The hip hop duo tell FIRST about the first thing they got in trouble for, the reason behind their fake screen name and the wildest fan reaction they’ve ever had.

First memory

AP (Albert Purcell): “I was watching the ‘Yeah!’ video for Usher, and I tripped over while dancing. I like, ripped a bit of my tongue off. It was real crazy.”

First thing you got in trouble for

Church (Elijah Manu): “Stealing from a dairy. It’s really unfair. I was like a year two, and [this year six] convinced me that I should steal – it wasn’t even a nice chocolate bar, it was like a Time Out. And he just went and told the whole school and they all joked about it. Then my mum and dad found out and I got in trouble. I didn’t even eat the chocolate, I gave it to this kid to try and impress him. He got a laugh and a free chocolate.”

First weird fan interaction

AP: “These guys that we met on tour, they showed us a video of them crashing their car to ‘Ready or Not’ and it was the funniest thing ever. They were like, ‘Bro, wanna see us crash? We crashed our car listening to your song.’ And they were chanting it as they went – ‘We stay ready, we stay ready’ – as they’re like crashing their car. We’re like, ‘That’s crazy. What the hell.’”

First live performance

Church: “If we’re talking about talent quest debuts, I had one in year three. Get this, I came third, right? But it was for my year groups, like year three and four. I came third. The person who came second in the singing category, she was a year six … the person who came first didn’t even go to our school.”

First bad haircut

AP: “So like, when I was born, I had long straight hair and my mum loved it. My grandpa, he saw it as like, in the Tongan way, you know, he didn’t like it. So he took me to the Indian barber across the road from where we were staying and he just gave me a straight buzz cut. My mum came home from work that day, she walked in and she saw me with a baldy and she screamed. She actually screamed. ‘Oh my god, my son’s hair!’”

First screen name

Church: “Bob Nigel Freeman. That was my name on Facebook, because I really wanted a Facebook page, but my mum wouldn’t let me because I was nine or something, and you know, internet predators and things like that. But I really wanted to play Ninja Warz, so I made a Facebook account with a fake name and it was Bob Nigel Freeman.”

Interview edited for length and clarity.

This episode of FIRST was made with support from NZ On Air.