* * * 1/2
Dawn Raid is a relentlessly entertaining feature length documentary about the rise, fall and re-birth of Dawn Raid Entertainment, New Zealand’s first and, by far, most influential hip-hop label. Anchored by interviews with Dawn Raid founders Danny “Brotha D” Leaosavai’i and Andy Murnane, and featuring almost all of the label’s most important artists including Savage, Mareko, Deceptikonz, Adeaze and Aaradhna, the film has multiple moments of sheer fist-pumping joy.
Dawn Raid was always more than a label; it was a South Auckland cultural force, and the film is about culture and community as much as it is about music. But boy, the music is good; if nothing else, Dawn Raid may open your eyes to a whole area and era of hip-hop that bridges clear US rap influence with specifically NZ Polynesian concerns.
Murnane gets the most screen time, and he tells the Dawn Raid story with great energy, passion, humour and humility. He and Leaosavai’i met at ‘Business School’ – technical college – and the constant refrain of trying to marry a love of music with by-the-book business methodology culminates in a superb second-act comic, and cosmic, pay-off. This is a hip-hop movie with no guns nor gangsters, and the only drug on display is a reefer smoked by an American rapper. Instead, there is humour, joy and a whole lot of heart. It’s a delight from start to finish.