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Music

ENO x DIRTY Break Apart the Boredom of Suburban Auckland In Their New Video

The New Zealand hip-hop duo’s video for ‘What’ features b-ball, brews and bros.

It’s easy to burn through stuff to see and do in the Auckland burbs. If you are young everything seems to come back to walking the streets aimlessly.

But on their new video for “What” hip hop duo ENO x DIRTY are taking it back to the hood and reclaiming the streets and basketball courts.

The grainy visuals have the pair walking the streets and underpasses of Auckland, playing hoops and generally just hanging with their buds. Think of it as an outer suburban fraternal order complete with elaborate handshakes.

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Watch the video below and read a quick chat we had with Dirty.

Noisey: You guys make suburban Auckland seem less like a boring wasteland?
Dirty: If we ain't in the studio we could be doing all sorts of things, mostly creating new experiences that we can rap about. Talking shit, talking shop, screenshoting nudes on snapchat. You know, livin.

You guys have a chilled 90s throwback approach to your videos. How do you decide on a concept?
We had the intention to make a low budget rap video in our hometown without strategically placing the Sky Tower in the background. I think director Eddy Fifield captured it perfectly. Simple, cheap, quick, and true to our surroundings. There is a lot of pressure on artists who want to fit in by trying to execute a $50,000 video with an $1,000,000 concept/narrative with $6,000 funding. Go for the dude with a 5D and a drone.

You rap about needing words when your fist fails. Do fists come in handy doing what you do? Is there any alpha hierarchy in the New Zealand hip-hop scene?
I'm yet to play 'catch these hands' over some rap shit. Why punch someone in the face when you can look them in the eye and calmly say "I know where you live"? The alpha-type hierarchy is very much alive in hip-hop here. Not so much about artists coming out and making waves. It’s more the deep-underground-real-hip-hop-fuck-Drake 'If 2Pac was still alive, Lil Wayne would be working at McDonald's'-type rappers, and equally the 'Hey, let's make a song that sounds exactly like last weeks hip-pop No.1, but slightly change the beat and words!'-rappers. Too many people make their own crowns. Leave that shit up to the listeners.