DLT, born Darryl Thomson, is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

DJ, music producer, composer and artist. He was born in Maraenui, New Zealand.

Music career

DLT was inspired by an article about rap and breakdancing in ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

'' magazine when he was 16 years of age; he moved to

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

in the 1980s and established himself as a

graffiti artist Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

known as 'SLICK' (1983) before co-founding hip hop group

Upper Hutt Posse Upper Hutt Posse (UHP) is a musical band in Aotearoa. The progenitors of hip hop music in the South Pacific originally formed as a four-piece reggae group in 1985, the Posse emerged at the forefront of the local response to emerging rap cultur ...

. The Posse released New Zealand's first hip hop record,

E Tū E tū is a New Zealand trade union created in October 2015 through the merger of the Service & Food Workers Union, the Flight Attendants and Related Services Union, and the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union The Engineering, Print ...

, in 1988 and then moved to

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. Upper Hutt Posse signed to

Murray Cammick Murray Ernest Cammick is a New Zealand popular music journalist, photographer and record label founder. He has been a significant figure in New Zealand popular music since the late 1970s. Biography Born in Auckland, Cammick, a school teacher a ...

's label, Southside Records, and released the album ''Against The Flow'' in 1989. Leaving the Upper Hutt Posse, DLT released two solo albums. The first, '' The True School'', contained the single "

Chains A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A c ...

", which was the number one single in New Zealand for five weeks in 1996 and featured the vocals of

Che Fu Che Kuo Eruera Ness (born 1974), better known by his stage name Che Fu, is a New Zealand hip hop, R&B and reggae artist, songwriter and producer. A founding member of the band Supergroove, as a solo artist he has gone on to sell thousands of ...

. In the 1997 New Zealand Music Awards "Chains" was named Single of the Year and won the Best Songwriting award. Che Fu was named Best Male Vocalist. It was number 22 in the 2001 APRA listing of the Greatest New Zealand Songs of the previous 75 years. DLT's production work in the 1980s and 1990s was a pointer to and influential on the

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

-flavoured

downbeat ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...

styles that have found favour in New Zealand in recent years. His radio and TV work in New Zealand, especially ''The True School Show'' on Radio

95bFM 95bFM is a New Zealand student radio station. It operates in Auckland on a Schedule 7 (educational purposes) semi-commercial licence. The station is based in the Student Union Building at the University of Auckland, is owned by a trust on behalf o ...

, has been important in the development of hip hop in New Zealand. DLT hosted 'Trueschool TV' on Max TV in 1996 with DJ Sir-Vere – they were later poached for MTV's 'Wreckognise' show, which gave them nationwide coverage.DLT hosted 'Trueschool TV' on Max TV in 1996 with DJ Sir-Vere – they were later poached for MTV's 'Wreckognise' show, which gave them nationwide coverage. – http://www.amplifier.co.nz/artist/15283/?full=1 DLT is often described as the ''Godfather of New Zealand Hip Hop''.

Art

DLT is an accomplished

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

graphic artist A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, p ...

and

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

Discography

References

External links

AudioCulture profile

Discogs Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dlt (Musician) APRA Award winners New Zealand musicians Ngāti Kahungunu people Living people Year of birth missing (living people)

Music career

Art

Discography

See also

References

External links