The 50th annual Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards are just around the corner, taking place at the Vector Arena in Auckland onThursday November 19th.

We had the chance to fire some questions through to Diaz Grimm who is up for Best Urban/Hip Hop Album with his album ‘Osiris'. 

How does it feel to be nominated for the Best Urban / Hip Hop Album?

It's always a great feeling when your hard work and struggle is matched with recognition from outside of your own circle. To know that the team I have surrounded myself with and I have managed to get a nomination with no label, no management and no publishing deal is great inspiration for where we can really take this career choice to. Two years ago a goal was set of being nominated for a Tui award so it's exciting too.

You're up against some strong competition. How do you feel the Urban / Hip Hop scene is currently going in New Zealand?

Yeah, really happy to be up against artists that I'm a genuine fan of. Also the fact that all three nominees are new names is a statement in itself about how youthful yet talented the hip-hop scene in NZ is right now. I truly believe that if labels, management etc etc didn't exist in NZ and there were only artists, hip-hop might just be the strongest scene we have right now. Put down to the fact that the urban/hip-hop community are so close to each other right now and everyone is either friends or friends of friends. I think it's just going to take that one artist to really blow overseas from the NZ hiphop scene and the rest will follow. 

When and how long did it take you to record the album?

I wrote the album over nine months last year and spent 10 full days recording, mixing and mastering the project. But if you were to include all of the years of growing as a person and artist that it took to be ready to start my first album, it's been a very very long process that I'm glad to have finally finished my debut album.

Where did you record it and what was the most challenging aspect?

I recorded the album in the Redbull Studios, Auckland. A lot of my peers had been in there for their projects and I had been in a couple of times featuring on other peoples projects so I knew it was a good environment for what I wanted to create. Ben Lawson the sound engineer in there was a huge part of what the project became to be. The biggest challenge was time. Just as it is with most things in life I found I never quite had as much time as I would have liked but it all came together in the end. 

What are your plans following the Music Awards, heading into summer and 2016?

Over summer I'm heading out on tour around NZ with Six60 and stopping in at Rhythm and Vines and Northern Bass along the way for performances. I'm currently writing my next album and will be trying to get as much written and worked on over the tour ready to head to SXSW in Austin, Texas next year. Safe to say I'm really looking forward to the 2015/2016 summer and what lies beyond.

Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards

Thursday November 19th: Vector Arena, Auckland