Rei in West Auckland at the Kogg studio Photo: Fire Fire / The Outliers
For the past few years 26-year-old Callum Rei McDougall, better known as Rei, has been injecting more te reo in his music. It's been an exploration of his whakapapa on his mum's Ngati Huia side, on his dad's side - as his name heavily suggests - he's Scottish. Rei was nominated for Best Maori Artist at last year's New Zealand Music Awards and won Best Hip Hop Album for Hoea - an album created during lockdown - at last month's Waiata Māori Music Awards.
