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Unfiltered with Dave Letele

#49 Ladi6

09 May 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 9.271 Dave Letele

Just sat down with a New Zealand musical icon, Lady 6. She spoke about the fear of being cancelled, the fear of speaking up because of what happened to her parents.

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9.872 - 16.567 Ladi6

I saw the real impact on my parents when they did fight the man and the man won.

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16.928 - 18.09 Dave Letele

We spoke about life.

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Chapter 2: What challenges does Ladi6 face regarding cancel culture?

18.408 - 24.343 Dave Letele

her parents being youth workers, her amazing cousin Scribe, how that was when Scribe blew up.

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24.663 - 34.307 Ladi6

I got to see what it was like to be a big superstar. All the stages that I ever stepped on with Scribe has been like, I couldn't believe it. I was filled with pride for my family.

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34.287 - 43.924 Dave Letele

and she spoke about the successes she's had and some of the heights that she's had in her career and some of the lows and how she's managed to get through that to really be a voice.

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44.405 - 54.102 Ladi6

I was going on tours as a young 20-something-year-old with a baby and I was being chucked into these environments that probably I just wasn't ready for emotionally.

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54.082 - 77.034 Dave Letele

dealing with mental health, dealing with trauma, how she got through that. This is an amazing conversation that must be heard far and wide. Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe. Lady Six, enjoy. Unfiltered is produced by the team at Fanaticals and we are part of the ACAST network. Before we get started I just want to say a massive thank you to all the team at Pacific Business Trust.

77.495 - 94.561 Dave Letele

They're supporting over two and a half thousand Pacific businesses entrepreneurs and leaders just like me. So they have all the support that you need there so for us it was marketing, setting up a website, emails, all these different things that you don't know until you need to know and they can be really challenging times.

Chapter 3: How did Ladi6's family background influence her career?

94.641 - 113.732 Dave Letele

It can seem like it's a you're at the bottom of this mountain and you just don't know where to start. And what they can do is help you to get started and they'll walk alongside you the whole way up. So if you're a budding entrepreneur or you want to start a business or you might already have a business and just need some help, go over, check them out, look up Pacific Business Trust and register.

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113.793 - 135.526 Dave Letele

Sign up for help. Never be embarrassed to ask for help. You will not regret it. Trust me, I don't. But for now, enjoy the episode. Lady Six, thank you so much for joining me. Yeah, it's an honour. It was funny because we were just talking off thing and you were going, who's this Butterbean guy? Is that like some rap name?

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137.068 - 151.881 Ladi6

Yeah, yeah, yeah. A friend of mine actually goes to one of your gyms and she was the one that told me about, she basically was just, we were just having a catch up and she was telling me about what she's up to and that she joined this Butterbean thing. And I was like, Butterbean?

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153.408 - 155.053 Ladi6

Who is that? I only know Mellow Downs.

156.577 - 159.044 Dave Letele

Shout out Mellow Downs.

159.064 - 171.687 Ladi6

Yeah, so yeah, it's really nice to meet you. And then I got to have a look at all your content and stuff and just saw the amazing conversations you're having and the impact you're having on the community. So, yeah, I just was so honoured to have been asked to be here.

172.027 - 173.169 Dave Letele

That's cool, yeah.

173.189 - 173.369 Ladi6

Yeah.

Chapter 4: What experiences shaped Ladi6's understanding of mental health?

207.322 - 219.519 Ladi6

And really that's it. It's just music is my everyday, you know, like the music business and navigating how I'm doing what. That's pretty much my 24-7 has been for the last 20 years. Yeah.

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220.56 - 224.826 Dave Letele

How is the music business? How is it to be a musician these days?

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225.616 - 249.311 Ladi6

I mean, for me, it's a little bit different because I have this awesome platform that I've built over the years. And I think that there's a real trust from my audience in what it is, that it's authentic and that what they're getting is actually truly me, music-wise and just anything else that I might put out there. But I feel for whoever might be coming up behind me in emerging artists.

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249.331 - 267.634 Ladi6

I don't know in this – um, in this day and age with all the different ways that you have to kind of like spread yourself across to be, to make some sort of impact and get people aware of you. I don't know. I don't know. I just, I feel sorry for the amount of work you have to do as emerging artists these days.

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268.154 - 268.455 Unknown

Yeah.

268.715 - 288.106 Ladi6

I mean, I remember I got a slot at four o'clock on like some some music channel and it just played every day at four o'clock. And like instantaneously I became like well-known just off that one live performance that played every day at four o'clock. You know, I mean, we don't, who's even watching TV these days? Do you know what I mean? Yeah.

288.327 - 290.47 Dave Letele

It's crazy how much the landscape's changed, eh?

290.45 - 305.575 Ladi6

Every time I put out a record, so I have these six-year gaps in between each of my records, it's completely changed. Completely. I need like an almost like have to take two weeks off just to study what the game is again to play because it's completely changed.

306.176 - 311.164 Dave Letele

How have you found the impact of social media now?

Chapter 5: How does Ladi6 perceive the current music industry landscape?

819.952 - 827.808 Dave Letele

We're a large organisation in terms of the work we do, health, food bank, all these things, just service.

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827.828 - 828.549 Ladi6

Yeah, good one.

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829.431 - 844.916 Dave Letele

That must help. It helps the soul. People say, why do you do this? And you say, so when you look at someone, and their lives are better just because you guys, we exist, their lives are better. That's the, you can't beat that feeling.

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845.216 - 845.837 Unknown

Totally.

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845.857 - 869.624 Dave Letele

But because I am so outspoken, we don't, it's mainstream support. We get little bits of, I put there, great Pasifika people in the system, great Māori people in the system, great people in the system fighting for community groups like us, but mainstream don't want to come near me anymore. But probably like your parents, I don't think, well, I've got this platform.

869.924 - 870.205 Unknown

Yeah.

870.225 - 880.487 Dave Letele

I have to speak up. Yeah. And if it means that we don't get the level of support we should, then so be it. Where I'm being a bit different is if I've started up other businesses.

880.467 - 901.093 Ladi6

Yeah, but that's what I mean about it. That must be so good to have, like, such a big team and sort of be spread in different pockets of things. My parents were just individuals. And so that wasn't – yeah, at the end of the day, people could just scatter. Like, you know, they kind of weren't – yeah, they hadn't sort of – they thought they had cultivated these roots, eh?

903.236 - 907.962 Ladi6

But when push came to shove, actually, yeah, it wasn't that way, unfortunately.

Chapter 6: What impact has social media had on Ladi6's career?

1090.561 - 1095.43 Ladi6

Harassing everybody. And then at one point they just got out and chased us. Yeah.

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1095.971 - 1101.661 Dave Letele

It was quite scary. Probably good you don't mention the car. Might offend car people. It was like a fucking Cortina or something.

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1101.921 - 1102.843 Dave Letele

A Ford Cortina.

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Chapter 7: What led to Ladi6's experience with attempted cancellation?

1103.704 - 1106.549 Ladi6

Yes. That sounds familiar. Something like that. Yeah, yeah.

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1106.569 - 1107.09 Dave Letele

It was crazy.

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1107.23 - 1111.538 Ladi6

Yeah, yeah. And it was just like a fun night on town for them, you know.

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1111.558 - 1112.62 Dave Letele

And when was this?

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1113.342 - 1137.51 Ladi6

Would have been like 95, 94 when I was about, yeah, 14, 15. Just hanging with your friends, you know, classic 90s. We're wearing sort of like these kind of tops, but like down to here with baggy pants and, you know, that whole look, smoking cigarettes. Yeah. And they just at one point, you know, we'll watch them and they'll be like, you know, saying all their things out the window.

1137.49 - 1148.644 Ladi6

And, you know, you kind of think it's a bit of a laugh. And then they stopped, and then they jumped out, and then they chased us. Yeah, and they dragged my friend and ripped up her jeans. It was kind of scary.

1148.784 - 1150.046 Unknown

That's crazy, man.

1150.066 - 1166.423 Ladi6

Yeah, we had these iconic kind of – my dad was one of them. And then there were, like, other brothers that were kind of more, like, just above our generation that were, like, these iconic sort of – islanders in our community that we would run to.

1166.463 - 1190.054 Ladi6

So we ended up at his house basically just like telling on them and telling him what happened to us, you know, just to feel safe, just to feel secure. And yeah, I really, you know, my cousins were some of them as well. these people in the community that you could feel like you could go to when stuff like that happens and that you felt like they had your back.

Chapter 8: What is Ladi6's vision for her future and community impact?

1313.51 - 1335.901 Ladi6

It was like the best possible – and when I was younger – and hip-hop wasn't around, my mum was doing plays. So the first actors who ended up becoming Pacific Underground, they were young people, you know, going to broadcasting school or whatever, and they ended up being our tutors to, like, do plays that were about our – Arangia Mau was one.

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1335.941 - 1347.216 Ladi6

Scribe helped write it with Oscar Kightley, helped write the script. And it ended up being like this, like, what was that TV show, Bill and Ted's –

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1347.533 - 1350.6 Dave Letele

Fabulous event. And they go back in time. Yes.

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1350.88 - 1368.031 Ladi6

So they did this, but they did it for like Islanders. And so they go back in time and meet Hone Heke. Wow. And they go back in time and meet Nelson Mandela. That ought to be cool, man. And so we get like these stories about like, you know, these great – Leaders in our indigenous world and then also in our world.

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1368.652 - 1391.833 Ladi6

And we meet Tupua Tamasesi from the Maori movement, you know, and we write songs about this. And we do dances to it all within this one play. So my mum ends up running these holiday programs where basically we're rehearsing this play that Marlo and Oscar have written. And then at the very end, we perform it, you know. That's cool, man. Yeah. So that was kind of.

1391.813 - 1394.657 Ladi6

Yeah, that was how awesome the youth centre was, you know.

1394.938 - 1400.025 Dave Letele

And it's so powerful because it's like, it's that connection and belonging to something.

1400.186 - 1400.746 Ladi6

Yeah.

1400.947 - 1405.414 Dave Letele

You know, I think when we, you know, that's why we started BBM. I just wanted people to belong somewhere.

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