Sisters Underground was a

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 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- ...

and R&B duo best known for their 1994 single " In the Neighbourhood".

Background

Group members Brenda Makamoeafi and Hassanah Iroegbu originally met aged 13, at Hillary College in

Ōtara Ōtara is a suburb of South Auckland, New Zealand (formerly Manukau City), situated 18 kilometres to the southeast of the Auckland CBD, Auckland City Centre. Ōtara lies near the head of the Tāmaki River. The area is traditionally part of t ...

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� ...

. Iroegbu was an immigrant from the US, of Nigerian, Arab and German heritage. By 1990 the pair were performing around

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 ...

as Sisters Underground. They were put in touch with music producer Alan Jansson, who recorded two tracks ("In The Neighbourhood" and "Ain't It True" with them for the upcoming compilation album ''Proud''. " In The Neighbourhood" was released as a single, along with a music video by Greg Semu. The song peaked at number 6 in the New Zealand singles chart, and charted for 12 weeks. In Australia, "In the Neighbourhood" peaked at number 62 on the

ARIA In music, an aria (, ; : , ; ''arias'' in common usage; diminutive form: arietta, ; : ariette; in English simply air (music), air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrument (music), instrumental or orchestral accompan ...

singles chart, and spent 10 weeks in the top 100. In 1995 the duo performed in all six locations in Australia and New Zealand for the

Big Day Out The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typi ...

music festival, with "In The Neighbourhood" reaching #2 on Australian radio station Triple J's charts. They won Most Promising Group at the 1995 New Zealand Music Awards., Unbeknownst to the pair, they were offered an album deal with Sony Music Australia through their producer Alan Janson. In the meantime the duo migrated to America and the album was never recorded. In 2001 the song was voted #58 in the

APRA Top 100 New Zealand Songs of All Time The APRA Top 100 New Zealand Songs of All Time is a selection of New Zealand songs as voted in 2001 by members of the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). The top 30 of this selection was used to create the '' Nature's Best'' CD an ...

list. The song was included on the ''

Nature's Best 2 ''Nature's Best 2'' is a two-disc compilation album of 35 New Zealand popular music songs, numbers 31-65 on the APRA 75th Anniversary Top 100 New Zealand Songs of All Time. See ''Nature's Best'' for more information on the selection process of t ...

'' compilation CD released in 2002, and the music video was included on the ''

Nature's Best DVD The Nature's Best DVD is a DVD release of 60 music videos to songs from the three ''Nature's Best'' compilation albums. Track listing #Dave Dobbyn - " Loyal" (Dave Dobbyn, 1988) # The Swingers - " Counting the Beat" (Phil Judd/ Mark Hough/ Wayn ...

'' released in 2004. In 2002 TV2 used "In The Neighbourhood" for its station promotions. Alan Jansson remixed the song, with Makamoeafi and Iroegbu reuniting to rerecord the vocals. This sparked a renewed interest in the song causing it to be playlisted on radio. At the 2013 Silver Scroll Awards, the duo reunited to perform "In The Neighbourhood" as the closing number of the night. Brenda Makamoeafi (now Brenda Pua) lives in Australia, and Hassanah Iroegbu lives in Florida.

Discography

Singles

Featured appearances

The group have appeared on many compilations over the years in

. The following is a list of these albums that have featured tracks by Sisters Underground. * ''

Proud Proud may refer to: Music * ''Proud'' (Heather Small album), the debut album by Heather Small ** "Proud" (Heather Small song), a song by Heather Small that was the official song for the London 2012 Olympic bid * '' Proud: An Urban-Pacific Stree ...

'' (1994) Second Nature Records – ''In The Neighbourhood'' and ''It Ain't True'' * ''In the Neighbourhood'' (1996)

Warner Music Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and the third-largest in the gl ...

– ''In The Neighbourhood'' * ''

'' (2002)

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

– ''In The Neighbourhood'' * ''Give It A Whirl: The Soundtrack from the Major Television Series'' (2003)

Propeller Records Propeller Records was an independent record label formed in Auckland, New Zealand, by Simon Grigg in 1980. 1980-81 In the years prior to 1980 the New Zealand contemporary Sound recording and reproduction, recording industry was largely moribund. ...

– ''In The Neighbourhood''

References

External links

Sisters Underground profile at Audio Culture
{{Authority control APRA Award winners New Zealand contemporary R&B musical groups New Zealand hip-hop groups New Zealand musical duos Hip-hop duos Contemporary R&B duos Female musical duos