Diaz Grimm penned most of his new album Osiris under Auckland's Harbour Bridge. Photo / Supplied
Diaz Grimm penned most of his new album Osiris under Auckland's Harbour Bridge. Photo / Supplied
He quotes Kanye West, idolises Steve Jobs and has a five-year plan to become New Zealand's biggest and best rapper. Who does Diaz Grimm think he is? Chris Schultz finds out ...
If you've been for a walk along Auckland's waterfront recently, chances are you spotted a young rapper sitting in a crappy car under Auckland's Harbour Bridge.
It's where Diaz Grimm penned most of his new album Osiris, a futuristic blast of different styles that he wrote by listening to beatson a car stereo "with no bass and only one speaker working".
"It's just a wicked place - there are all types of people down there: dudes in business suits sitting on benches, homeless people, heaps of fishermen," he says. "There are no stereotypes. Everyone's having a good time, and the sunset's always there."
Grimm spent up to 30 hours a week over the better part of a year sitting in his car to finish Osiris, a concept album about a man living in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by war. He admits its creation was a challenge.
"I've had no time for my girlfriend. I've been taking days off work that I can't afford because it was the only day a featured person was free to work. I'm broke right now - all my money's gone into this."
Not that Grimm's down about it. Despite his desperate musical visions of the future, the 26-year-old is a super-happy burst of positivity. On Osiris, Grimm raps lyrics like "Out with that negative living" and "I chased my dreams, now my future's looking beautiful" like a rapping Svengali.
They're words that back up Grimm's own views on life. In five years' time, he wants to have spearheaded a new generation of local hip-hop artists through a trilogy of albums he has planned; in 10 years, he wants to have inspired significant cultural change.
"I want to show the next generation that things are possible," he says. "Why is AA$P Rocky any different to me? Knowing that something's possible is what I want to tell people, and what I want the next generation to feel.
People see something on TV and are like, 'That's cool, I could do that.' But they never do. There's no harm in believing you're capable of anything - unless you're a bad person."
It's a philosophy Grimm isn't just promoting through words. He's built up a group of like-minded creatives called G7NG around him, he networks with the biggest and best in the local music industry, and when he performs live, he handles the lights, DJing, dancing and rapping all on his own.
"I keep busy the whole time, I'm not relying on anyone else so there are no mistakes to be made. I go over and over what I want to do in my head, but I can't do that with someone who doesn't live with me," he says.
In conversation, Steve Jobs and James Cameron are cited as influences, and Kanye West quotes flow freely. And while Grimm's skill level as an MC might not yet match his ambition, you can't fault his work ethic. As Grimm says, "Anything's possible. Gandhi did it. Bob Marley did it. Look at John Lennon.
"My goal is to do what all these people have done, without being different. I want to come in and be a regular person that everyone can relate to."
Who: Local rapper Diaz Grimm What: Debut album Osiris out now Tour: National shows planned for later this year
