NEXT Gen: Series 2 Highlights Video
Written by Admin on March 17, 2021
Under a cloudless sky on the 20th of February at the wonderful Māngere Arts Centre, NEXT Gen brought together rising talents with established local artists to perform for their community, friends, and family. For the fresh talent of Spooky (Sylas through Ngā Rangatahi Toa and representing Mangere 275), LyREC (Rose, Eve and Cyprus of Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate School) and Matai, Maria and Karina of Māngere Central School, it was the culmination of all the growth they have experienced through the Base FM youth mentoring program that had been running through 2020.
There was no shortage of inspiration for the rangatahi as they performed alongside the award-winning soul and RnB singer RAZÉ, Te Henga rapper Kau + squad including Rehua and Mana, and For the Ville label owner and POETIK’s DJ Bass 685.
Māngere Central School was up first with some covers of well-known tunes with Maria and Matai hitting those high notes. They were then joined by Karina, Grassmouth, and Tom Hopkins to perform for the first time all together with the song Solwota Soundtrack that they wrote together with Sandy Mill during a songwriting workshop at the end of last year.
SPOOKY dropped some slick rhymes and told some serious truths about the challenges he has faced growing up. Mad respect for sharing SPOOKY. Then the crowd was stunned by a newly named group LyREC who threw it down as they performed for the first time in public their song that was recorded last year at BASE FM, big ups Bass 685 supplying for the beat.
It has been amazing watching the confidence in our young artists and performers grow and we can’t wait to see where it goes from here. Keep your eyes peeled for more youth mentoring action this year on BASE FM and another NEXT Gen event in the future.
This event was brought to you proudly by Haumako & Base FM, with thanks to Mangere Otahuhu Arts, Mangere Arts Centre, The local board, Auckland UNESCO City of Music, and Mangere Central School for the support.
Videos coming soon, stay tuned…
