- Current and ex-Roosters players made shock move last year
- Now they’re reaping the rewards of starting a new career
Four current and ex-Roosters stars have struck gold with the hip-hop group they started last year, with the video for their first song being viewed 66,000 times, with even more streams on Spotify.
Joey Manu, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Siua Wong and Sitili Tupouniua were all teammates at the Bondi Junction club when they formed the rap outfit Dreamyourz last year – and the immediate reaction wasn’t kind, with some NRL fans urging them to ‘stick to footy’.
But now the quartet have had the last laugh, with their album Off-Szn amassing more than 85,000 streams on Spotify and also finding success on social media.
Wong is now the only member of the group still with the Roosters after the departures of Suaalii to the Wallabies, Manu to Japanese rugby union, and Tupouniua shifting to the Bulldogs – but they’re all lapping up the reaction to their shock switch to music.
‘Obviously, it just started off as something that we enjoyed, and one song led to another, and we ended up coming up with an album. We were joking around about it, and then we actually did it,’ Tupouniua told the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘There’s a few people who may enjoy it and a few that may hate it, but it’s something we did on our time off.’
Pictured from left to right: Current and former NRL stars Sitili Tupouniua, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Siua Wong and Joey Manu, who have found success with their rap group
The first song by Dreamyourz, We Rock The Party, has been a hit on YouTube and Spotify
Suaalii’s Wallabies teammates have had the band’s debut album, Off-Szn, on high rotation during training sessions and stars Nic White and Noah Lolesio are fans.
The reaction to the album has seen the players continue to work on their music and Tupouniua hasn’t ruled out them taking another step.
‘We wouldn’t say no to performing somewhere, especially if all the boys are back in Australia or wherever it is,’ he said.
‘Definitely something like that, we wouldn’t mind. If someone wants to come and say, “You want to perform here?” I’m pretty sure the boys would be keen.
‘We’re in a group chat where we’re all still talking.
‘Everyone writes their own verses and then like the chorus, we have got so many beats and then one of the boys will just make a chorus for the beat and send it.
‘If the boys like it, they’ll write their own verse or their own little rap to it, and it just goes from there.’
Suaalii has left the Roosters for the Wallabies since the band’s album came out – with his new teammates putting his music on high rotation at training sessions
Dreamyourz formed after Manu’s track ‘Party All Night’ track got a good reception.
Manu is understood to have a recording studio in his home where he creates songs tracks alongside his brother.
The group say their album has been inspired by RnB, hip hop and afro beats.
‘We’ve got our unique sound but we listen to a lot of RnB, hip hop and Afro beats artists,’ Wong said last year.
‘We pick apart those sounds and tunes and whatever we like, we implement those sounds and techniques to come up with our songs.
‘Joey will send us the instrumental before we go into the studio and we are supposed to come up with the lyrics.’
