After leaving his mark on Tāmaki Makaurau's hip-hop scene since 2015 as one half of producer/rapper duo Eno x Dirty, Aotearoa rapper Dirty joined forces with Tāmaki Makaurau producers Dusty & Ghos in 2022, adopting a new alias on self-titled collab project as MOKOMOKAI. A year and a half on, MOKOMOKAI have returned with their eagerly-anticipated second album, WHAKAREHU. WHAKAREHU finds Dirty back in prime form with his signature suave flows, quick-witted punchlines, and sharp wordplay, woven between producers Dusty & Ghos' timeless vintage production lens, between soulful loops, intricate drum patterns, sophisticated jazz soundscapes, raw boom-bap, timeless samples, and more. WHAKAREHU's seven tracks explore themes of decolonisation, Māori mythology, sexism and misogyny, Aotearoa's mainstream music industry, and more, as well as featuring three guest appearances from Tāmaki Makaurau young gun Brandn Shiraz of Shiraz & LSJ on 'ROOFRACKS', Avondale wordsmith MELODOWNZ on 'KUPE', and shapeshifting Māori musician Troy Kingi under his alias The Hongi Slicker, who closes the album with hypnotising psych-rock track 'GET OUT'. The new album arrives alongside a music video for Brandn Shiraz collab 'ROOFRACKS', following the Shiraz & LSJ MC's debut self-titled solo EP earlier this year. Directed by Connor Pritchard, the stealthy track drives with a dark boom-bap beat and ominous siren street samples for Dirty and Shiraz' to trade cunning bars over, while the glitchy 35mm music video follows the pair and their crews performing while d-low dairy loitering in Central Auckland.