From the school of hard Knuxx

Louie Knuxx aka Todd Williams found rapping helped him 'keep his head together'.

Louie Knuxx has a new tattoo that says, "Every living creature dies alone".

"You can put a positive spin on it," says the rapper of the morbid text. "You've got yourself and that's the bottom line."

That may not be the case for his new, Sir Vere-endorsed album, Wasted Youth, which features Breakin Wreckwordz' cohorts Tourettes and Cyphanetik, Dirty Records stars Con Psy and PNC and his fiancee Astra in a foul-mouthed, spoken-word cameo. Tomorrow night he performs alongside Deceptikonz, PNC, 4 Corners and Cyphanetik at 4:20, and next month he sets off on a national tour with Juse, Smashproof, Cyphanetik, Ethical and Feelstyle.

But Knuxx has a hard-nosed approach that has rubbed off on his music. No guesses as to the story behind his nickname, on Don't Cry for Louie he raps of growing up to become a "little shit" who steals and takes drugs. The title track describes a youth spent with "nothing to do but drink and fight".

Add to that claims he got his first tattoo at 14, has been to jail four times - once for sending a guy "to the dentist" - and he's an intimidating presence. But Knuxx, 26, insists he's "not scary at all".

"I realise now being older, you can't just go around knocking people's teeth out," he says. "I don't lead that sort of life now. I was just trying to discuss those things truthfully and honestly and I wasn't on a crusade saying stay away from this shit. I wasn't trying to glorify anything. It's just my neutral commentary. The stronger stuff is when I talk about family or friends. That's really heartfelt and honest."

Knuxx, aka Todd Williams, grew up in a New Plymouth household dogged by drug and alcohol problems. It wasn't long before he was dabbling in trouble himself but it was writing rhymes that kept his head together.

After years flitting in and out of various groups, a friend introduced him to Cyphanetik's tracks on the internet. The pair began to exchange songs, until eventually the battle champ encouraged him to move to Auckland, get involved with his new label, Breakin Wreckwordz and join his group, Insomniacs.

Their track Hey Kids spent six weeks at No 1 on the bFM charts. "But when we split up it was a good thing for me," says Knuxx. "I was forced to do my own thing."

Known for his gravelly voice, Knuxx picked beats by a range of producers, some of them slow and sleazy, although if he did it again he'd go for something "darker". "What I started to do was I stopped trying to write raps and started trying to write songs. I listened to a lot of other genres of music where the songwriting is more prevalent."

Now he's hoping to release the album in Australia and Japan.

"The sort of music we're making has a limited market so we really need to branch out to other countries. But I'm not really relying on rap because I don't think it's a very feasible way of making money for a long time. Hopefully I can make a bit of money shortly and then look at other things. Whatever it is, I want to be my own boss."