22 May 2012

Rap against racism

7/12/2011 9:50:00 a.m.

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Dean Hapeta (center) says he’s the guy “standing outside throwing stones at the Beehive”.

Dean Hapeta (center) says he’s the guy “standing outside throwing stones at the Beehive”.

DEAN Hapeta has a problem with racism in New Zealand. In fact, the Upper Hutt musician is so outraged, he’s releasing his latest observations on ‘Declaration of Resistance,’ his seventh album with his band Upper Hutt Posse. Hapeta, stage name Te Kupu (‘the word’), identifies with the iwi Ngati Raukawa from Levin. He went to Heretaunga College and Upper Hutt College and from early on combined interests in race relations and music.
In 1985, at the age of 19, Hapeta was picked to work on a government project commissioned by then Minister of Justice Geoffrey Palmer, which sought to ask Maori their opinion of judges, police and probation officers.
“I had School Certificate in five subjects, which was a bit strange for Maori around my way,” Hapeta explains, “I had some involvement with the police as well.”
The resulting report, required reading for many law courses today, found that Maori were unhappy with the processes of the time and suggested a separate criminal justice system. Since his involvement with the project in his youth, Hapeta’s grown up only too aware of what he says is deeply engrained racism in our culture. He says the current criminal justice system is institutionally racist.
“Europeans are advantaged because the majority of judges are white. They will help out white faces in the dock in ways they won’t help out someone with darker skin,” says Hapeta, who believes the system needs a total overhaul, “I would choose to have one system, but one that doesn’t favour any racial group or class over another.”
He’s found the best way to express his views is through his music, a mixture of rap, reggae and funk. Hapeta wants his latest album to inspire the public to dismantle and rebuild a more enlightened society. He plays rhythm guitar, keyboard and also sings on the album, which was recorded live, the band’s second live album.
Until New Zealanders confront racism on the streets and “make that change for the better” in institutions like the courts, Dean Hapeta’s not going to vote for what he says is a system that promotes bigotry, plutocracy and tyrrany, “I can’t bring myself to.”
Instead, he’s going to keep producing albums to tell the world how he feels.
“We’re caught up in this racial divide. It’s time for people to wake up and realise that things are not as happy as they think they are in this country.”
Upper Hutt Posse, Bodega, December 8.
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Cover Story

Best of Wellington 2011

Briefs

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