"Brother" is a single by

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

hip hop group

Smashproof Smashproof is a New Zealand hip hop group, consisting of Sid Diamond, Tyree, and Deach. The name "Smashproof" is a play on the word "Bulletproof". They are best known for the song "Brother", in which they show their version of what is going on ...

, released in early 2009. The song features

Gin Wigmore Virginia Claire Wigmore (born 6 June 1986) is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. Featured on the Smashproof single "Brother" in 2009, Wigmore went on to release four albums'' Holy Smoke'' (2009), '' Gravel & Wine'' (2011), '' Blood to Bone' ...

. It was made as a metaphor to life in

South Auckland South Auckland ( or ) is one of the major geographical regions of Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand. The area is south of the Auckland isthmus, and on the eastern shores of the Manukau Harbour. The area has been populated by Tāmaki M� ...

. The song debuted in New Zealand at number twenty-three on 26 January 2009, rising to number one in its fifth week. It stayed firmly at the top of the chart for eleven consecutive weeks. It also had minor notoriety in Germany, reaching number eighty-one on their national chart. The song broke a 23-year-old record by clocking up the longest consecutive run at number-one by a local act on the New Zealand Singles Chart. The record was previously set by the America's Cup-themed single " Sailing Away" by All of Us, which spent nine consecutive weeks at the top in 1986. The song's lyrics concern the January 2008 killing of alleged tagger Pihema Cameron in

Manukau Manukau (), or Manukau Central, is a suburb of South Auckland, New Zealand, centred on the Manukau City Centre business district. It is located 23 kilometres south of the Auckland Central Business District, west of the Southern Motorway, ...

by Bruce Emery. The song was certified 2× Platinum on 6 September 2009, selling over 30,000 copies. It stayed on the chart for twenty-nine weeks.

Charts

Year-end charts

References

2009 singles Smashproof songs Gin Wigmore songs Number-one singles in New Zealand 2009 songs Universal Music Group singles Songs about racism and xenophobia {{2000s-NewZealand-single-stub