Tame Wairere Iti (born c. 1952) is a Tūhoe Māori activist in New Zealand. He grew up in the Urewera area, and in the late 1960s and 1970s he was involved in protests against the Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa, and in many Māori protest actions. His ability to court controversy and his full facial moko make him well-recognised.
With three others he was tried on charges of "illegal possession of firearms and participation in an organised criminal group" in 2012. The jury could not reach a verdict on the charge of belonging to a criminal group, but found all four guilty of firearms charges – and in May 2012, Iti was sentenced to jail for two-and-a-half years for these. He was granted parole in February 2013, and was released on 27 February 2013.
Most associated with Tūhoe, Tame Iti also has links with the Waikato tribes of Ngāti Wairere and Ngāti Hauā, and with Te Arawa. Told he was born on a train near Rotorua, Iti was raised by his great granduncle and aunt, Hukarere and Te Peku Purewa, whom Iti calls his grandparents, in the custom known as whāngai (adoption within the same family) on a farm near Ruatoki in the Urewera area. The Purewas had also raised his father. He says that at the age of 10 his school headmaster (himself a Māori) forbade pupils to speak Māori at school. On leaving school, he took up an apprenticeship in painting and decorating after completing a year-long Maori Training Scheme at Christchurch Technical Institute in Christchurch.
[A.G.]
Yeah, yeah (you Must be Strong), gotta be strong nigga,
only the strong will survive,
I got fourteen in, niggas think i'm playing, yo Tommy Tee what's popping,
Yo mommy, yo Dave, paris in the house, D.I.T. signal.
You know what i mean, yeah yo AD where you at (RI)
Will will the ave low row nine fifty (Yes in Norway)
[Verse 1: A.G.]
The first six months of my life i was hooked to a respirator,
Probably gods way of giving me extra flavor,
2 years later I'm blowing out K, and they said it wouldn't happen
so we got it on tape,
That night cousin came throught the fire escape,
stole some money even ate the swan on the plate,
He was stressin, i seen the lines in his face,
Next time i seen him was online at his weight.
At six the youngest nigga trying to get laid,
Sixteen the youngest nigga trying to get paid,
At ten years old is when i first got played,
Little cutie from the project she even wore fade,
At fourteen I had pussy on my mind,
Couldn't concentrate dick hard all the time,
At seventeen that's when the shit got real,
I got a taste of jail and the tast is stale i'm thinking.
[Chorus: The Loudmouf Choir & A.G.]
You Must Be Strong, (No doubt niggas)
You Must Be Strong, (I came a long motherfucking way dawg)
You Must Be Strong, (And i got a long motherfucking way to go)
You Must Be Strong, (You feeling me)
[Verse 2: A.G.]
At nineteen back to jail grant death order,
Bullshit charge but i ain't coming to court though,
And as faith would have it hooked up with Lord Finesse the same year and
recorded a classic (A ghetto bastard)
My pops was never there so they laughed at my gear, And this was every
year.
New clothes was old clothes shit was golly,
Shoot souls, had hoes, socks was bloody,
And the bitches that i liked, they didn't like me,
And now it can't be the shoes then again it might be,
What they didn't now, there's not another like me,
But all had changed once I sold a diamond,
They killed L, they killed O, they killed Hans,
They killed Shaka, they killed Pop, they killed Papa,
Shook ones, look son they took pun,
I won't stop you understand when a hook come.
[Chorus/Outro: The Loudmouf Choir & A.G.]
You Must Be Strong, (This is that shit here, this is that pain)
You Must Be Strong, (Pain mage great music they told me)
You Must Be Strong, (R.I.P to all my niggas)
You (Jam Master Jay) Must Be Strong, (All my niggas alive dawg i feel ya)
You (trigga tone) Must Be Strong (For real nigga my man A rivera)
You Must Be Strong (Yo L if it wasn't for you i probably would've stopped
already dawg)
(Andre The Giant) You Must Be Strong (I forgot about him huh)
(Alright) You Must Be Strong, (It's time to wake your fucking ass up dawg,