Kotāhi Te Rā are about to turn a last-minute favour into a fully-fledged single release. The five-piece from Raukura, Rotorua Boys’ High School, drop their debut single and music video, “Boogie Man’s Disguise,” this Friday, 21 August, the prize earned for taking out the 2025 Smokefree Tangata Beats national final.
The group’s origin story is almost as good as the song itself. When a teacher put out a last-minute call for someone to represent the kura at the Tangata Beats regional final, the five students had just a single day to pull a set together. Needing a name on the spot, they settled on Kotāhi Te Rā — “one day” — a nod to how little time they’d had to prepare. That one day turned into a national title a few months later. The line-up: Wepiha Webster on drums, Te Ariki Rogers on bass, Te Irimana Hatu Edmonds Huriwai on guitar, Te Rauna Webster-Tarei on lead guitar, and Teuamairangi Webster-Tarei on vocals and keys.
“Boogie Man’s Disguise” channels a real, and recent, flashpoint: the backlash after a Hobson’s Pledge billboard campaign used the image of a respected kuia wearing her moko kauae without her permission. Rather than leaving the response to press statements and op-eds, Kotāhi Te Rā built a song around it, one aimed squarely at reminding rangatahi Māori that their identity isn’t up for debate. Teuamairangi, who wrote and sings the track, put it simply in the group’s own release:
“What happened inspired us to speak through music… We want this song to empower rangatahi to stand tall, embrace who they are, and never be afraid to represent their culture.”
The release carries real production weight behind it. It was recorded and mixed by Noema Te Hau III at Auckland’s Roundhead Studios, mastered by Kog, and backed by NZ On Air as part of the group’s Tangata Beats prize. The accompanying video, directed by Dave Thomson of Imaginary Friends, was shot at Te Pā Tū, built around footage of the band performing live and interwoven with each member in traditional attire, tying the song’s message directly back to whenua and identity.
It’s a striking debut single for a group that only came together because a teacher needed a last-minute stand-in, and it says plenty about Smokefree Tangata Beats as a pathway, the competition reaches over 15,000 participants and 35,000 audience members a year, that a group formed with a single day’s notice can end up making a record this considered, and this pointed, twelve months on.
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