Get to know Sauce40, the face of the new generation of artists from New Zealand

We sat down to talk to Sauce40, an up-and-coming artist hailing from a small town in New Zealand called Huntly, who has recently signed to None Entertainment and moved to Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, to pursue his music career.

Having just dropped his debut single “Eight”, which was featured on 42Dugg’s official DJ, FlexxLive’s mixtape, “Who is the livest?” and mixed and mastered by multi-grammy award-winning engineer David ‘Yungin’ Kim, Sauce40 looks poised to be the breakthrough artist from New Zealand into the mainstream rap audience.

This Is 50: Tell us a little about yourself, where you are from, and perhaps some of your early musical influences?

Sauce40: I’m from Huntly, a small town in the Waikato region of New Zealand. My town has about 8000 people living there, everyone knows each other there. My family routes stem from the Ngāti Korokī Kahukura Iwi, and I’m proud of where I come from. Being a kid in such a small town helped me to be raised with strong morals from my parents, but it definitely shaped me to be motivated in my youth to get out of there to a bigger city.

I’ve been listening to music for as long as I can remember. I like to think I have a good ear that helps me get inspired by all types of music, but rap and good lyrics for sure attracted me when I was in my teenage years. I really enjoy listening to lyrics that are motivational and inspire me to create new opportunities for myself and my family. Dr Dre, Nas, Drake, and Kendrick were early staples in my iPod back in the day, and these days I have Lil Baby, Young Thug, Gunna, 42Dugg, all of those guys in my playlists.

This is 50: Eight is a hard-hitting song, the production is really clean and your vocal delivery is crisp. I know you managed to get onto FlexxLive’s mixtape, as well as having a Grammy Award Winning engineer mix and master the track. How did this all come about, and how does someone from such a remote town in New Zealand get these connections?

Sauce40: I have to shoutout the team at my label, None Entertainment for that. Those guys behind the scenes are magicians; I never expected to have a placement with FlexxLive or for the engineer in charge of my project to be the same guy used by my inspirations like Nas and Kendrick, I really feel blessed to be surrounded by a team that loves me and puts their all behind me.

This is 50: It seems as though None Entertainment and the team you’ve got are the keys to other people unlocking their potential to become successful artists over in New Zealand.

Sauce40: They are. Just watch what we are about to do, we are about to change the whole game up here. Debuting my whole career with them means I get the support of the whole None Entertainment family, they have quite literally changed my life for the better.

This is 50: A lot of our readers wouldn’t be too familiar with the music scene in New Zealand. We obviously know Lorde, but we haven’t heard about too many rappers coming out of there. Can you tell us a bit more about what the rap scene is like or the music industry there in general? Are there any artists we should know about that you like?

Sauce40: I would say that the industry here is currently quiet but there is a whole lot of untapped talent that just needs to be given a chance to grow, as I have had. We’re the first team to do something like this since Dawn Raid, and I know plenty of creative collectives that have the potential to put themselves out there like us. So it’s just a matter of time for the world to hear more out of New Zealand. I would keep an eye out for the guys out of South Auckland, or artists like Lowc8 and Stonrsmurf. Those two are pretty special artists.

This is 50: What is a day in the life of Sauce40? Have things changed for you since this release?

Sauce40: Honestly, my day consists of me working out, spending time with the None Entertainment family, and constantly writing or recording to new beats. I’m focused on growing as an individual, an artist, and as a man.

This is 50: Your team showed us a few of the upcoming singles from your debut EP. Personally, I am a big fan of the song Active. I was also given a preview of the music video for it as well and it looks crazy. How excited are you about the releases and what can our readers and the rest of the world expect from you for the rest of the year?

Sauce40: I believe that what we are about to do is seriously going to open doors for other people to follow our lead. We just want to continue to inspire people in our country to push the limits of their creativity and imagination. I’m super excited to be at the forefront of making this big step, trying to do something for my people in the hip-hop scene and the music industry in general. I have to thank my whole team, especially for the way that the videos have turned out and how the tape is sounding.

Overall from our talk, we get the feeling that Sauce40’s star is just starting to rise. A humble but clearly motivated individual that seems equipped with the right surrounding team, like the rest of the world, we are eagerly waiting for his next single Active, and the rest of the EP.

Check out Sauce40’s music and follow his journey at the links below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GkLo4eNfxg
https://open.spotify.com/track/0j2epTxLPAZES4EiIyoR6Z?si=31933c06b7434388
https://www.instagram.com/none_entertainment/
https://www.instagram.com/sauce40_/