The Panthers TV series: Everything you need to know about the show's Kiwi rapper

The Panthers, a six-part series set in inner Auckland in 1974, is available to watch on TVNZ OnDemand. Photo / Supplied

If you spent your lockdown days bingeing the new TVNZ series The Panthers then chances are you were left with two burning questions. How New Zealanders can ever really make amends for such a dark chapter in the nation's history and who is the enigmatic rapper who regularly appears, his visceral rhymes punctuating the powerful narrative?

Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi is exceptional as 'Will' Ilolahia in the 6-part television series The Panthers. Photo / Supplied

If you haven't watched it yet, The Panthers is a six-part series available through TVNZ OnDemand. The series, set in 1974, explores a dark time in New Zealand's history when Polynesian immigrants were racially targeted by police, leading to mass arrests and deportations. The story is largely told from the point of view of the Polynesian Panthers, a group of outspoken young Polynesians working together to protest the racially driven mistreatment of their people.

The Panthers opens with a profile shot of Kiwi music legend Troy Kingi singing the opening refrain to My Heart Never Sleeps, a song written specifically for the series. The powerful theme song was co-written with Diggy Dupé, the inspiring rapper in question and produced by ChoiceVaughan.

Kiwi rapper Diggy Dupé's presence in The Panther's is pivotal and unequivocally memorable. Photo / Supplied

Dupé appears in the flesh throughout the series, delivering his deeply layered rhymes directly to the camera. He seems to exist in a reality one step removed from the characters around him, able to pierce the fourth wall as he raps at us, the audience at home watching in comfort, while the Panthers beside him grapple with racism and police brutality.

Dupé surged onto the NZ hip hop scene in 2017 with his debut EP Kids Of The Inner City. In 2019 he was a finalist for Best Hip Hop Act at the 2019 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards. Then, in 2020, he was shortlisted for the Silver Scroll for the track Who?, a collaboration with Team Dynamite.

Dupé has a long and illustrious list of collaborators. He has teamed up with SWIDT on their track Off The Top, ChoiceVaughan's Dead Air, Church & AP's Down In The Mud and multiple tracks by Rizvan.

Dupé is of Niuean heritage, a theme that features in much of his music and provides him with first hand insight into the struggle of The Panthers. In fact, on the single Keke Boy, from his first full-length album That's Me, That's Team, Diggy switches between English and Niuean. Dupé is proud and vocal about his Niue roots and has openly said that he wants to help Pacific people rediscover and have pride in their native tongues.

Although Dupé's presence in The Panther's is pivotal and unequivocally memorable, a host of other talented Kiwi musicians contributed their sound to the music for the series. Everyone from King Kapisi to Che Fu, Melodownz and Bella Kalolo leave their mark on the exceptional series' soundtrack.

A talent like Diggy Dupé deserves to be heard and appreciated beyond the NZ hip-hop scene and hopefully the widespread popularity of The Panthers TV series will help a broad new audience of New Zealander's appreciating his nuanced rhymes.