Coco Solid (born Jessica Hansell in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, New Zealand) is a singer, songwriter, director and producer. She is of Māori, Pacific and German heritage. Her musical style is a mixture of

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

and

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

. She created the animated television series Aroha Bridge.

History

Solid has a master's degree from the

International Institute of Modern Letters The International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML; ) is a centre of creative writing based within Victoria University of Wellington. Founded in 2001, the IIML offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses (including a PhD in creative writing) ...

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington (), also known by its shorter names "VUW" or "Vic", is a public university, public research university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of New Zealand Parliament, Parliament, and w ...

. Her thesis was titled ''Chaos Theory is for Lovers''. Solid worked with Erik Ultimate (Benjamin Buchanan) over her first five albums, touring to the US and Europe and attending

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

. Solid's work was named in the top 10 albums of 2005, 2006 and 2007 in ''

The Sunday Star-Times The ''Sunday Star-Times'' is a New Zealand newspaper published each weekend in Auckland. It covers both national and international news, and is a member of the New Zealand Press Association and Newspaper Publishers Association of New Zealand ...

'', '' The Listener'' and on ''

Radio New Zealand National RNZ National (), formerly Radio New Zealand National, and known until 2007 as the National Programme or National Radio, is a publicly funded non-commercial New Zealand English-language radio network operated by Radio New Zealand. It specialises ...

''. New York rapper

Princess Superstar Concetta Suzanne Kirschner (born February 25, 1971), better known as Princess Superstar, is an American rapper, singer and DJ. She has had two chart hits in the UK, the humorous song "Bad Babysitter", which reached number 11 on the UK Singles ...

covered the hook of "Denim & Leather" in her song "Monday Morning". Solid's single "Crimefighters" received the New Zealand college radio BNet Award for "Best Hip Hop Track" award in 2007. It also reached No. 1 on the

BNet ''BNET'' was an online magazine dedicated to issues of business management. It was owned by CBS Interactive and was a part of its business portfolio alongside ZDNet, TechRepublic, SmartPlanet. ''BNET'' site registration allowed users to re ...

charts. Solid and Erik Ultimate rapped with Kiwi group

Flight of the Conchords Flight of the Conchords are a New Zealand musical comedy duo formed in Wellington in 1998. The band consists of multi-instrumentalists Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Beginning as a popular live comedy act in the early 2000s, the duo's c ...

2006. The performance was posted on YouTube and had received over 500,000 views by 2019. Solid and Erik Ultimate have supported Girl Talk, Avenue D,

The 5.6.7.8's The 5.6.7.8's are a Japanese rock band from Tokyo with a retro-inspired sound that draws heavily from the 1960s garage rock scene. They first started performing as a quartet in Tokyo, and recruited guest performers during their Australian tour ...

and King Brothers in NZ. Overseas, Solid has rapped alongside Sway, TTC, O'mmas Keith from

Sa-Ra Sa-Ra is an American musical group from Los Angeles, also known by its full name, The Sa-Ra Creative Partners. The group is composed of Om'Mas Keith, Taz Arnold, and Shafiq Husayn. The name translates roughly to "the children of God". The group' ...

Spankrock Naeem Juwan Hanks, better known by his stage name Spank Rock, is an American rapper and songwriter from Baltimore. He rose to fame with his 2006 album ''YoYoYoYoYo'', which was produced by former group member Alex Epton (XXXChange). A harbinger ...

and

The Rogers Sisters The Rogers Sisters were an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, active from 1999 to 2007, composed of sisters Laura and Jennifer Rogers and multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Miyuki Furtado. History The Rogers Sisters formed in 1999 after the break ...

. Solid received the APRA Professional Development Award for song-writing in March 2009. She completed a ten-date tour to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, New York, Berlin,

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, Lisbon,

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

and Tokyo in March and April 2009. Solid released a mix tape on cassette called ''Pacific Rims'', which includes the singles "I'll see you inside" (with Pepepe from Mexico) and "Architecture" (with longtime collaborator Jizmatron), which stayed on the benet charts for months. Solid released her debut novel, ''How to Loiter In a Turf War'', in May 2022.

Artistic projects

Solid is in a duo called Parallel Dance Ensemble with Denmark hip-hop producer

Robin Hannibal Robin Hannibal Mølsted Braun is a Danish record producer and songwriter, best known for being one half of the musical duo Quadron and for being a founding member of Rhye, which he has since left. Besides being involved in both, he is also know ...

(from Owusu & Hannibal) after meeting him at the 2008

Red Bull Music Academy The Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) is a world-traveling series of music workshops and festivals that was founded in 1998 by Red Bull GmbH. The main five-week event is held in a different city each year. The public portion of its program is a festiv ...

. The duo released a 12" and digital EP on 25 March 2011 on German label Permanent Vacation. The first single, "Shopping Cart", was No. 1 on Radio Active for four weeks and was tweeted by

Gilles Peterson Gilles Jérôme Moehrle MBE (; born 28 September 1964), better known as Gilles Peterson (), is a broadcaster, DJ, record label and festival owner. He is renowned for his genre-defying approach to music with jazz at its core. From this base he ...

. "Juices" also hit the charts in 2011. Solid is part of four piece grunge band

Badd Energy "Badd" is a song by American crunk duo Ying Yang Twins featuring American rapper Mike Jones (rapper), Mike Jones and American hip-hop producer Mr. Collipark, It was released on July 26, 2005, as the second single from their fourth studio album, ' ...

, which was signed to

Flying Nun Records Flying Nun Records is a New Zealand independent record label formed in Christchurch in 1981 by music store manager Roger Shepherd. Described by ''The Guardian'' as "one of the world's great independent labels", Flying Nun is notable for bringi ...

in 2011. Solid features on other producers' tracks, most recently with

Lorenz Rhode Lorenz is an originally German name derived from the Roman surname Laurentius (disambiguation), Laurentius, which means "from Laurentum". Given name People with the given name Lorenz include: * Prince Lorenz of Belgium (born 1955), member of th ...

on German Label Exploited Records. Solid is part of Piki Films Māori Pasifika film collective, which she describes as "a bunch of writers who cross-contaminate each other's work". She leads Kuini Qontrol, which is an artistic online project about political topics with a focus on the South Pacific.

Aroha Bridge

Solid created, wrote and directed the animated television series ''Aroha Bridge''. The series began as a comic strip, ''Hook Ups'', published in the New Zealand music magazine ''Volume''. The first season of Aroha Bridge was launched online in 2013, with season two in 2019.

Discography

Albums

* ''Rap N Roll'' (2003) * ''Denim & Leather'' (2004) * ''Erik Ultimate presents Denim & Leisure'' (2005) * ''Gentlemen Prefer Bombz'' (2006) * ''The Radical Bad Attack'' (2008) * ''Parallel Dance Ensemble'' (2009) * ''Possessions & Obsessions'' (2011) * ''Pacific Rims'' (2011) * ''Possessions & Obsessions Remixed'' (2012) * ''Underwater Pyramids'' by Badd Energy (2013)

Records

* ''Graffiti Girls 4 Life'' (2008) * ''Parallel Dance Ensemble'' (2009) * ''Run'' (2010) * ''Possessions & Obsessions'' (2011) * ''Possessions & Obsessions Remixed'' (2012) * ''Underwater Pyramids'' by Badd Energy (2013)

Awards

2019 New Zealand Arts Foundation Laureate 2018 Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer's Residency 2009 APRA Professional Development Awards

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Solid, Coco 1979 births Living people New Zealand hip-hop musicians Hip-hop singers New Zealand women rappers Musicians from Auckland Victoria University of Wellington alumni