Big Dave on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

Underground Aussie rapper Big Dave is something different in today’s hip hop world.

Instead of pandering to the mainstream Dave speaks his mind and moves in his own direction staying true to himself and those that support him.

Dave is an artist that never compromises his values.

“This Guys Official” - New Zealand’s DJ Sir-Vere discussing Big Dave in the DJ Sir-Vere blog October 2008.

Big Dave’s music is best described as raw and hardcore, no holds barred street level Aussie rap.
Dave’s a storytelling MC that draws from his life, his political views and the world around him for inspiration and lyrical content.

“I think he's brilliant. A classic story-teller. It's nice to hear someone in hip-hop talk about "raw subject matter" (pun intended) without big-noting themselves. Also, he scares me!!” - Triple J’s Scott “Dools” Dooley

It’s no surprise that Big Dave’s music is steeped in street tales and strong political views either.

Dave grew up listening to rap back in the early to mid nineties when storytelling and expressing your views was what hip hop was all about.
It’s safe to say he was influenced by the “keep it real” era of rap and Dave has a vault of life tales of his own to draw on from his interesting and colorful history.

Back2Basics magazine’s Dayne Smith described the situation in a Feb 2008 article - “Canberra MC Dave Parsons Aka Big Dave has a compelling story to tell. Having been through some extraordinarily tough times in his life, the former convict has taken on a more legitimate career path – sharing his experiences and speaking on social issues through hip hop”

Dave’s history has been a rich tapestry of crazy and sometimes controversial experiences that could all most be the script of a low budget Aussie drama.

Dave was abducted by his violent alcoholic father at age 9 and dragged around the far reaches of Australia for three years evading capture until being rescued and then re united with his family.
The family life lasted several years until in his early teens Dave found himself on his own learning the harsh realities of life running wild on the streets.
Of course crime, court appearances and drugs came along with the lifestyle he led.

By his late teens and early twenties Dave had refashioned himself in to a mid level drug dealer and from 1998 until 2002 he built and ran a successful wholesale cannabis operation while continually battling the Justice System and Australian Federal Police.

By the end of 2002 Dave found himself in prison after received a five year jail term, charged with armed robbery and assault on a rival crew of dealers from his area.

The Canberra Times headline called the robbery a “Hollywood Style Home Invasion”

Dave was convicted of the crime with three other mates and all were locked up except for one member of the crew, a close friend of Dave’s who tragically passed away before the trial was complete.

Dave spent 2 and a half years of his sentence in the prisons of NSW before eventually receiving parole.

In mid 2005 Dave was released from prison only to feel the effects of another harsh set of life circumstances.

Upon release he was banned from his home state for a further 2 and a half years and discovered his ex girlfriend had sold his cars, spent his money and dispensed of his personal belongings.

To top off the losses Dave’s so called best mate who had been gifted the opportunity to run his cannabis operation while Dave served time took the chance to stab him in the back and then go in to hiding effectively stealing the business.

Dave was left with little more then the shirt on his back.

After years involved with prison, drugs and the criminal lifestyle Dave totally switched focus in 2006 by starting a new life and leaving his past behind him.

After being caught at a drug raid in Canberra and finding himself close to being returned to prison Dave made a drastic life change.

With a new girlfriend by his side and a re kindled set of family relationships Dave settled down, started a family and began looking to his passion for music in a hope that it could take him in a new more positive direction.

Having spent plenty of time working on his music while locked in prison Dave began tapping in to his checkered past for lyrical content and as you have just read there were a million stories ready to be put to music.

Starting off at open mic nights and battles Dave spent 2006 working on getting his name out in to the hip hop community and by April of that year he had picked up a final 16 placing at the Scribblejam NSW heats.

By late 06 he was hustling his own mixtape (Fly Ya Flag) online, in a handful of Aussie stores and out the window of his Ford Falcon.

In between chasing his dreams of music success Dave took advantage of the new craze of online “Blogging” and began sharing his experiences with thousands of people through a blog about his life and times.

His name grew quickly and a quote from a 3D World magazine interview in September of 2006 describes the situation well- 
“You’ve gotta hand it to Big Dave, from the gaol yard to the battle circuit, he’s fiercly independent – distributing a mixtape via myspace, handling his own press and working overtime to be heard. What better person then to be providing 3D with five steps to building a rep in the rap game.”

After building a name as an MC and moving mixtapes Dave was on the look out for a record deal like so many thousands of other MC’s but by late 06 a deal hadn’t come.

As he all ways does Dave took matters in to his own hands and decided to build a label of his own, an Aussie hip hop label dedicated to hardcore hip hop and street culture.

With the help of mates and family the realest label in Aussie hip hop was born.

Dave named the new label Koky Prik Rekordz but would later be forced to abbreviate the name to KP Rekordz after several Australian business were scared of being associated with a company bearing that name.

Officially KP Rekordz launched on Jan 6th 2007 in Wollongong NSW with performances by Big Dave and a few of Aussie hip hop’s top acts.
To celebrate KP also put on a battle with the final being fought out by Aussie battle champs The Tongue and Anecdote.

Also in early 2007 Dave captured some attention with his controversial politically charged song and low budget music video “Street Politiks”.
A classic quote from the tune was -
“Apparently were all mugs, all on drugs, 
society calls us criminals and thugs, 
but we wont be swept up under the rug, 
take another sip from your public service mug”

By March 2007 those that followed home grown hip hop knew the name Big Dave and Dave wasn’t going to let this chance to be heard slip past him, he immediately formed the first of his community based projects called “Behind The Walls”

Not forgetting his roots Dave had decided to share his new found voice with the inmates of Aussie prisons and set up the “Behind The Walls” project as part of his labels website www.kokyprik.com .
The project was designed to curb the rampant poor treatment of Aussie inmates at the hands of corrective services by allowing the community to hear first hand what was going on inside Australian jails.

By April 2007 the mainstream media was looking to Dave’s project and helping spread the word nationwide, The Sunday Telegraph was calling Dave “The Internet Voice For Inmates”  
Here is an excerpt from a Big Dave article they ran in April 2007 -  
“A convicted armed robber turned rap singer has published the first of a series of internet blogs by prisoners currently serving time in NSW jails”
“David Parsons known in the hip hop scene as Big Dave is running the blogs to give inmates a voice outside the prison walls”.

Between working on KP Rekordz and the Behind The Walls project Dave continued to write and record his own music.
With a home studio built in the spare room of his house Dave put out regular free online downloads and the occasional low budget music video.

It was during this time in 2007 that Dave met the legendary EDI Mean from 2Pac’s original Outlawz crew at a show in Sydney, the two would later record a song together for Dave’s first commercially released Ep.

Never sleeping Big Dave became a machine, a man on a mission and incorporated a business course in to his list of activities, in his shrinking spare time he also learnt about the music industry and followed the trends as it moved more and more toward a digital future.

By mid 2007 Dave had received a 12 month grant to run his label and the media coverage had continued with newspaper and radio appearances.

The Illawarra Mercury ran a feature in June 2007 called “Beating The Rap” which summed up Dave’s new ambition and direction in life – 
“Spending time in jail followed by a forced exile in Berkeley is a great resume for a former dope dealer with ambitions to become the next big rapper. William Verity meets a man on a mission”

As August 2007 rolled around Dave signed his first artist to KP, a young Canberra MC named Shorty who also happened to be a former ganja client.
Along with Shorty and several other talented Aussie artists Dave dropped a free mixtape that August (The 30 minute mixer) which received a fair amount of underground love.

Shortly after the release of “The 30 Minute Mixer” Dave met Mr John Payne co founder of the iconic record label Death Row Records, the biggest label in hip hop music during the nineties.
JP and Dave became friends and JP became some what of a mentor to KP Rekordz..

In September 2007 Dave and his girl Stacey welcomed the birth of there first child and the man on the mission had even more of a reason to be the hardest working cat in Aussie hip hop.

October 2007 saw Dave’s music career gaining even more momentum but it was vastly overshadowed by his community work that month with a storm of controversy popping up.

As part of his Behind The Walls project Dave was involved in a set of complaint letters being smuggled out of “Supermax” prison and published nationally.

The dirty laundry of Corrective Services was aired and Dave’s name was all over the Australian news from mainstream tv stations and radio to newspapers and blogs, the letters were a big national story, even the government got involved discussing the breach of supermax’s security on tv’s question time.

Here is an excerpt from The Sunday Telegraph regarding the letters – 
“The letters smuggled out to avoid being vetted by gaol censors, give a rare glimpse of life inside the states toughest prison, which is home to the so called ‘worst of the worst’.

“The letters were given to The Telegraph by Rapper, community advocate and one time prisoner Dave Parsons from Wollongong.”
“Big Dave as he is better known runs the website www.kokyprik.com  and the “behind the walls project”.

Eventually the Supermax letters found there way to the U.N.

At this point in Daves life his parole and ban from his home state of the A.C.T were all most over and for the first time Corrective Services granted him the opportunity to return home for one night to perform as a special guest during a triple J sponsored event.

The Canberra Times ran an interview with Dave while he made the fly by trip which was titled “Big Dave back home despite parole ban”, here are some excerpts from the story – 
“Big Dave doesn’t visit his home town of Canberra as much as he would like to, he’d be arrested if he tried. 
After serving 3 years of a 5 year prison sentence for armed robbery and assault, the reformed crim, rapper and prisoners rights activist is banned, by the terms of his parole from setting foot in the ACT”
“He has finally managed to persuade the NSW parole service to let him cross the border, for two days only, to fill a support slot in a hip hop show at Erindale’s the Venue tonight”

After his controversial first home performance where He dissed the Australian Federal Police and Corrective Services for his ban and treatment Dave then finished off 2007 with live performances in Sydney and Wollongong, an iTunes Ep with former KP MC Shorty which included another home recorded music video and an interview on Hip Hop TV.

As 2007 became 2008 Dave opened up for hip hop greats De La Soul at a New Years Eve show and after his set sparked a fat joint of Canberra skunk for DJ Maseo live on stage as they bumped Notorious Big and the count down wound down ..2008 started off with a bang, 3D World magazine named Big Dave there “Aussie Battler Of The Year” as part of there 2007 Urban Awards and he was featured in his first overseas magazine article with a full page feature in New Zealand’s Back2Basics magazine.

Dave and KP Rekordz hit 2008 hard during the first few months of the year dropping regular free downloads online at www.kokyprik.com as the site reached an average of 3,000 weekly visitors.

Behind the scenes Dave continued to work on his first commercial release “Raw Stories” and got together with EDI of the Outlawz to record the track “Talk Is Cheap” for the album.

In April 2008 Dave signed Canberra rapper “Doug” to KP Rekordz, the two had served time together at Goulburn and Long Bay jails and had discussed careers in music while inside.
This signing was another example of Dave staying true to his mates and true to his word.

Doug, another somewhat controversial MC had survived being stabbed, shot and sent to prison and was looking for a way to change his life around before it was too late.
KP Rekordz was the perfect place to do just that.

With a stable of MC’s Dave was sourcing beats from freelance producers until he finally signed Grantwho as the first producer to KP Rekordz in May 08.

Grantwho had been DJ’ing for KP at live events for months and had shown true skill as a DJ and producer along with a deep love for hip hop culture.
With Dave in need of an in house beat man that could create the sound for him and his current and future roster of artists it became official with Grantwho signing on.

As July came around the Behind The Walls project got a touch of celebrity with Dave running an exclusive video interview with the notorious crim Mark “Chopper” Read at kokyprik.com.

By the end of July Dave had announced the release date for his Raw Stories along with a twist on the album.
The twist was that the release would be dropped in six EP sized Chapters, The release date for the first Chapter was September 1st 2008 and it was accompanied by a national tour.

The release itself is a biographical account of the last decade of Big Dave’s life, the first chapter dealt with current issues in his life and is to be followed by a chronological run of how things went down in a further five chapters.

As August 08 began Dave completed the first Ep which was mastered by John Payne free of charge as a show of support for Dave and KP Rekordz.

The first single taken from Raw Stories titled “Yeah” and produced by Grantwho was dropped along with a low budget video featuring Dave, Doug, Grantwho, Shorty and some of the KP crew.

As September began the first Chapter of Dave’s “Raw Stories” hit stores and online retailers distributed by MGM and Undak9 and Big Dave’s national tour began.
(Raw Stories Chapter One can be downloaded via iTunes/Bigpond music or ordered in on cd at JB Hi Fi/Sanity/Big W)

KP in conjunction with New York’s BMC Entertainment had Dave along with DJ Grantwho touring his new Ep as part of the “Project X” tour with legends Kool Keith, Tim Dogg, Marc Live and DJ Curt with all expenses being paid by BMC.

Dave also arranged for a slew of Australia’s best MC’s to perform as part of the Project X show in every city they visited, the tour visited Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney and The Gold Coast.

Following the Project X leg of his Ep tour Dave performed at the “Earthdance” festival and opened for The Outlawz as part of there “2Pac Still Breathin” tour.

With the release of Raw Stories Chapter One Dave ran out September and October with a number of media appearances.

The Canberra Times ran an article/interview titled “Aussie Battler Lives To Tell Tales”.
BMA Magazine ran an article/interview titled “Real Subject Matter”.
3D World Magazine ran an article/interview titled “Raw Storyteller”
The Illawarra Mercury ran an article/interview titled “Take Two” (also featuring Grantwho)
The Sunday Telegraph ran an article titled “Parsons Rap Sheet”
Ozhiphop.com ran an interview and Gaolbreak radio Sydney had Dave on air for an interview about the Ep.

Dave also announced in October 2008 that he would be expanding the KP Rekordz community programs effort with the commencement of a hip hop program aimed at helping troubled youth in Canberra.
The program will be run in conjunction with the Galilee school in Canberra and will commence in Feb 2009 with all KP signed artists participating.

Those that know Big Dave personally know that he never rests and as November came around he was well in to working on his next chapter of Raw Stories and a KP Rekordz collaborative titled “Loaded Dice” (featuring Doug and Grantwho) both are due for release in 2009.

A second single from Raw Stories Chapter One was released online in October along with a low budget music video, the song titled “Local Characters” takes a look at a few characters from Dave’s local area.
A Hustler, A Cannabis dealer and a stand over man.

Dave was in the media again in November appearing on J-tv’s “The Hack” program in regards to a topic about the value and effectiveness of prison’s in Australia and also featured as part of a story in The West Australian newspaper discussing inmate health.

A November issue of The Canberra Times ran a special on rapping in Canberra and featured Big Dave, Doug and Grantwho as the front page of the Panorama lift out along with an interview with the boys.(Interviews with Kool Keith, Tim Dogg and Marc Live were also included).

The heading of the story read – “Giving A Voice At Street Level - From A Local Trio To Hip Hop Legends From The Bronx, Sarina Talip meets the not so bad boys of rap”.

In an essence that heading could describe Big Dave not just as an artist but as a man.

On the surface his past and the life he has led could lead you to believe he was some sort of hectic criminal or some rap game bad boy but as the saying goes don’t judge a book by it’s cover.

Big Dave is really just an any man, just another Aussie guy that loves rap music and hip hop culture, an MC that expresses his views and rhymes about his life and his experiences.

It just so happens he has lived through some pretty hectic experiences.

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