Tied Up Juse feat. Daniel Merriweather via YouTube

MTC mini movie (11m 19s) 18.7mb

Ride 'Til I Die feat. Smashproof (4m 00s) 8.7mb

Same Old Issues (3m 42s) 6.2mb

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Move The Crowd is proud to present “Global Casino” the debut album from Auckland’s best-kept secret, international producer and beatmaker on the sly – Juse.

Juse is the creative head at Woodcut Productions, the physical heart of Move The Crowd Records. Over the last 8 years his beats have provided the muscle for many of New Zealand’s top MCs and vocalists including Savage, Mareko, Shayne Carter and Feelstyle, as well as South Auckland’s newly international signed crew Smashproof. He can also be found on two of Aotearoa’s most successful and revered hip hop albums Che Fu’s ‘2B Spacific’ and King Kapisi’s ‘Savage Thoughts’ (which also included Juse's rhymes on ‘Da Ula’). His own solo joints have appeared on compilations like Round Trip Mars’s ‘Sideways’ series, Loop 003, Major Flavours 2 and ‘Styles Upon Styles’ from Sugarlicks.

But all the while, as he has been in demand by MCs wanting to lace his beats and label owners chasing licenses, he has been building a secret stash of his very finest top-shelf tracks for his solo album, which picked up the title ‘Global Casino’ several years ago. The catalyst proved to be a trip to the UK and the US in late 2004 when he took his beats to the world, making links that others can only dream of and recording tracks with top talent in hotel rooms, associates' bathrooms and kitchens… basically wherever it needed to be done! The result was a true collaboration with Juse at the centre, featuring transatlantic contributions from Jo Jo Pellegrino, Controversy, Kaeson, Plan B, Amo and Shameless. Phrase and Daniel Merriweather represented from across the Tasman passing the mic to locals Tyree, Smashproof, Feelstyle, Savage, Four Corners, Mareko and Tyna. It’s time the quiet achiever got his dues and “Global Casino” is going to see to that.

The son of Aotea Rocker Tommy Ferguson, Juse's love for music started early, the product of spending his early years growing up in the nightclub environment. At the age of 13 he bought his first turntable for $5 and set about reconstructing it with plywood. With an old tape-deck he experimented with cutting and fading – a process made much easier today with the technology available.

This led to DJ work and he became the resident at Escape, a popular early nineties Ponsonby nightclub. At 18 years old his vocation was obvious and he was also DJing for Dam Native, the legendary and celebrated hip-hop innovators. After a period as part of the Auckland collective The Token Village that included his work with Messrs Kaps and Fu he helped establish and became creative director of Woodcut Productions. They are a well-regarded outfit and thriving business responsible for a wide range of musical services including TVCs, channel idents and music for film and TV both locally and internationally, chances are you’ve heard their gear without even realizing it!

Juse has also written a critically lauded score for Black Grace Dance Company as well as working with Renee Geyer, K'Lee, Slave and Otis, Tere Moana, Four Corners, Tyna, Sola Rosa, Submariner and Manuel Bundy. His championing of the South Auckland MC Tyree and his crew Smashproof in New York to music executive Kirk Harding has resulted in a joint venture Move The Crowd Records which has already resulted in the signing of Tyree to Universal in Australia and NZ. There’s some serious business ready to drop from MTC HQ so watch this space.