Doing the royal walkabout with King Kapisi

King Kapisi is getting back to grassroots.

The new King Kapisi album, Dominant Species, took a while to put together, Bill Urale admits, but he's been a busy man since the 2003 release of 2nd Round Testament.

The hip-hop maestro has been from Norway to Japan and the United States performing at anything from festivals to self-organised gigs and cultural initiatives.

King Kapisi, a household name in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands for a while now, says he is looking forward to getting back to "grassroots" with a thorough album-promoting tour.

"I'm definitely in the right headspace," he says. "It's a grassroots thing for me, heading back to New Zealand, because I've been concentrating on overseas for so long."

Along with the main cities, the tour includes some of the smaller centres such as Whangarei, Wanaka and Wanganui, which Urale says he is looking forward to.

"What I can do really well is rock a nightclub - it's what I do for a living. So instead of doing the big concerts, I'd rather do an intimate gig with 150 or 200 people."

Urale, a Samoan-born New Zealander, says with Dominant Species he made a concerted effort to create an album that was musically varied while remaining hip-hop.

"For me, I don't like listening to an album where all 12 or 15 songs are the same - same format, same structure, same voice. This album shows its diversity."

From the beats and rhymes of tracks such as Raise Up, to Graveyard Shift - a dark, standout track with strong vocal input from opera tenor Ben Makisi - the album has plenty to please the fans and involved several musical collaborations.

"I'm still being fresh and innovating and still being creative. If music is not innovative and fresh it just becomes stagnant," Urale says.

While there are plenty of confrontational rap lyrics on Dominant Species, topics such as war, child sex abuse and poverty provide some added inspiration.

The rise of King Kapisi is explained in autobiography style in For the Dollar: "We been making music cos we love it. If you think we're rich, we're quite far from it. We ain't even in this for the dollar baby."

Urale says he remembers wanting to be a drummer at the age of about four, and began writing rap lyrics at 13.

Since then he has learned to play bass, drums, keyboards and guitar, as well as developing his vocals.

He says he has learned plenty about the music business over the years and now appears to have a good handle on running the ins and outs of the whole King Kapisi package, helped by some strong family backing.

Other interests include his clothing label, Overstayer, and a family-based television production outfit. Alongside music, Urale has developed an eye for what is needed behind the camera, as well as in front, having directed many of his own music videos.

"It comes down to that you can't blame anyone else. I know what I like, and sometimes you work with some directors and their ideas are so far away from what your song is about ...

"I like being in control of my own stuff - or trying to be as much as I can.

"I'm pretty much sussed in that regard, but I've had heaps of help over the years. The record company [FM Records] has been awesome and I don't think I could ask for anything more."

Urale says he hopes his backing will continue following the success of his previous two albums - which received industry accolades in New Zealand and went gold in Australia - and on the strength of the latest album.

He says he is keen to push further into Europe, where he's had some memorable experiences.

Last year he was invited by the German Government to take part in a cultural exchange between musicians. He got a taste of the country's culture and history and recorded a couple of tracks there while collaborating with German artists.

"Those dudes are so funky, it was like, 'I can't understand what you're saying but your music is the bomb'," he says.

Urale found himself in Norway last year after gratefully accepting an invitation to play with New Zealand-raised and US-based composer Chris Thompson, who was part of English pop group Manfred Mann back in the 1980s.

Urale had previously contributed rap lyrics to Thompson's album Discovery when he was recording it in New Zealand.

He says collaborating with other artists is important from several perspectives.

"I'm definitely into helping out artists I know and see promise in. That's what I think we have to do to give back to the community. Everyone needs a hand.

"That's the way you make something different. You get out of your comfort zone and work with someone else's ideas."

He gets over to his native Samoa from time to time, but Tonga is the closest he has come to playing there.

Other than that, Australia has become a familiar stomping ground over the years, and he says he does get labelled Australian from time to time.

After the current tour there are a string of goals besides making more albums, including writing a feature film, but he plans to keep working hard in the hip-hop scene.

"I'm happy as long as the music is getting out there and getting to a wider audience."

- NZPA

* King Kapisi's Dominant Species Tour: Ceramic, Wanganui, October 13; Sandwiches, Wellington, October 14; Groove Bar, Palmerston North, October 15; Chocolate City, South Auckland, October 21; The Big Chill Outdoor Party, Maitai Valley, Nelson, October 22; St James, Auckland, November 2; Home Bar, Tauranga, November 12; ; Boxeur Bar, Kaikohe, December 2; Heaven Bar, Whangarei, December 3.