There's really only one contender - the very first Mayor of our newly integrated and diversified city. Region. Principality. Turangawaewae. Whatever. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Mayor Len Brown!
As we all know, Mayor Len likes to rap a bit. Well, a lot, as too many clips on YouTube can testify. And Len realises it's his role to represent our various and varied cultures.
So, with all due respect, here's our mayoral rap.
To the beats of - so we satisfy St Heliers as well as sanctify Otara - Gilbert & Sullivan's The Major-General's Song ...
It is the very model of the modern Auckland Mayoralty
I've information regional, local and political
I know the towns of Tamaki, all the boroughs historical
From Te Hana to Miranda, in order alphabetical;
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters ethnological,
I understand diversity, simple and problematical.
About financial planning I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the fiscal overviews.
I'm very good at integral and differential rating;
(I know you want to know; you'll have to keep on waiting)
In short, in matters Auckland, local and political
I am the very model of a modern Mayoral, regional.
I know our mythic history, Bill Hobson, Irirangi;
I'm live on Holmes and Campbell, I've a taste for Titirangi,
I quote in mayoral speeches lines I learned from dear old Che Fu
When I'm not preferring hip-hop rhythms by the Dawn Raid Crew,
I can tell undoubted Frizzells from Goldies and McCahons
I know the croaking choruses of Dobbyn and McGlashan;
Then I can belt a rap of which I've heard the music's din afore,
And whistle all the tunes from the Auckland Phil-har-mon-ior.
Then I can order kimchi in Korean cuneiform
And tell you ev'ry detail of a Warrior cheerleader's uniform:
In short, in matters Auckland, local and political
I am the very model of a modern Mayoral, regional.
In fact, when I know what is meant by bureaucrat and Britomart,
When I can tell at sight a Link bus from a gallery,
When such affairs as CCOs and appointments I'm more wary at,
And when I know precisely what is meant by Party Central
When I have learnt what Steven Joyce will trade off for his highway,
When I know more of tactics than Rodney Hide or John Key
- In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy
- You'll say a better Mayor (Regional) has never sat in Queen Street
For my civic knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury,
Has only been brought down from the beginning of the motorway;
But still, in matters Auckland, local and political
I am the very model of a modern Mayoral, regional.
The Aucklander of the Era
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.