maitreya's blog...

Hailing from Christchurch New Zealand maitreya is an MC with a mood and a message to renew the faith of Hip Hop heads worldwide. His soulful melodies punctuated by tight, head nodding beats and rhymes made him the first ever hip hop artist to crowd-source US$50,000 to record his debut solo album Close To Home.

The album is a journey through sound into the tragedies and victories of an everyday hero who has taken his craft from Christchurch, New Zealand to stages in New York, Hong Kong, London and Amsterdam.

So dig out your De La Soul, cue up your Lupe Fiasco, slap on some Streets and they will all be in good company... you'll recognize the emotional honesty and depth, but like all great artists... maitreya does it his way.

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Wed Jan 14

Check out a review of Close To Home in NZ Musician Magazine...

Maitreya: Close To Home

By Martyn Pepperell

Maitreya aka Jamie Greenslade was once in Dark Tower, and as revealed in the last issue of NZM, he took his baggy trousers to New York. There he started working for Roc-a-fella Records, hooked up with The Game’s tour DJ, started knocking out mix CDs and rocking open mic spots all over Harlem. Looking for the means to make his own album he hooked onto innovative music promotion website Sellaband.com early on through which he managed to fundraise US$50,000 via online fan contributions. A long route but he has come up trumps with ‘Close to Home’, a musically divergent, lyrically inventive and heartfelt exploration of Aotearoa-centred hip hop, along with reggae and drum ‘n bass undertones. Production by The Silence (with Maitreya co-producing) along with the attention of Universal Mastering Studios in New York, has given the album a clean, clear, loud and punchy sound. Maitreya can rap fluently in Te Reo, and Waitaha sees him exploring a musical form I would describe as haka-step. Some interesting music, this album has definite appeal for fans of local leftfield hip hop.