The small town of Cambridge, New Zealand is an unlikely place to call home for a revolutionary rapper, but the story and values of Diaz Grimm are unusual in the most honest way. A leader for modern hiphop in NZ, Diaz Grimm began trialling and testing modern hiphop techniques and sounds early into it’s inception. Opening the door for NZ hiphop to branch out and break it’s traditional approach to rap.
In 2015, Diaz Grimm released his debut album ‘Osiris’, a soundtrack to the end of the world. A post-apocalyptic sonic journey that resonated with audiences and critics alike, the success of Osiris saw Diaz nominated for Best Urban/Hip-Hop Album at the NZ Music Awards that year. The album topped the NZ iTunes hiphop charts, reached the official NZ Top 20 album charts and became the most upvoted self-posted album in the history of the Reddit/hiphopheads forum. Following the success of the album Diaz was invited to go on a ten show nationwide tour with superstars Six60 & then in 2016 became the first self-managed, unsigned artist from New Zealand to ever be invited to play SXSW.
Diaz worked on his 2017 single ‘Foreigners’ with Grammy award winning producer and songwriter Mike Elizondo (Prod. of Eminem’s ‘Real Slim Shady’, 50 cent’s ‘In Da Club’ & The Games ‘How We Do’). ‘Foreigners’ debuted at #16 on the NZ singles charts (The only unsigned, self managed artist in the charts)
Diaz has opened for Mac Miller, Tyga, Yung Lean, Twista, TNGHT, Baauer, Flosstradamus and many more…