Biography

Growing up in Christchurch, New Zealand, maitreya discovered hip-hop at age 12 on his living room TV…Run DMC's "Raising Hell" brought a glimpse of New York to a generation of kids in New Zealand who took Hip Hop culture and ran with it. The year was 1989 and New Zealand's first Hip Hop crew Upper Hutt Posse had just delivered a landmark album "Against The Flow". Ten years later UHP founding member DLT was to become maitreya's teacher and mentor.

maitreya began his music career as founding member of live Hip Hop band NILSTATE which gained a cult-like following around Christchurch with a reputation for unpredictable & explosive performances. He spent his youth like a lot of Christchurch kids, growing up with personal loss, drugs and alcohol. School was a non-event until fortune had it that he was kicked out of his Year 10 class and sent to a Year 7 Maori language lesson. 7 years later he was the first Pakeha (European NZer) to graduate from University in a Maori Ceremony and Te Reo Maori (Maori language) had become deeply ingrained into his music and flow.

maitreya had moved to Auckland, becoming a member of DARK TOWER who took the nation by storm in '00, touring the country to sold out venues. Now under the wing of DLT, his perceptions and understanding of Hip Hop & spirituality were deepening. He took a couple of years to develop his style and recorded an album in anticipation of a move to New York, in the meantime he became a well-known On Air Personality on radio station Mai FM. It was at this time that DLT gave him the moniker maitreya which means a 'Future Teacher'.

In '03 maitreya took a leap of faith and his thirst for learning to the Mecca of Hip Hop, New York City. He hit the ground running, securing an internship at Roc-a-Fella Records (Jay-Z). For the next two years he worked for Roc-a-Fella and immersed himself in New York's Open Mic scene. He continued to develop his style and hustled his mix tape "ILLEGALALIEN" ft The Game's DJ, DJ Kris Stylez to an impressive 500 street sales eventually getting his own show "Illegal" in and around the Lower East Side.


In NOV '06 maitreya hit SellaBand.com with a fresh repertoire of songs, where the goal was to crowdsource US$50,000 to record his debut solo album. On June 4 '07, maitreya made history by becoming the first Hip Hop artist and first New Zealander to raise the 50K necessary to record his album in top notch production facilities. The result is "Close To Home", a stunning debut album which documents the life of an artist who has taken his craft from Christchurch, NZ to stages in Hong Kong, New York, Amsterdam and London. "Close To Home" was produced by UK's The Silence & maitreya and mastered by Vlado Meller Universal Studios, New York. Vlado has mastered many of maitreya's favourite albums including his first: "Raising Hell" by Run DMC.