Name; David Parsons AKA “BIG DAVE”

Occupation; Independent record label owner, Rapper, Writer.

DOB; 14th April 1979.

Label; Koky Prik Rekordz.

Hometown; Canberra,ACT.

Rap style description; Hardcore hip hopper, factual story teller, Street level working class Australian social commentary, cheeky bastard.

Biography;

Born in London’s east moving to Australia with his parents at the age of three.

Big Dave grew up with a loving Mother and violent alcoholic father in NSW along with his two sisters.
He experienced a turbulent childhood going from a violent home to being abducted by his father for over three years as they ran around much of Australia.

Returning to his mothers custody at 12 years old and living as a family in Canberra until he was 15 and circumstances changed calling for his Mother and sister to move to Wollongong.

Remaining in Canberra young Big Dave began to learn the harsh realities of life on the street getting thrown out of school and running into trouble with the law for such juvenile offences as theft, assault and brandishing knives as he tried to support himself on his own.

After a couple of years learning the drug trade and how to scam a living and pay the rent he decided to test the legitimate path trying out some menial labour jobs and apprenticeships even moving to Wollongong near his Mother and sisters to try and make it work.

After being deceived by several employers Big Dave decided to move back to Canberra where both his crew and an easy dollar lived.

For years he ran a lucrative wholesale cannabis operation and became a rather well known face in the capital to those in the know.
He and his mates managed to enjoy a good streak of free money and heavy partying that lasted for years.
For the first time in his life he was in control.CLICK HERE TO READ THE STORY OF HOW DAVE SET UP HIS CANNABIS OPERATION (includes photos)

Unfortunately the Australian federal police also came to know Big Dave after a number of arrests, court appearances and his head popping up on local news and in the papers.

For many years the AFP tried and failed to catch Dave in the act, with raids and surveillance they blundered after him clumsily bringing minor supply charges and the like against him but nothing major.

Along the way Big Dave and his crew did however end up making a mistake that would later change all there lives forever.

In 1999 Big Dave and some members of his crew were surrounded by Australian Federal Police leaving the scene of the home invasion of an upcoming group of drug dealers.

As they left Big Dave and co were arrested and charged with armed robbery and two assaults having been caught with weapons, drugs and items from the dealers house.CLICK HERE TO READ THE STORY OF THE CASE AND CONVICTION THAT GOT DAVE A 5 YEAR GAOL SENTENCE (includes court documents)

Using Barristers, solicitors and a heap of cash Big Dave fought the charges until he received a five year prison sentence handed out by Justice Gray at the Supreme Court ACT November 24th 2002.TO VIEW PHOTOS FROM BIG DAVES PRISON TIME CLICK HERE

He left his weed business with a close mate and his money/ belongings with his girlfriend of two years.
Both would take advantage of the situation to eventually leave him with nothing.CLICK HERE TO READ THE STORY OF HOW DAVES SO CALLED BEST MATE RIPPED HIM OFF

Once locked away Big Dave returned to his passion of writing rap lyrics, he had been rapping for years but never took it seriously because Aussie’s just didn’t rap for real back then, at least not any Dave had heard of.

Drawing from the influences of his favourite American rappers like Tupac Shakur, Ice Cube, Scarface, Dre Dre, Eazy E and many others he began to try and write lyrics that would tell his story as the great emcee’s I just mentioned had done when Dave first got into rap in the early nineties.

With a colorful past, many life stories to tell and long hours at night in his cell to write them down this lyric writing turned out to be the easiest part of his journey.
The hard part seemed to be perfecting a unique style, and getting the freestyle raps on point.

During his sentence he discovered his girlfriend had sold his cars, the car he bought her, sold his furniture and belongings and spent his cash finally leaving what she couldn’t sell in his apartment where she had let the bills stack.
He was released to almost nothing.CLICK HERE TO READ HOW BIG DAVE'S EX FLEECED HIM DURING HIS STAY IN PRISON

While getting his music together in the nick he would spend hours walking the gaol yards of Goulburn and Long Bay freestyling with some fellow emcee’s he met inside “Dug” and Bruce Tilley.
After many ciphers and freestyles in the Long Bay kitchen his style began to form and just months later he received parole.CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT THE INFLUENCE OF DUG AND PRISON ON BIG DAVES MUSIC (includes photo's)

Big Dave was released on May the 24th 2005 but was banned from his hometown of Canberra until November 24th 2007.

Once released Big Dave lasted about ten seconds as a rapper and then contacted the close mate/runner he had left in charge of his business to organize getting his cash return and moving into a hands on role again.

His close mate/runner had run the business Dave had spent years building into a shadow of it’s former greatness telling Dave he had been robbed and couldn’t get back on his feet.
He also said all the savings he had for Dave had been stolen by a guy named Matt.

He was suspicious of these claims especially when he spotted Matt who was suppose to be involved in the robbery and wanted to smash him but was held of by his close mate/runner, very odd indeed.

Happy to be free Dave let it slide and set up a house in both Wollongong and Canberra.
Juggling parole conditions he would live in Berra five days a week and Wollongong the other two as he would see parole and do as they required those days.(He was banned from Berra after all)

For six months Big Dave teamed up with old friends and partied while also meeting the now mother of his child and love of his life Stacey Mitchell.
He also managed to get involved with some open mic nights and battles getting good feedback on his music.

As 2005 drew to a close Big Dave’s parole officer became increasingly suspicious that Dave was in Canberra.
He also tested positive to smoking pot during a drug test which did not help.

After a tip off from an anonymous informant that Dave was in Canberra(Or dog bitch in our language) Dave was ordered to report to parole in 30mins, impossible as he was in Canberra.
Racing back he was way to late and breached his parole and they attempted to throw him back in to prison.

Enlisting a solicitor that had helped him in many prior criminal cases Dave stayed free despite his parole officers claims that he is a danger to society.

After narrowly holding on to freedom Dave this time was forced into exile in Wollongong with his girl Stacey Mitchell where they remained while Big Dave was banned from Canberra, the two have since started a family with the birth of a baby girl.

Big Dave's close mate/runner being a spineless coward took the opportunity to do to Dave what his ex had done to him while he was in prison and rip him off.

Staging another robbery the runner then claimed broke with Dave skeptical of his runners lies but now stuck in Wollongong the runner went into hiding keeping his address a closely guarded secret.

At this point Big Dave reflected on his past and future deciding to put all his pent up frustration and anger from years of life dealing him bad hands into an effort to use his other talents of writing and rapping.

He had to make a change, make it for the better.

He aimed to tell his story to his fellow Australians.

He battled, he peddled mixtapes, he promoted wherever he could.

After a little over a year he had many achievements under his belt, a final 16 finish in the NSW heats at Scribblejam, he sold 350 copies of his mixtape ‘Fly Ya Flag’ independently, Formed a record label with nationwide physical distribution/worldwide digital distribution, attended school to learn business and received a grant to run the label as a result of the certificate he aquired, staged his own label launch show and so much more!

These are only a few of the things he got done in his first year in the music industry.

Big Dave has not gone un noticed by the media either turning up on Sydney radio, in the biggest selling newspapers around Australia, in magazines, online and even popping up on national news in Oct 07.                                                                      CLICK HERE TO WATCH, LISTEN TO AND READ MEDIA APPEARANCES WITH BIG DAVE (taken from TV,radio,print and online)

Honestly how many Australian musicians make as much noise as Big Dave has before they even put a cd in stores?

Even Death Row Records co-founder John Payne (who through Death Row helped careers of people like Tupac Shakur, Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg to name a few) noticed what Big Dave was doing, writing in a recent blog that there are artists that you need to check out that are not bombarding MTV every ten seconds among the names he mentions are Roscoe (Doggpound,LA), Savage (New Zealand) and Big Dave. YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO SEE THAT BLOG


After making a bit of a name for himself Big Dave began to involve himself in projects that help people in the community that are facing challenges he has faced in his life. People such as prison inmates and disadvantaged kids in Canberra.CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT COMMUNITY PROJECTS INVOLVING KOKY PRIK REKORDZ

His project ‘Behind The Walls’ which is funded from his own pocket has gained nationwide attention with it’s efforts to improve conditions in Australian prisons and slow the rate of people re offending upon release, the controversial project has gained national media attention CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE PROJECT

Big Dave himself wound up two and a half years of parole finally becoming a totally free man on November the 24th 2007 a special inhouse interview and song was released about that CLICK HERE TO CHECK THAT OUT

Having a label with nationwide distribution meant Big Dave needed just one more thing in place before he could tell his story to Australia…Top quality production!

Teaming up with Sydney producer Fady Atalla the pair began piecing together the story to Big Dave’s last ten years on the planet and matching the perfect beats to experiences.

After nine months they had an album that was 80% complete missing just a few hooks and extra effects but with Fady Atalla’s television show ‘Hip Hop Tv’ becoming a bigger commitment for Fady everyday and Koky Prik Rekordz  absorbing most of Big Dave’s time along with other projects so the two found it very difficult to meet and complete the final 20%.

They decided to work together on another yet to be named project in the future when time is not so valuable and they agreed Big Dave would re-record the album on new beats by a different producer.

You can still expect Fady to pop up on a track or two on Raw Stories though.

Big Dave spent over four months penning piece’s of his life into songs that would not just tell the story of his last ten years alive but also pass on the vibe of the whole saga.

Raw Stories is currently being re recorded and final announcements will be made on production etc closer to the release later in 2008, so far the album will feature production by some world class names like EDI from Tupac's Outlawz, Domingo from New York known for working with the top U.S stars like Eminem, Big Pun and Fat Joe..

Outlaw EDI Mean will also feature on Raw Stories as an emcee on the collaboration 'Talk Is Cheap' which will be available as a single soon.

The single will be mastered by sound engineer extraordinaire and co founder of Rap super label Death Row Records John Payne.

On top of the life history in the “Strory telling” raps on Raw Stories Big Dave has added some driving music, head nodders, party jams and of course a dedication for Stacey Big Dave’s girlfriend and there new baby Annabella..

The album is what I guess you would describe as a life’s work and due to the nature of the content is titled “RAW STORIES” it will be released to stores nationwide and online mid 2008.

It has been a fair wait for people looking out for this album and it has had the release date shuffled several times but Koky Prik Rekordz make the promise that this album when finally released will leave a permanent mark on Australian hip hop.

In the meantime Big Dave and Koky Prik artist Shorty who Dave signed in 2007 have a small scale EP which is available at all quality digital retailers like iTunes,Emusic and Amazon etc.

The EP is a taste of what is to come from one of Aussie hip hop’s fastest growing record labels CLICK HERE TO PREVIEW OR PURCHASE

Along with community projects and work on the album Big Dave finished 2007 off picking up the "Aussie Battler Of The Year" award from 3D Worlds Magazine's Urban Awards followed by some live shows in Canberra, Wollongong and Sydney including opening for De La Soul on New Years eve and giving DJ Maseo a taste of local weed live on stage.TO VIEW LIVE VIDEO'S,BEHIND THE SCENES AND MUSIC VIDEO'S CLICK HERE

With a colourful past, a prison record, an agenda that has a focus on helping the lower class communities of Australia, an agenda that has a focus on standing up for the rights of prison inmates in Australia, some real rap ability and a lot to say Big Dave is fast becoming the Australian that you either love or you hate.

Don’t be shy mate, which side are you on???

Visit www.kokyprik.com the official site for Koky Prik Rekordz to access live video's,music video's,MP3's and more on Big Dave including his regular blogs about his life in music, in prison and in general..

CLICK HERE FOR HIS MYSPACE PAGE
CLICK HERE FOR THE WEBSITE
CLICK HERE FOR KOKY PRIK REKORDZ MYSPACE PAGE