2 Nov 2013

Dallas runnin' hot

1:18 pm on 2 November 2013

In his 2011 track Take a Picture, New Zealand rapper David Dallas said he was “from the land of flightless birds, about to grow really big wings”.

With the release of his third album Falling Into Place, it seems he’s come true on his word. It debuted at #2 on the official albums chart (behind Lorde’s Pure Heroine and ahead of homegrown reggae group Sons of Zion, in quite the coup for New Zealand music), and the first single, Runnin’, was number one album and rap song on iTunes.

On Falling Into Place, David, who’s of Samoan and European descent, references everything from Instagram (“I just like the way the word sounds”) to Al Pacino to life growing up in Papatoetoe: “I wanted to highlight something to make people from South Auckland proud”.

Megan Whelan asked if the album is a bit more grown-up than his previous two.