Gzilla's debut track, centred around kina diving, dropped earlier this month and is the first song of two full albums set to release in the coming weeks.
It took a little word to the big man upstairs to turn Garrett Kohunui’s life around.
Known as Gzilla, Kohunui is a gospel rapper, fulltime musician, and social media influencer with over 50,000 followers on his platforms.
His debut track is out now, and more music is coming soon. Butas good as life is now, it hasn’t always been that way for Gzilla.
Raised in a “broken home”, he moved from Whakatāne to Napier as a child.
He told Hawke’s Bay Today he was always angry and started to become violent.
Garret Kohunui, known as Gzilla, at the Chosen Records studio in Napier. Photo / Rafaella Melo
“Within three years, I got kicked out of six schools.”
He got into a cycle of crime, addiction, and gang life in his teens.
“I had all this anger built up in me since a kid, and I just felt like hurting people was the only way to get rid of my pain, so I ended up in prison.”
Gzilla was jailed from 2017 to 2018 for violence, including assaulting people.
“When I got out of jail, I had a lot of conflict still to deal with the gangs around here ... in 2019, I ended up getting my house invaded by a whole bunch of my own gang,” he said.
“I got tortured, a ring split my eyebrow, some teeth missing ... dumbbells, machete, I got beaten up, bloody bashed, broken bones, bruised.”
The gang demanded $50,000 if he wanted to stay alive.
“They had a bullet with my name carved into it.”
Gzilla was jailed from 2017 to 2018 on violence charges, including assaulting people.
Fearing for his life, he turned to a friend – a local pastor – and asked for prayer.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to die, I want to make sure I’m right with God. I ask for forgiveness before I die for all the wrongs I’ve done.’”
That moment marked the beginning of a radical shift.
The pastor not only prayed with him, but also spoke privately with the gang members.
Whatever was said remains a mystery, but Gzilla was then free to go, and decided to restart.