Top Shelf: Amplifying Pacific voices through empowering music

Youth from South Auckland are merging their musical talent with Pacific perspectives, offering a fresh take on supergroove.

Manurewa’s rising funk-rap-metal fusion band, Top Shelf, is making waves with their recent tracks “O Ai A’u” and the upcoming anthem “E Tū”.

The group of current and former students of Manurewa High School is proud to serve as a voice for Pacific youth navigating identity, culture, and community.

Their debut single, “O Ai A’u”, which translates from Sāmoan as ‘Who am I?’, delves into the emotional weight many Pacific youth carry.

“Our song ‘O Ai A’u’ is focused around… the Pacific Islander youth,” Miller, one of the group’s members, told NiuFM’s drive show, The Rush.

“It’s mainly storytelling from how anyone from the Pacific Islander youth grew up, especially with strict lives, especially with parents. Since here in South Auckland our main influences are not, in my opinion, too great.

“That's why when we wrote the song, it was just like saying, ‘Who am I? What am I gonna do in this community?’”

Top Shelf is a seven-piece multi-ethnic band with members of Pacific and Asian descent, including vocalists Charles Lia and Charlie Mupopo Miller, Taparia ‘Taps’ Engu (guitar and vocals), Ashton Emmerson on bass, Sheneah Bayaban (trumpet and vocals), Louise Ponifasio on saxophone and pūtātara (conch shell), and Josh Engu on drums.

They first gained recognition in 2024 after winning nationwide original music youth competitions, Smokefree Rockquest, and Smokefree Tangata Beats.

Top Shelf has continued to represent their roots with honesty and heart.

Miller discusses how the song’s lyrical structure draws from shared experiences of feeling misunderstood or misdirected, exploring how external pressures impact identity.

“The bridge is like a back-and-forth… It’s like a future version of yourself looking back, saying, ‘I want to be who I want to be, and I don’t want anyone else taking that away from me’.”

Miller says the song’s essence is about self-discovery and identity exploration, regardless of one’s “bad environment".

The group has taken inspiration from living as youth of colour in South Auckland and hopes their music can help push the narrative beyond stereotypes.

Top Shelf’s follow-up single “E Tū” continues the theme of empowerment, but on a broader scale.

Taps passionately describes the track as an anthem of Pacific strength in unity, conveying a message to endure the tide of adversity.

“You often don’t see parts of our community represented, you often see us pushed down. We're very suppressed, and you see that in today’s politics especially… but we are strong people.

“This song is meant to be a song of encouragement to tell us to stand up, all of us of different cultures.”

With cultural backgrounds spanning Sāmoan, Fijian, Cook Islands, and Filipino heritage, the group reflects the diversity of Aotearoa’s urban Pasifika youth.

“We represent all those cultures in our song,” Taps says. “Be proud of who you are. Nothing can take away who you are.

Top Shelf is not just creating music. It is building a legacy. As Taps puts it, “Know that you are a strong person. You are powerful.”