The duo who would go on to form Misfits of Science only met as a result of a chance encounter at a hip hop clothing store on Queen Street in Auckland.

Stevie McQuinn and Yudhi Moodley say that they were both obsessed with hip hop clothing at the time and bonded over their love of the genre. The friends soon became bedroom music producers together and in their words, were ‘eating yum bars, smoking weed and just pounding out music’.

South-African born Yudhi Moodley had wanted to become a rapper from a young age and had a vision of getting a record deal from the start with Stevie saying he was ‘holding on to the cape of Super-Yudhi’. They formed Misfits of Science in 2002.

“When [others] were out there getting their girlfriends, I was just like music is my girlfriend. I always had a vision that I wanted this record deal. It was a silent confidence that I hadn’t expressed to anyone other than Steve,” Yudhi says.

And it wasn’t just the production of their music that they approached differently. To find a sample to use in a new track, the duo went looking in the CD discount bin at The Warehouse. That sample became the instantly recognisable hook for their hit ‘Fools Love’.

Another arresting component was the music video with its animated oversized bobble-headed versions of Steve and Yudhi, which looked like nothing else around at the time. It first debuted to a national audience on C4’s Holla Hour.

“We’re sitting on Yudhi’s couch at his mum’s flat — pretty exciting that a little Māori boy from Waiuku is about to be on TV with his video,” Stevie recalls.

The debut saw an ‘overwhelming response’ from viewers who called in for it to be replayed again in the same hour. Steve and Yudhi were euphoric. With the release of the video, radio stations picked up on Fools Love and hip hop fans quickly sent the song to the top of the charts. Misfits of Science was suddenly on top out of nowhere.

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