Team Dynamite Are Sick and Tired of All The Gossip

It's been a low-key year for Team Dynamite, one of New Zealand's best rap groups. Fortunately, that's all about to change. A year on from taking out Best Music Video at the Pacific Music Awards, Lucky Lance, Tony Tz and Haz' Beats are back with a new single and new visuals to boot. The track's called 'Gossip' and it's their first release since 2015's Never Again, an EP that saw the trio diverge a little and mess with a whole new sound.

But that phase is officially over. "No more electronic shit," Haz told VICE when we met up with the group at K Road's grimy Lim Chhour food court. As it happens, that's not all they're done with. "We're just sick and tired of gossip," says Lucky Lance of their new single. They don't seem in the mood to say much more about the song than that, perhaps preferring to let the music speak for itself.

Either way, 'Gossip' is the first of several moves Team Dynamite have planned for the coming months. They're busy working on a new album, which they're determined to stay tight-lipped about, except to say that it'll be out by the end of the year.

Until then, we've got an exclusive first look at their new video, directed by Shane Lin and Johnny Agnew. Welcome back, Team Dynamite. We missed you.

VICE: In the last few weeks, there's been new releases from SWIDT and MeloDownz , two artists who rep where they're from in a big way. How important is it for you guys to tell stories like that of your own?

Lucky Lance: For me personally, I represent New Zealand in a sense. Because I'm thinking globally and I like the fact that being from New Zealand puts you in a different category already. With the overseas market, just being from New Zealand already separates you. And I like that. I just try and run with the fact that we're from the bottom of the globe.

Tony Tz: To me, they rep their hubs but we represent the whole of Auckland. We represent where we're from anyway, we've always done that in our music here and there. But I do like how there's more and more Central Auckland rappers coming out these days. Like Eno x Dirty, SPYCC & INF and all these emerging artists. It used to be predominantly Southside heavyweights, but now Central Auckland is starting to make moves.

We're in the midst of an election, so there's heaps of political talk going on at the moment. You've touched on social issues in your music before—homelessness, mental health, the underclass etc. As storytellers, do you feel an obligation to speak up on what you're seeing?

Lucky Lance: When it was the last election, we got out there and voted and tried to help get people to vote. Usually I'm not too involved in it, but I think it's important that everyone votes. Seeing as we do have a voice, of course we're going to say get out and vote. I might see a lot of stuff and might not address it directly, but I can feel it and I guess it does comes through in my music. But I might not be hitting you with the details, or the facts.

Tony Tz: I think it's important to say shit. I think that's the beauty of being artists. We will speak on it when we can, without being too preachy. Because that's the last thing people want to hear. There are other ways of dealing with it. We do mentoring as well. We're all using our strengths as artists to help these kids. They just know yeah, I can rap. We teach them how to actually do that, because they've got their own culture and own background that they can speak on as well.

Does having a young kid yourself change your perspective on what you write about?
Tony Tz: It doesn't really, to be honest. I just be as real as possible. If my daughter listens to my shit and goes you and Uncle Lance are wack, Dad then that's it. I've never said anything that I wouldn't want her to hear. Everything that's on there is all true. It's not a bunch of lies. She'll know, anyway.

'Gossip' is one of the most direct songs you've probably ever written. Do you feel like your sound has switched up since you released the Never Again EP in 2015?
Haz' Beats: I feel like we're trying to go back to old-style soul and sample more. No more electronic shit. I'm just sick of it. It's still our sound, but it's gone back from how we were electronic–with the last EP–to taking it back to sampling more.

You did a stint in London recently. Did your experience over there increase your appetite for making music?
Haz' Beats: When I came back, everyone was hungry to work. I was always working over there, but I was having too much fun eating chicken. But when I came back, the workload was there for me to jump on board. Then a label picked me up and wanted me to release a beat tape.

Is it good to have the freedom to go off and do your own thing?
Haz' Beats: Sometimes I do it for myself, but then other times I make sure these guys see it and they're like oh man, he's working. It'll just push them even more to just create.

Lance, you also have your label Sky Pirates . Did you always have it in mind to balance a career in both music and fashion?
Lucky Lance: Hell no. Music's always first over everything for me. Sky Pirates started off because we'd get sponsored by Def or Moneyshot or whatever, but it would only fit Tony or Haz, as you can imagine. So I was like, who can I get to sponsor me?, and just decided to make my own label and sponsor myself. It's just kind of grown from there. As the music grows, the brand grows with it.

Music isn't always the most profitable business. What keeps you guys pushing forward?
Tony Tz: My daughter, my family, my homies.

Haz' Beats: Anything to keep us afloat so we can create.

Lucky Lance: To me, it's the music. I love the struggle and being an artist and everything. Because you have to. It just gives me more reason to make this work.

Stream or download 'Gossip' on Bandcamp or Spotify .

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