South Auckland sound reveals blood, sweat and few tears

Ermehn

Ermehn will be the first to tell you he has a big mouth. He tends to let it run away with him.

"I'm sick of all the kid-hop in New Zealand," he spouts, which might seem rather critical for someone just breaking out from the hip-hop underground. But the South Auckland he knows is not represented by the "fantasy" music he's being scathing about. It's a place of poverty, violence and crime. His new album, The Path of Blood, is about "walking the walk and talking the talk".

It is also, he claims, New Zealand's first gangsta album. Coming from a guy who looms over the record company boardroom table, tattooed arms crossed menacingly in front of him, it's easy to feel threatened by this prospect - he's built like a bulldozer. But Ermehn will also be the first to tell you he's not the baddie he might seem. He's a reformed gangster, a nice guy.

"I think I make myself out to be more scary than I really am," he says. "I'm not a scary guy. My mates would say I'm a funny guy. There's a time and place to be scary."

He is happy to explain those tattoos. There's the Chinese dragon that represents protection, although, he cackles, "that's what the police are for".

There's the Maori design he had done even though he's Samoan. "A lot of my friends are Maori. It's sort of like a friendship tattoo." And there's the name of his 9-year-old son who lives in Australia. He lets him listen to his music because "PlayStation is more violent than my album".

Even so, Ermehn unleashes a lyrical fury in a style not unlike NWA. The stories he tells are those we've heard before, usually through some authoritative voice on the news.

He wrote the dramatic Bank Job to give listeners an idea of the adrenalin rush you get from committing such a heist. If that sounds unforgivable, he balances it by explaining how criminals justify their actions - in this case, to put food on the table for their families.

So is Ermehm walking the talk? He's not about to admit to robbing any banks.

"If I say 'no' people say I'm a liar. If I say 'yeah' I'll incriminate myself."

You need to listen to the next single, Silver & Gold, to know he's not trying to encourage anyone to follow in his footsteps. It's a redemptive song that shows that his former lifestyle "leads you to your grave".

The worst thing he will admit to having done is hurting his parents. He says he had a good upbringing but as a kid in Otara he knew of few paths to take.

"You could either be a drug dealer, a great rugby league player, a musician, or be educated. I picked music and hustling."

He joined the Otara Millionaires Club as a "hardcore" rapper before Pauly Fuemana became OMC, and was involved in the Proud album and tour as Radio Back Stab.

In 1998, when he dropped his first solo album, Samoans Part II, he made no secret of the fact it was funded by drugs money.

But gang life led to a period when he wasn't allowed to visit his son until he'd done an anger management course, and made it difficult to get the backing of a major label second time around. He first gave a demo tape to his friend, fellow hip-hop artist DLT, who helped him to shop it around a few labels.

"They were more or less cold towards me in a nice way, which sucked even worse," says Ermehn.

"They didn't understand the album, they couldn't relate to topics, they didn't know what P was. I was talking about it before it was popular."

DLT eventually passed it to Malcolm Black, then A&R representative for Sony Music. Black had been music lawyer for the label that released Ermehn's first album.

Impressed by the confrontational nature of the new material, and aware that Ermehn was trying to clean up his act, he agreed to support him. Five years later, the album is on the shelves and ready to create a bit of a stir.

"At worst, there will be a kneejerk reaction to it," says Black. "Either, 'This is bullshit, they're just trying to sell records ... or this is terrible and Ermehn should be locked away in a cage.

"But the thing is, he tells the truth. Few people do. Middle New Zealand doesn't really believe that stuff exists here. It's not gratuitous or glorifying, it's describing. If it was a bunch of kids being silly we wouldn't have been interested."

Ermehn says he no longer associates with the gang but acknowledges you can't just walk away - you're a member for life. He is now settled in Whangaparaoa with his partner and 6-month-old son.

"My album is like a book and it's something people should listen to and they can hear the backstreets of the real South Auckland. This is real South Auckland hip-hop ...

"I don't come out with flashy videos with cars and chicks hanging off me. The stories I tell are events that people choose to ignore in society, like the mess people sweep under the carpet before their guests arrive."

LOWDOWN

WHO: Ermehn, the hip-hop artist who claims to have released New Zealand's first gangsta album

RELEASES: Samoans Part II, (1998) The Path of Blood (2005)

TRIVIA: His family name, Lealaialoto, means "to walk in the path of blood"