As history tells it, you know, I was caught by the police ` possession of methamphetamine. My life was fuckin' falling apart. My career's over. You know, I'm the laughing stock of the country. - To go through that, and then have to face all` all of what comes next would've been super tough. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2022 - Fame was not good for me, and especially just... the enormity and... how fast it happened for me was-was hard for a 23-year-old to deal with. - The fame he had at a really early age. How do you deal with that? I mean, it was bananas. Like, literally, it was Beatlemania for a young Poly kid from Christchurch. - It was amazing. It did happen really fast. So when I look back on it now, I think it was quite traumatic. - When he started blowing up, I was probably about 4, I think, and to me it was just, like, I thought everyone's dad was like this. Like, everyone's dad could go and perform and rap for a living. - Yeah. I want to give a shout-out to one of the baddest, illest MCs in the country. Give it up for MC Scribe! - The first time I really seen it was at a park that we all grew up in, in that community. He had a concert there. - Look at these little ones. This is what it's all about ` the next generation, giving back. - Micah was only very young, and... and Jackson was there too. - I remember my mum was carrying me, and I remember just, like, looking back, and there was, like, a whole crowd, like, chasing us. - It was like a stampede of, like, (CHUCKLES) 200 young kids. - And I remember my dad quickly got in our Honda Civic,... - (BOTH LAUGH) - ...just driving off straight away. And I remember looking back, and they were still chasing. And then on the whole ride home, I was like, 'Are they still following us?' Like, far out. - You know, I would give anything just to be the old me that could just not be recognised and just blend in without people looking at you like... you're not human. - # Let me say again, me say, little boy in the streets come runnin', # no food for the starving tummy. # No family hung around, no feel for the man who offered the crown, no. # Making moves in a righteous way again. # Let the people talk, me no pay no mind. # It'll all break off, all will be fine. Come again. # - Lion Rezz, you know, like, as a vocalist, he's like, out of this world. He's so strong and has a very unique voice. - # The fire keeps... # Yeah, I've got it. I've got it. I'm ready, brother. Ready. Let's do it. A lot of nerves come into my system, you know, when I hit these studios like this. Calm down a little bit, eh? Calm down, Lion. Calm Down. This is one of those ones where I get to tick off the bucket list, you know. ON RECORDING: # We coming up, making waves, you heard me say. # It's just 'waves'. (SINGS) Blowing up, making waves. - Yup. - (SINGS) 'Blowing up, making waves.' You know, all of those? Those ones, eh? Just unison it, eh? - Yeah, brother. - Ka pai, ka pai. - Tino pai, brother. # We coming up, making waves, you heard me say. - Yes! - That's a wrap. That's a wrap. - Yeah, boy! - I know his ears are very, very, uh, particular. If he likes it, the whole country should like it. (CHUCKLES) - From 2003 October to 2004 October was probably the best year of my life. - And the winner is... - The thing with becoming famous is you don't change. Like, everyone else's perception around you changes. So I was still that... that guy that used to shoot up morphine, that was the` you know, the, kind of,... loser. Kind of, like, no one expected me to be successful, least of all me. - I remember when... when he won the Tuis. - Scribe ` Stand Up. - Scribe ` The Crusader. - Chris Graham and Scribe! - Scribe. - Oh (BLEEP). It's Scribe. - Scribe! - BOTH: Scribe! - At the end of the night, I was like, 'What are we going to do? 'Are we going to do something, like, to celebrate?' And he was like, 'Nah, let's just go back to the hotel,' you know? You know, there was almost a little bit of sadness. I think he just never felt good enough, to be honest. And, you know, looking at all those awards, you know, that's when I really seen that, you know, it didn't matter how much praise he was getting, he still had a lot of loss inside. - Yeah, I think the truth is, nobody ever knows how to prepare somebody for fame, or for being in the limelight. - Methamphetamine became such a problem I had to come clean with my management, and I confessed to them that I was addicted to P. - P-MONEY: We were just working very hard all the time, travelling a lot, touring, and just probably had been naive or just oblivious to how bad his drug addiction was and the problems and things in his life that he'd experienced that led to those early decisions that went to a bad path, you know? I just` I wasn't aware of it, man. - Why would a famous, very talented and highly successful musician deal with a pawnbroker pawning his awards? - At my lowest point, when I wanted to get some P and I couldn't get any money, I thought it would be a good idea to pawn some plaques. You know, I pawned those plaques as a way to get a quick fix, you know, without my family and that knowing. I didn't expect for this pawnbroker to generate this kind of publicity by throwing me under the bus. And, of course, who loses at the end of the day, but me? He told me $8,000. - $8000 to get them back. And how much had he given you for them? - About $1000, you know, all up. - And he wanted 8 grand to give them back to you? - He wanted 8 grand. - You know, we didn't have as` We didn't have all this nice stuff that we used to have. And I could just tell, you know, by his attitude that,... you know, something wasn't right. - RAPS: # But now I'm back in this bitch, fam. # Living life on the edge, had to cliff-hang. # Shipped in, these concrete streets get deep. # All my brothers slipping hard, like quicksand. # But I crawled through the mud... # - When I was listening to that, it took me back to the time when I wrote that verse. I wrote that verse when I was deep in-in my meth addiction and... Back in this bitch, fam. Been living life on the edge, had to cliff-hang. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hard. - Like, cos at that time, I'd been on the news, all that shit was going on for me. - SIMON DALLOW: Malo Luafutu made a quick exit from court in Christchurch after the judge postponed sentencing him for possession of methamphetamine. He'll be sentenced for the drugs conviction in September. - RAPS: # From the bottom, God, I made it this far. # A big fish, small pond, swimming with sharks. # You won't find fear anywhere in this heart. # Big fish, small ponds, swimming with sharks. I was like, you know, Scribe, yeah, I'm a big fish, but this is a very small pond here in New Zealand, and I'm swimming with all these media sharks. But you won't find fear anywhere in this heart ` so I wasn't scared. # Ain't no such thing as justice, it's just us. # They want us all behind bars, trying to bust us. # All my people struggling, dog, it's fucked up. # Cos I'm sure I'm too pure for the half-caste. # And if you're really coming for me, don't be half-arsed. # Your last chance to escape from your dark past. # Tomorrow morning, they'll be flying flags at half mast. # Oh! It really captures everything I was` I wanted to say and was feeling at that point. I was still deep in my addiction. If you listen to the lyrics... It's like, 'There ain't no justice; it's just us.' You know? It's just how I felt about the justice system at the time. Because if you remember, I was on the 6 o'clock news for failing to appear at court. - The once chart-topping artist was meant to appear here in the Christchurch District Court late last month on those charges. He failed to show, and police appealed to social media for information. - The police, like, posting on their Facebook page` like, posting a photo of him, that's... just unforgivable bullshit to me. - By the time all that stuff was on the news and stuff, it was all over social media. You got people, like, getting angry at you for supporting someone that is family, saying that you're enabling them by supporting them. That was hard. That was hard. - I actually felt for him, eh? I actually felt like, man, they're really trying to` trying to get this guy. - Hi, Mum. - Hi, Son. But a lot of them do feel empathy, I'm sure. - Who? - The media. - SCOFFS: Oh! I'm sure there's a lot more, um, important stories... going on in the world than a washed-up rapper going to court. - Well, it is a big story, because it's destroying a lot of people's lives, especially the young ones. - Mother, do you think they care about people's lives? Do you think that's why they're putting us out there, is to help other people? For me, they don't give a fuck about other people. - I think the media really didn't consider, or they just didn't care, really, that he had a family. For our kids, I think, that was the most devastating thing for` for them to have to go to school and talk about it. - We got pulled out of school for, um, a month or two, just over the time of him being in the media, just to kind of, like, protect us and stuff. - I didn't really tell a lot of people that my dad was Scribe, just to keep my life... not very out there. - It was just terrible. It was` It was a witch hunt, in my opinion. Really just not considering someone in that state, someone that is an addict and is really struggling. I think they just did a really good job at kicking him while he was down already. - REPORTER: After handing himself in late this afternoon, the troubled rapper is due to appear in Porirua District Court tomorrow. - Probably one of the hardest things is to have your personal life splashed across mainstream media and almost see the media enjoy, uh, someone's fall from grace or, you know, making a big massive thing out of it. And from one perspective, not necessarily... showing the whole context. - OSCAR KIGHTLEY: It was all bullshit, and it was just hounding, and it was just journos writing stories about Scribe because they know that people love him and they'll click on it, or the people that don't love him will click on it because they'll want to see someone, you know, great go down, because that seems to be a thing in New Zealand. - There's so many parts to Malo, and they just would focus on one tiny part of his` you know, what he was going through and blow it up. - RAPS: # Said I've been going through life. Life been throwing me strife. # Strife been giving me struggle. Struggle conditioned me right. # I would tell any young person that fame is definitely not the rewards of success. Like, fame is the downfall, because it's not until you lose your privacy, once you lose that anonymity, that you realise how vital it is and how important it is to hold your privacy. (RAPS)