‘BUD & DENI’: Jamaica Moana’s homage to home and family

Unapologetic creative expression is flowing from West Sydney to South Auckland as a Māori Sāmoan rapper intrigues the music industry.

Jamaica Moana (Ngāpuhi/Tainui, Sāmoa) is a gifted multidisciplinary non-binary artist whose career as a singer, creative director, model, youth advocate, and community leader is one of authenticity.

Moana’s latest single, “LIVIN’ OUT WEST”, is a Tupac-coded salute to Western Sydney’s urban culture, celebrating her humble beginnings and the communities that raised her.

It validates Moana as an emerging force in hip hop.

“The reason for this track is to fight the stereotype that ‘you can't be successful out in the hood,” Moana says in an interview on 531pi’s Pacific Days.

“But the thing for me is I love to be successful, but I also love living out in the hood because this is where I'm from.

“I do the glitz and the glam for mahi, but for home life, I don't relate to that - I relate to a bit of a cold, small whare.”

Her sound is a fusion of rap, R&B, and soul laced with ancestral mana and fierce queer identity.

Moana’s music speaks to the unique tapestry woven together by multiple aspects of her life, elements of navigating identity and finding a place in the world.

“I think for me and a lot of Māori people or Pasifika people who come over the Ditch, being in South Western Sydney was very much like being in South Auckland for me.

“I'm seeing a melting pot of different cultures and not just the societal norms of what a town should look like.

“The thing missing for me out West was to find Māori queer people like me that I felt I could relate to both parts of them.”

Moana has shaped her career as a rapper, but never released an individual body of work, until now.

“LIVIN’ OUT WEST” is taken from her forthcoming EP named in honour of her parents, BUD & DENI.

“I didn’t actually call my parents Mum and Dad growing up,” Moana explains.

“I called them Bud and Deni… My dad looked like a Buddha, and my mum’s name’s Denise.

“As a toddler, I just started calling them that and it stuck.”

Tragedy altered the trajectory of Moana’s life when her father passed away seven years ago, the year that followed revealed her strength and resilience as she channeled her grief through lyrical healing.

“My second single of this year was about my father, and we have been working for the past three years on delivering all of this mahi that's coming out now.

“All of the music, all of the visuals - everything has been through my heart and my soul.”

Moana says to properly honour the ones she loves, her first album needed to be special.

It is a collection of memories, childhood dreams and aspirations, and the unfiltered life she has always known.

“I knew that I only could debut once”, so I took my time with this one,” Moana says.

“I really wanted to honour my whānau…and no matter how big I get with my mahi or the exterior success, I know who I came from and where I come from.

“I want everybody to speak my father’s name, even though he’s not here, and to speak my mother’s name as well, because that’s what BUD & DENI is about.”

Through her performing arts background, Moana found a sense of belonging within her dance crews and met people with similar interests, stories, journeys, and ambition.

Moana is intentional in all aspects of her work showcasing staunch indigenous pride through living and working on Dharawal and Gadigal land on the Eora Nation.

In coming to terms with her own creative processes and through many trials and tribulations, Moana says there is no better support than the kind that comes with kindness in kindred creators.

“I learned that if I worked with people that organically understood me, myself, and myself as a persona, then I might have a better process in the long run.

“Instead of just working with someone for the sake of it, if I actually worked with integrity from the get-go, I feel like people could find that and feel that listening to it.”

Jamaica Moana’s debut EP BUD & DENI releases on 1 August on all music streaming platforms. Listen to “LIVIN’ OUT WEST” here.