Aotearoa may be small, but its music scene has always been mighty - and for David Dallas , it’s a scene he credits as paving the way for throughout his illustrious 20-year career. The Papatoetoe born-and-bred rapper , 42, has a lengthy list of accolades to his name: he’s a four-time Aotearoa Music Award winner and a three-time Taite Music Prize nominee, to name a few. In 2022, his platinum-plated tune Runnin ’ was selected for the soundtrack of Adam Sandler’s hit film, Hustle .
And who could forget his feature on Scribe’s anthemic ode to New Zealand hip-hop, Not Many - The Remix , in 2003? For Dallas , it’s a journey that began in the dimly lit, cramped, clammy spaces of Auckland’s live music scene in the early to mid-2000s. Several of these venues - think Fu Bar, Khuja and Club 4:20 - have been lost in the annals of time, but one standout in Dallas’ memory remains. “Galatos was the first proper performance venue for me since I was on an actual stage.
Everywhere else I’d performed before then, I was on a little riser - like, two inches above the patrons,” Dallas, seated in front of said stage, recalls to the Herald. It’s at Galatos that we meet for our interview on a blustery September day. The historic live music venue , a stone’s throw from Auckland’s iconic Karangahape Rd, is housed within a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it beige building with arched windows that dates back to the early 1910s.
The property, which originally served as a lodge for the U.