Decent hip hop is rarer than it should be. Scraps + Debris are a hip hop/grime duo from downtown Auckland.

Clever rhymes, sensitive beats and background – UK grime styles but in a distinctively Aotearoa landscape.

There’s a dark edge (as per the genre) to their debut EP, ‘Middle Men’, but it’s not overloaded, more a quiet pride and mellow execution hinting at much more to come.

The EP is a nice introduction, but at a length of three tracks it’s a bit of a tease – it’s much too short.

Twirl has a long intro and outro, easing you into the ‘scape. Roadman Shuffle steps things up with a faster rhyming style and movie samples, neat rhymes, futuristic scattershot beats, nice dirty urban.

The songs are careful experiments that succeed because they’re not trying to be obscure or to be overly clever.

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