Christopher Finau, professionally known as Raggadat Cris is focusing on the positive energy in his life, his new track Nay Sayers dealing with letting go the negativity in our own heads. Recently signed to Poetik‘s new label For The Ville Entertainment, professionally he is indeed onto something good, having become a go-to artist for reggae and RnB collaborations like recent ones with Israel Starr, Awa (Nesian Mystik), Lion Rezz. His inputs also include the hugely successful Runtingz Anthem which accumulated over 320,000 combined streams in just over a month, and ghostwriting many a top 10 single. We asked Cris to compile a mixtape of some of his favourite tunes for you to vibe with, and he happily obliged.

The playlist I made inspires me in different ways or puts me in certain vibes, whether it’s relaxing with the family, putting pen to paper, mellowing out and the artists’ achievements in general. My new track Nay Sayers is about learning to ignore the negative people who bring bad energy into your life. I’m also talking about that negative voice in your head, that person inside you that’s stopping you from shining.

Ché-fu: Fade Away

This song came out when I was in intermediate. I was hooked on this, just the whole message in the song with the different styles you can hear in the riddim, from the reggae to hip hop and RnB just to name a few. I love it ’cause it’s so similar to my type of style. So you can say Che inspired me a lot, esp with the ‘Navigator’ album. 

Cydel: Nesian Queen

This song means a lot to me ’cause of when my daughter was born. When she got too tired and started crying I would play this song to her and she would mellow out. I like to say that it was the sweet sounds of the poly brothers. Also fell in love with the lyrics of this song. I can honestly say this track really helped me with my writing. 

Lomez Brown: Tell Me

Such a beautiful song. Well put together and the reason why it means so much to me because I was there when he was putting his EP together which features this song. I was inspired by the way he took good care of each track and making sure that everything was perfect. And it just showed through in Tell Me and how beautiful it is. It taught me patience and taught me to sharpen up more on my craft and take better care of how I put my tracks together. 

Chong Nee: Scenarios

One of the godfathers of NZ music. I was just blown away by his sense of melodies and his unique voice. Everything he touched was gold. 

Nesian Mystik: Nesian Style

When they first came out they really were they brought a different sound to NZ, which in my opinion was a massive thing for a lot of us young polys coming up. This song changed the way I saw music. 

Savage: Swing

This was one of the biggest songs to come out of NZ and he from South Auckland like me. Was just crazy seeing where this track took Savage. A kid from the south side made the US charts. It was super inspirational to see another person who looked like me on the main stage rocking it with the best in the world. 

Fiji: Morning Ride

I would listen to this song every time at every family drink-up. Was just one of them tracks that just made me feel irie. S/O Uncle FEEJ! 

Sione Toki: When I Show Up

One of my favourite artists. This song changed me as an artist, made me push my pen game to crazy levels.