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Darryl Thomson (DLT)
Darryl Thomson (DLT)
00:57

Darryl Thomson (DLT)

Auckland, New Zealand

"I had to prove to my family that a decision I had made was good."

Career Roadmap

Darryl's work combines: Acting & Theatre, Music, and Being Creative

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Day In The Life

Musician/Artist

I'm a music producer and artist, credited with bringing hip hop music and culture to New Zealand.

Life & Career Milestones

My path in life has been direct

  • 1.

    As a child, watched a gang film called The Warriors-it was his first exposure to graffiti artists.

  • 2.

    Soon after, saw a cautionary documentary on what the "ghetto" kids in America were doing.

  • 3.

    Says it had an opposite effect on New Zealand's kids; "the next day, there were 100 graffiti artists heading down to the railways lines."

  • 4.

    Right around that time, he was being "dissed" at school for the art-based subjects he'd chosen to study; hip-hop came around right in time.

  • 5.

    One of his first graffiti "missions" was painting black idols-Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix-near billboards that primarily used white faces in their advertisements.

  • 6.

    Says he wanted his hip-hop, art to stand up for underrepresented kids who couldn't fight for themselves-"come over here; I'll fight for you."

  • 7.

    His family kept saying, "get a job," "grow up"; felt that he constantly had to prove that he'd made a good decision.

  • 8.

    Says that if you remember the things you liked when you were growing up, before you were "business-oriented," those things will guide you.