull Studios one day and banged [Blonde] out in like a week, I guess."
Diggy Dupè ft Sam V, Jarna, Melo - 'Ain't The Same'
Although Haz is from South Auckland, he says he didn't know how dark the 1970s was for Pasifika people in NZ until the 2021 TV series Panthers.
"[New Zealand] was kind of racist back then. Everyone was getting paid pennies but they still made it work.
"[Panthers] was an eye-opener for me and the soundtrack was just like on, eh?
"This whole song put me in a nice RnB feel."
Spycc ft HIGH HØØPS - 'Other Lover'
"That's a well-known sample and he flipped it really nice. what he sang over it was just like 'damn I wouldn't have thought of that.' ... They flipped it in a way where I was like 'i'm going to play this every time I DJ - every time."
Team Dynamite ft Louis Baker - 'Dragon Fruit'
"We'd always meet [Louis Baker] when we'd go to Welly and he's a cool cat.
"I just paid him like 100 dollars [to sing on this track]. I probably still owe him."
