Their song Whakatō te Kākano won the E Tū Whānau song competition in 2018. They recently received funding from Te Māngai Pāho for the new single, Tūturu.
It was released at the end of March.
Mauri is made up of rappers Rāniera Wātene (Ngāti Porou), Kāwai Joe (Ngāti Pāhauwera ), backing vocalists Whenua Patuwai (Rongowhakaata), Hinetiki Karaitiana (Ngāti Awa), Philly Tarawa (Rongowhakaata), guitarist Kairakuraku Stan Wātene (Ngāti Porou) and kaiwhakahaere (manager) Anapera Graham (Ngāti Kahungunu).
Most of the group are from Tūranganui-a-kiwa.
Raniera said the lyrics of his verse were inspired by his wahine, using Māori metaphors to explain and express how he feels about her.
“Some lyrics from Kāwai’s verse speak about hardships and all the real stuff such as bickering and having no money at times, but at the end of the day he will always be in my corner, and he will always have my back.”
The group hopes to utilise te reo Māori in a modern and contemporary style by incorporating rap, rhythm and blues and hip-hop.
“In doing so we want to inspire rangtahi to kōrero te reo Māori — to speak the language.”
The song wasn’t difficult to create, he said, “because it shouldn’t be difficult if the creative energy is flowing”.
“I guess the difficulty came when there were boxes that needed to be ticked in terms of requirements. Then we started nailing down a few subtle changes in terms of pronunciation and diction.”
Tūturu is available to stream on Spotify.