SWIDT (See What I Did There?) are a hip-hop collective from Onehunga, New Zealand. Members of the collective include SPYCC (Daniel Latu), SmokeyGotBeatz (Isaiah Libeau), INF (Amon McGoram), Boomer Tha God and JAMAL (Jamal Muavae)
If you don’t know SWIDT by now then you’ve really been sleeping on your locals. The Most Electrifying, SWIDT are not new to this. Individually and as a group they have created a lot and have been involved in a huge range of projects with other artists.
SmokeyGotBeatz debut project ‘SWIDT vs Everybody’ was listed as No.16 in The New Zealand Herald’s 20 Best Albums of 2016. They released their official debut album ‘STONEYHUNGA’, dedicated to their home suburb of Onehunga, in July 2017. Their most recent release ‘The Most Electrifying’ EP was released July 2018.
The group also have 3 NZMA Awards for Best Group & Best Hip Hop (x2).
.
.
CHECK OUT OUR LITTLE CATCH-UP WITH SWIDT BELOW:
.
Happy NZ Music Month! How did you initially get into creating music?
INF & Smoke’s family were part of an iconic rap group called ‘Red Eye Society’. They were signed to Dawn Raid & Breakin Wreckwords in different parts of their career so obviously their passion for music influenced INF & Smoke to follow suit. Because we were all friends we used to make tracks on INF’s laptop using the built in mic to record music. We were all about that whole DIY thing from music videos, production, recording to artwork cover. But that’s how it started it out. I remember INF bringing his beats on a CD to school and we all used to meet in the library at lunch time because ironically they would let you hire out a stereo there. Then we would listen to his beats and just buzz out.
Tell us about your inspirations & motivations?
I think we’re motivated by each other and inspired by everything. As we all know energy is transferable and the fans really be sending back positive energy when we put music out. The fact that our creativity can impact people in a positive way and provide them with some solace amongst the madness we call life is enough motivation for us to keep sharing our stories.
What have you been up to in this lockdown and how has it affected you?
What a time to be alive. We haven’t been affected too much really apart from losing potential bags that were heading our way. I think as musicians we kind of thrive in this environment, we’re used to isolating ourselves and creating. In saying that though, everything is new and we’re just navigating as we go. We decided to stay active though during this time by releasing freestyles and beat flips during this period. The fans are loving it so that’s the main thing. Positives can come from even the worst situations and I think that is evident by how active everyone is being physically and how active everyone has been in wanting to make positive changes.
Goal board time – where would you like to see yourself in a years time?
We would like to see ourselves touching international waters with this music thing and being able to touch more people with the music we make.
.
Check out the freestyles and beat flips on their Instagram and Facebook pages!
.