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Sir Vere

Firstly I would like to thank Geoff Wright of Subtronix for defending my and DLT's case in what appears to be one huge misinterpretation of our actions (I can bearly understand why I'm writing this email).

The ultimate question is does J have any fucking idea what he's talking about and does he have any idea what myself or DLT have done for the local hip hop community in the last 10-15 years?

Let's get this straight right now, the one and only reason that DLT and myself left Max TV to go to MTV was to take OUR local hip hop show from one small broadcasting area in Auckland to the entire country. That's it. Do you think the Max TV's broadcasting range is where hip hop ends? You must be tripping. The hip hop epicentre of New Zealand is in fact Wellington. The first true New Zealand hip hop record came out of Upper Hutt, the Australasian ITF DJ champion lives in Lyall Bay and some of the best breakers live on Manners Mall. So if we were supposed to 'stay with Max till the end' as some sort of bullshit loyalty thing, sorry you are badly mistaken. We wanted to take OUR show to the entire nation, something that Max themselves admitted they could not do. And don't forget that the Trueschool Hip Hop Show is OURS, not bFM's, not Max TV's, but DLT and DJ Sir-Vere, no one can claim that shit as there own and that's something we are very proud of. The only other people that can claim any rights to that moniker is the Aotearoa hip hop collective, as it's them that make it happen.

Now I know you are now saying 'don't even front like you didn't do it for the money', of course we want the cash! DLT and myself have been doing this for TEN YEARS (DLT has been in it for at least 15) and you would know this if you knew your NZ hip hop history. In this time we haven't been paid jack shit. Yes we have done countless gigs and been paid OK dollars, but we've also done a bFM radio show for six odd years for not a cent, we've run workshops for taggers turned grafitti artists and did a certain TV show on Max TV for NOTHING, yes not a cent. It was only in the last three months they began paying us. Yes we did know in the beginning that we were not going to get paid, yes we did it for love. But we were offered by TVNZ/MTV a chance to go NATIONAL and get paid, please, you must have a serious hole in your head. You expect me with a wife and son and DLT with a wife a two kids to stay with a regional show and not get paid or go national and get paid,I'm sorry you don't have to be a rocket scientist and furthermore my family, YES MY FAMILY, mean more to me than ANYTHING IN THE WORLD and anyone who suggests that I should pledge my loyalty to a small TV station than get a job at TVNZ that is pretty much the same (let's not get it wrong, Wrekognize is not that much different from Trueschool, you would know this if you bothered to watch) and make money for my wife and my boy IS TRIPPIN'.

With respect to us not including as much local product, you obviously do not watch the show, DO NOT COMMENT ON SHIT YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT. If you'd bothered to watch the show last year you'd know that we ran a Wrekognise ID competition where anyone from around NZ could send in a thirty second video ID, and we would pick a winner who would win a set of turntables. We recieved about sixty entries and played them ALL on our show. If that's not promoting local involvement what is??? We recently filmed our show in Wellington featuring local breakers and DJ's, have played every single local hip hop video there is, check if you like, you'll only find that you are very wrong. How many local hip hop videos do you think there are anyway? Shit, there's only about 30 odd and we play 11 videos a week. Figure it out.

This whole issue can be resolved when certain parties realise that we do all this for hip hop. Yes, that does sound very flag waving, and yes we do. We both love hip hop, period. The music, fashion and art drive us, we are both very passionate about our music. Just like Geoff from Subtronix, Greg from BPM and Yardboy from Downbeat, we just love our music and want as many as people as possible to be exposed to it. It's not that complicated.

And lastly, who thinks that we sold out, if it's some snotty nosed ex-Max TV worker with a bee in their bonnet, I don't give a shit. One of my very good friends, Seth, was a key worker, editing, filming, creative designer and one of the backbones of the Max TV office and was the first to congratulate us when we recieved the news of the MTV show. It's people like him I respect.

If you honesly think we have sold out and the hip hop community of Aotearoa is dissing us, try asking Anton & Ali from Beats & Pieces/Pacific Underground in Christchurch, Butta Crew from Palmerston North, Omega B, DJ Freeman, Flax Roots and the Native Sons from Hip Hop Impact in Hamilton, Mikki D, DJ Raw, Koz and the Wellington Massive, Lost Tribe, Moizna, UPR Records, Hypa D, B-Ware, P-Money, Slave, Base, Che Fu, Token Village, Manuel Bundy and countless others from Auckland what they think.

You are wrong. Peace to the Trueschool Posse.

DJ Sir-Vere. sirvere@hotmail.com