Mareko: White Sunday

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * *)

South Auckland rapper Mareko has certainly had the local music media singing his tune. There's been much hype about his debut album and its coals-to-Newcastle recording, with Mareko, who has a rep as our best battle MC, heading for recording sessions in New York and Los Angeles with production and guest appearances by an impressive line-up of rappers and producers from both US coasts.

The result has been widely hailed as a highwater mark for New Zealand hip-hop. But while it's a solid, slickly aggressive affair, playing to genre rules throughout, White Sunday struggles for its own identity through much of its early tracks and it winds up less than the sum of its international parts. That said, the likes of the self-assertive single Mareko (Here to Stay) and Why is That? and the closing Stop, Drop and Roll with his local crew Deceptikonz, are big on hook-factor, while Legacy and the punchy P Money-production City Line captures something evocative about life in Mareko's old hip-hop hometown. Tracks like those show when he's not sharing the spotlight on his own album, Mareko commands — and deserves — that attention all the more.

Label: Dawn Raid