When one thinks of seminal Aotearoa hip-hop groups, Deceptikonz immediately springs to mind.
The South Auckland-born group — aka Savage, Devolo, Alphrisk, and Mareko — took New Zealand music by storm in the late ’90s and early ’00s, crashing the charts and winning awards.
In an exclusive new interview with Rolling Stone AU/NZ, Savage reflected on that time in his life, revealing that their early success “took us by surprise.”
“None of it was mainstream,” he told us. “Then we released ‘Elimination’ and later ‘Fallen Angels’, and suddenly we were pushed into the mainstream. It was crazy seeing our music accepted on that level.”
“Stop, Drop and Roll”, one of Deceptikonz’s biggest hits, dropped in 2003, but Mareko asked Savage to “redo” the chorus.
“I originally rapped it normally, but he kept saying, ‘Nah, yell it from the bottom. Yell it as loud as you can,'” Savage recalled. “I remember getting dizzy doing take after take. When we finally listened back to it, we realised how catchy it was.”
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He continued: “If you listen to ‘Stop, Drop and Roll’, it’s almost like we were parodying a pop song, but it just ended up being incredibly catchy. Even the bridge was inspired by a Chaka Demus & Pliers track.”
On that era in general, Savage said, “Creatively, the Deceptikonz space was amazing. I always focus on the positives of that era because we were doing things that had never really been done before.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Savage reflected on making “Freaks”, another of his biggest hits, with Australian DJ and producer Timmy Trumpet.
“I still remember hearing ‘Freaks’ for the first time and thinking the instrumental was already so good it didn’t even need vocals,” he said. “But I kept replaying it on a flight back to New Zealand and started writing the chorus and verses on the plane. I called my engineer before I even landed and told him to pick me up from the airport and take me straight to the studio.”
Read our full interview with Savage here.
