Avantdale Bowling Club's Tom Scott leaks direct messages with Jacinda Ardern

Rapper Tom Scott has posted a screenshot of direct messages sent to him from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Photo / Dean Purcell / NZ Herald

Avantdale Bowling Club's Tom Scott has leaked his own album on file-sharing site We Transfer and revealed messages sent to him from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern about armed police.

Last night on his Twitter account, Scott posted a screenshot of direct messages sent between himself and Ardern concerning a trial of Armed Response Teams patrols being stationed in Counties Manukau, Waikato, and Canterbury.

In the messages alleged to be from the Prime Minister, she said:

"The trial they've been running around on call armed offender squads? The trial will end after a few months and then they'll stop and go back to communities and talk about how it went. We can't tell the police what to do operationally, but a few of us did meet with the Commissioner recently and share our views on it."

She went on to say: "I've also said publicly (sic) many times, I don't support the general arming of the police. Never will. Won't happen while I'm in this job. That we do get a say in."

The screenshot of Tom Scott's direct message conversation with the Prime Minister. Photo / Twitter

Scott, who won best at the VNZMA's said in his acceptance speech for best hip hop artist: "Jacinda Ardern should go to Ihumātao!"

Ardern was in the audience.

The moment was not televised, and was a reference to the long-held occupation of Ihumatao in Auckland, in a bid to protect the land from a housing development planned by Fletcher building.

The musician put a Wetransfer link to his new album Deuce, scheduled for release next Friday in his Instagram bio.

View this post on Instagram

This is a project I made with the homies @choicevaughan and @thebengineer . Plan was to drop it next Friday but some record label trynna tell us we can’t do that till next year so fuck it I’m just gonna leak it today on wetransfer cause I need to start this next decade free of this thing. (Sorry Joel). It’s not the next ABC album. (that’s coming). It’s not no magnum opus. I wouldn’t even rate my raps over a magnum almond tbh. It’s just some words I tried to write for the working folk I see everyday. Much love to all the people involved, Diggy, Melo, Dharma, INF, you’re my heroes. Link in bio . 📷 @taa.k @lucamacioce 🎨 @a_iusitini DISARM THE POLICE

A post shared by @ tomscottygb on Nov 27, 2019 at 6:02pm PST

On his Instagram, the Years Gone By rapper explained why he dropped the album early.

"Plan was to drop it next Friday but some record label trynna tell us we can't do that till next year so f*** it I'm going to leak it on wetransfer cause I need to start this decade free of this thing."

He explained it was "not the next ABC (Avantdale Bowling Club) album (that's coming), it's not no magnum opus."

It features collaborations from artists INF, Diggy Dupe, Dharmarat, and Melodownz.

The album was also put up on the artist's Bandcamp.