{"id":516800,"date":"2026-07-09T01:55:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T01:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/516800\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T01:55:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T01:55:16","slug":"on-the-up-tairawhiti-rapper-shaskey-advances-to-pass-the-mic-sydney-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/516800\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Up: Tair\u0101whiti rapper Shaskey advances to Pass the Mic Sydney final"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m stoked \u2013 I feel really blessed to be representing Tair\u0101whiti and T\u0101maki Makaurau in the final,\u201c Shaskey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working hard to get here and it feels like I\u2019ve been given some respect now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tair\u0101whitiTair\u0101whiti hip-hop artist Shaskey will represent NZ at the Pass the Mic music competition in Sydney in October, competing for a shot at a $50,000 prize pool. Photo \/ Camden Jackson<\/p>\n

Shaskey said he had his lyrics written out but he only put the song together on the day of the competition. <\/p>\n

His winning track was a tribute to his late friend Jamil Weiss dos Santos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tribute to my friend Jamil who passed away and it\u2019s about growing up in Gisborne and moving around the North Island.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaskey has been making music since he was young and played drums in a band at Smokefreerockquest while he was a student at Gisborne Boys\u2019 High School. A regular on the Smash Palace stage, he played for the first time at RnV last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He has been living in Auckland since 2023, where he works as a chef as well as a musician. <\/p>\n

Shaskey said he loved the honesty of hip-hop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much emotional and sonic depth in it. Hip-hop can sound and feel like anything \u2013 it\u2019s also a format to boost yourself and give yourself another level of confidence.”<\/p>\n

\"ShaskeyShaskey performs with producer AKL MADZ at the Pass the Mic music competition at Double Whammy Bar in Auckland. <\/p>\n

Pass the Mic started in Sydney in 2022 as a grassroots online and live series. Since its inception, the platform has steadily expanded and now has a doubled grand prize pool of $50,000.<\/p>\n

Bodega Collective added stops at Darwin and Auckland to the tour this year. <\/p>\n

Two artists from every city will earn a spot in the Sydney final on October 24, where A$50,000 ($60,980 at the current exchange rate) will be split across three winners.<\/p>\n

Recently, Shaskey has been collaborating with producer AKL MADZ, Madilyn Povey, and he plans to release an EP later this year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m stoked \u2013 I feel really blessed to be representing Tair\u0101whiti and T\u0101maki Makaurau in the final,\u201c Shaskey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[42344,82959,1628,85,39789,42610,156,5904,12632,71,25284,85068,256652,157,111,139,69,90,6452,10142,51252,693,256651,8628,1734,30279,1361,223,61,20838,810,102],"class_list":["post-516800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-42344","tag-advances","tag-artist","tag-australia","tag-compete","tag-earned","tag-entertainment","tag-final","tag-friend","tag-from","tag-hailing","tag-hiphop","tag-mic","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-opportunity","tag-paid","tag-pass","tag-rapper","tag-shaskey","tag-song","tag-sydney","tag-tairwhiti","tag-that","tag-the","tag-to","tag-tribute","tag-up","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}