In the pages of a gossip magazine, a club full of makeup, small town New Zealand, little girls, and big fat tropical rain.
Continue reading April 2009: PNC, Savage, Smashproof, Sweet & Irie, Tha Feelstyle, The Checks
Tag: Tha Feelstyle
October 2005: Sophie Moleta, Streetwise Scarlet, Tha Feelstyle, The Phoenix Foundation, The Sneaks, Tyna & JB
Best use of $5000 video funding ever, a punk house, petrol crimes, at the movies with the boys, and an ode to a girl.
Found videos from 1995
Let it rain 1995! There’s Supergroove on bikes, funk at the Civic, Lionel’s disappearing act, mean streets, tropical lolz, music with a message, wide lapels and an Auckland story.
Continue reading Found videos from 1995
Tha Feelstyle featuring Camillia Temple “Feels Like Forever”
Back in 2004, the song’s vocalist Camillia Temple was famous for being the third-place-getter in the first series of NZ Idol. She’d recorded her contribution to “Feels Like Forever” before Idol, and I’m guessing her contract with the TV show meant she wasn’t able to appear in the video. (At least, I haven’t been able to spot her.)
But the absence of the Idol diva isn’t felt, with Aaradhna and Sara-Jane providing some lady glam, along with Submariner and Manuel Bundy.
The video puts Tha Feelstyle in two settings – in front of a green-screen with an ever-changing display of background images (flags, photos and a cool car) and in a hip white-walled, wooden-floored room. It’s a big change from the rooty Samoan world of “Su’Amalie/Ain’t Mad At You”.
Sometimes the video feels a bit uneventful – there’s only so many times you can see a pretty lady in a nice dress before it starts to become repetitive – but it’s generally cool, stylish video.
Best bit: Submariner reading a Sub-Mariner comic.
Next… on their marks.
Tha Feelstyle “Su’Amalie/Ain’t Mad At You”
The very first video to be funded by NZOA was Moana and the Moahunters bilingual dance track “A E I O U”, but since then funded songs have been dominated by English language lyrics. So it’s thrilling to come across Tha Feelstyle delivering a supercool song that’s largely in Samoan. The song also uses an old Eurovision trick – have a hooky, singalong chorus in English and the non-English parts of the song won’t seem so isolating. The end result is a track that reached 27 in the singles chart.
The video is set in Samoa, with Tha Feelstyle returning to the islands after 20 years away. Right from the very start every shot is bustling with people and energy. Tha Feelstyle stomps around his village, surrounded by adoring kids who join in on the chorus.
There’s a sense that he’s the big dude from New Zealand returning to his hometown – and there’s a cool scene where Tha Feelstyle steps off the plane, wearing a lei of funsize Crunchie bars, and kisses the tarmac. This is followed by a lovely scene where the aunties and uncles warmly embrace him. But it’s not all adoration. About halfway though the song stops for a small scene where an uncle had some words for Tha Feelstyle, who looks suitably told.
There’s a lot packed into this video. It serves as both a record of Tha Feelstyle’s homecoming and just him mucking around with some local kids. And then there’s the scene with Tha Feelstyle mucking around with a machete in some long grass, like a kid who’d rather pretend to be a warrior than do his chores.
Best bit: one does not understand much Samoan, but one understands the international gesture for “smoking a jazz cigarette”.
Director: Chris Graham
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Next… some guys in suits.
Soane featuring Tha Feelstyle & Boh Runga “All I Need”
Soane mixes up some freshness featuring Tha Feelstyle on the verses and Boh Runga delivering a killer chorus. The video is a blue screen job, with Tha Feelstyle, Soane and various cool kids dancing in front of a urban themed background.
One of the cool kids is a girl with a broken arm. That’s not something you normally see in a music video. Usually people are healthy and intact, but here’s a girl (looking about 15) doing a slightly awkward dance with her right arm plastered right up to her elbow.
The style of the video doesn’t change. It’s just people – or silhouettes – moving in front of interesting backgrounds. But here’s a curious thing. The chorus of the song is a lot stronger than the versus, so much so that the mood of the video seems to lift when the chorus comes along.
Soane only makes an appearance at the end of the video, shown at work with his decks. And then the video ends with a wide shot reveals Soane hard at word in front of the blue screen, surrounded by film equipment that had previously been digitally removed.
That’s something that isn’t normally seen in New Zealand music videos – the final show of “Oh, none of it’s real!” But in this case, I don’t think anyone would have previously been under the impression that Soane and pals were grooving in front of a purple sky with giant red and white butterflies flapping about. So what does the shot signify? Hey, here’s the busy modern hip hop producer, hard at work having just finished his latest music video.
Best bit: the breakdancing on turntable top.
Director: Miki Magasiva
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Next… cabin fever.
Tha Feelstyle “Outside Enclosure”
And into the crazy chaotic animated world of “Outside Enclosure”. It’s really good 3D animation, and reminds me of something from a Wii game. I’d like to see that – hurling the Wii controller around as Tha Feelstyle flies around the world.
The story starts in New Zealand, where Tha Feelstyle wakes up in bed with three women and a grin. Over on the Amplifier, Kas describes the old school funk-inspired song as being about baking, but reckons “if you sing it wrongly it becomes a sexual song.” So that would explain the absence of lammingtons in the video.
He gets a phone call to alert him to a menace on the other side of the world. A giant robot called Robo-Rap is causing trouble. While he DJs, emcees and does breakdancing, he doesn’t draw the crowds and then there’s the slight problem of him turning on people. Never mind – the Feelstyle to the rescue!
It’s simple bout, some man vs robot showdown, resulting in Tha Feelstyle electricuting the robot. With his main competition out of the way, Kas becomes the the star performer, attracting a bigger crowd than the robot ever managed.
The video is full of sound effects to add to all the action in the clip. The problem is, sometimes the sound effects threaten to overwhelm the song itself, making the music seem like a random backing track rather than the heart of the video. But having said it, at least it’s not as bad as that disastrous Head Like a Hole vid.
Best bit: the pneumatic rocket jandals, good for flying around the world.
Next… a roll in the grass.