Life lessons: Sidney Diamond - Rapper

Young Sid. Photo / Supplied

I've wanted to rap pretty much for as long as I can remember. I was about 11 when I started telling everyone that I'd be fully into it by the time I turned 20 and that's how it's turned out.

If I'm talking to the average person living in my neighbourhood, they usually say: "Hey, you must be rich. You're always on the television, so you don't need to work." But in reality New Zealand musicians don't really make enough to live off. Not me, anyway ...

I'm not really the religious type, but on my Cook Island side my grand-parents are Catholic.

I can get angry on a regular basis. Mostly because I'm an impatient person and timing is everything to me. How I deal with it? Take lots of deep breaths ...

But I still enjoy a good laugh. The last thing to crack me up was watching America's Funniest Home Videos and this dude was trying to do dips on a set of chairs, then he flipped over and smashed his hip.

I've enjoyed lots of proud moments in life, but the one that really stands out most was when I won best urban Maori artist at the Waiata Maori Awards. That was the first award I'd ever won. But winning awards for urban music doesn't mean I've learned to poplock [a funk/street dance] yet.

Smashproof will be New Zealand's kings of hip-hop for 2009. But even saying that, there are moments when I think: "What the hell am I doing?"

I'd ban cigarettes if I could. I hate that shit.

If I had to name someone else who I admire most for how they act and what they stand up for it would be Cliff Curtis because he's a Maori who is doing something he loves and who has become successful by sticking with it.

* Sidney Diamond, aka Young Sid, is a rapper and member of hip-hop group, Smashproof, which boasts the longest-running number one single in New Zealand music chart history for its hit, Brother. The group is currently on a national tour, which ends in Tauranga on May 31.