pH – Treats Featuring Proverb & Kabomo (Official Video)
by Phil Chard
Not only is pH a dope producer and burgeoning performing artist, but he is also a pretty amazing brother it seems. The South African artist just dropped the video for the third single off his debut album From Giyani With Love. The vid for Treats that features Kabomo and Proverb and also doubles has a home video that catalogs pH surprising his sister on her birthday with a live performance of her favourite song off the the album.
Submission | TRAP$TARLORDI – SUPER
by Phil Chard
South African rapper TRAP$TARLORDI felt like showing off in a major way so he hopped into the studio and wrote a song in 10 minutes Surprisingly it is not Basura. Riding over a high energy trap beat TRAP delivers a set of verses that sot perfectly into the song's momentum.
Submission | Mohay10 – Four
by Phil Chard
Mohay10 is Cap City Records' newest signing and the husky voiced rapper just dropped a track titled Four. The uptempo, tounge in cheek jam features the synths and deep sounding digital samples of the early Kwaito sounds of South Africa.
Submission | EMz – African Roots
by Phil Chard
EMZ's African Roots will not be winning any lyrical awards this year. I am willing to stake my reputation on that. The sing is basically a repetitive ode to a shaking ass in the "jungle" where EMZ repeats the phrase "look at that bum go" at least 50 times. However, what it lacks in lyrical complexity it makes up for with an incredible instrumental that fuses tribal elements, progressive house and electro. As DJ Khaled says "its a vibe" . EMZ could have just hopped on this song and recited the 2016 Budget and the beat and hook would have made it bearable.
Submission | Zorch – Music
by Phil Chard
South Africa's Eastern Cape is where rapper and producer Mziwoxolo Linda aka Zorch calls home. The young rapper just sent in his new single Don't Know. The electronic/dance inspired instrumental instantly caught my ear and Zorch delivers a fairly capable set of rhymes. At times he does find himself going off beat or struggling with the flow as he delivers rhymes about his first forays into the music industry. He does however rescuer the song with a very decent chorus.
So which blogs aren't you "seeing eye to eye" with fam?
WItness The Funk – Sbusiso Featuring DJ Tira (Official Video)
by Phil Chard
Posting about WTF since the news of a rape allegation against all three members surfaced has been a hard decision to make. Not because I have made a judgement on whether or not they are guilty but simply because the story broke and dominated social media only to disappear into the ether a few days later. No follow ups, no comments, just silence. Since the trio are still releasing music it's fair to assume that the case is either ongoing or has been dropped. But surprisingly no statements have been released by the group or the alleged victim's lawyer since the story first broke in April. While I gather the information on the case it would be unfair to punish the artists for a crime they have not been charged with as yet, especially in a case we know so little about.
That being said the GQOM / Hip Hop trio linked up with fellow Durbanite, DJ Tira on their Blesser anthem Sbusiso. As you'd expect with such a title the video features luxury cars and women that the likes of me will only ever witness digitally. Just to add an additional level of baller the visuals also features a Yacht..
Yung6ix Wants You To Put Some Respek On His Name
by Phil Chard
Despite his young career (no pun), Yung6ix has also found himself to be a lightning rod and regular topic of discussion on social media . From a number of ill advised tweets to a recent spat with Cynthia Morgan over a song she claims was leaked was leaked by 6ix and his team. The rapper has vehemently denied those claims and was left perplexed when Cynthia chose to air the issue of social media instead of contacting him directly. In that exchange a number of blogs misquoted him and kicked up another firestorm altogether.
Women and men are not the same, women need to respect themselves more than men
— KING6IX (@Yung6ix) April 28, 2016
You have my email and all my numbers, you couldn't contact me but go jump into conclusions like an athlete and insult me on social media smh
— KING6IX (@Yung6ix) July 14, 2016
Coupled with all this, there have been number of stories about Yung6ix close calls with death and his rumored record deal with Kash Kamp / Trick Billionaire MusiQ. Yung6ix addresses these issues and many more in his new song Respek On My Name featuring DJ Timmy where he basically declares that he is fed up.
You can also stream Yung6ix last release The Man Below
#SubmissionSunday | Charlie Macc – Easy
by Phil Chard
South African rapper Charlie Macc just sent hi single release,audio and visual titled EASY. The song and video provide insights into the life of a young black man in Soweto hustling to achieve their dreams.
Lwandile Radebe ( born 24 february 1986) better known by his stage name Charlie Macc is a South african rapper, songwriter and dancer from Diepkloof,Soweto. He's a former member of the alternative Hip Hop duo Spaza Boyz, which rose to fame in 2012. Its not easy to separate Charlie Macc from recent trailblazers because of his capability of grabbing the audiences attention, not only through his music, but from his electrifying personality. He first received recognition in 2015, following the release of his debut single Kumnandi uk'phila. he recently dropped his 2nd single Easy with a video to go with.
#SubmissionSunday | Chro’thaGnostic – The Omen
by Phil Chard
Seasoned South African battle MC Chro'thaGnostic believes that his reject tracks are better than the songs on your album. As the West Rand MC gears up for the release of his upcoming EP he will be dropping a number of singles that did not make the cut. The first of these is the lyrical song The Omen.
#SubmissionSunday | Ko-Jo Cue – N.A.A (No Azontos Allowed)
by Phil Chard
Ko-Jo Cue is tired of being misunderstood, ignored under appreciated. On his new Trino produced song titled No Azontos Allowed, Young Daddy Lumba takes aim at fake friends, struggle rappers and those that don't recognise his talent..
The Last Night Of The Refiloe Album Tour In Pictures
by Phil Chard
Cassper Nyovest and rest of the Family Tree roster performed in the last leg of their successful Refiloe Album Tour in Bloemfontein. The tour saw the rapper and his label signees performing across South Africa as well as dates in Botswana and Namibia. Ofentse Tsie managed to catch the special moments from this date.
In retrospect, whatever numbers the tour pulled in, it was a great move forward for the Cassper Nyovest and Family Tree brand. Now we all look forward to see how Cassper will fair when as he attempts to Fill Up Orlando Stadium.
Watch Anatii’s Video For Hours
by Phil Chard
Fresh from his trip to the USA where he was finishing up his highly anticipated debut album Anatii has dropped his new video for Hours. The video for the R&B-Pop fusion song was directed by BLK Angelz Film and features beautiful tropical scenery as Anatii pursues the stunning leading lady through the shrubbery.
It looks like Hours will be the last single release before we finally get his album. According to recent tweets the album will be titled Artifact and the title The Electronic Bushman has been scrapped. Considering that we've been waiting years for that effort the name change could signify the evolution of Anatii’s music.
Dearly beloved I hope you're ready #ARTIIFACT SOON COME! ⚡️⚡️⚡️
— ANATII (@ANATII) August 18, 2016
Anatii also announced that the will embarking on a nationwide tour when the album drops with none other than Omarion himself. We look forward to seeing how this a unfolds and stop pulling a Frank Ocean and just give us the album man.
To celebrate the release of #ARTIIFACT I'm bringing my brother @1Omarion out to SA for the #ARTIIFACTTour! It's about to be a wave!
— ANATII (@ANATII) August 18, 2016
Maraza Is Not Here For Shady Promoters
by Phil Chard
Maraza is not here to have shady brands drag his name through the mud. The South African rapper made that painfully clear earlier today in spectacular fashion.
The rapper who has been enjoying his strongest run to date in his decade long career received a tweet from an excited fan about his reported performance at an event in Midrand later that day. The only issue being that Maraza had no idea of this booking nor had he received payment to perform at this show.
Promoters falsely using the names and images of artists to scam fans is sadly not a new practice. However Maraza, who guards his brand the same way I guard my sneaker collection, decided to take things beyond a simple denial to his followers. In an effort to completely clear his name of any wrongdoing he released a series of tweets where he called out the promoters by name and then released a sequence of videos via his instagram account that detail a highly entertaining and dramatic call between Maraza and one of the event promoters.
It was a truly unfortunate event that won't be isolated by any means but I must commend Maraza on protecting his brand so fiercely and ensuring his fans and potential future victims aren't duped. Imagine if every artist did this to shady promoters?
Tweet Review | PatrickxxLee – Disco Utopia
by Phil Chard
Zambian born producer PatricKxxLee just dropped a 6 track EP titled Disco Utopia. I decided to give the project a live review on Twitter and share my thoughts on the trap offering from the young producer and rapper. My feelings were very mixed, as Patrick's talent is evident but the direction seems a little misguided to me. Read my thoughts below.
*Editor's note: This is not PatricKxxLee's debut Ep , he also released an 8 rack project earlier this year titled Red Hallway
On the 6-track EP, the Johannesburg-raised PatricKxxLee does what most rappers seem to forget about these days: He’s got something to say. Whether reminiscing about raging nights with his homies from The Cabin that end in debauchery (“Dark Paradise”), sharing revengeful and reflective post-break up thoughts (“Vainglorious”), ranting about fake people and friends with wrong priorities (“Wax Face”), describing a seedy state of being and the desire for escapism (“Dirty Dancing”), or suffering from the restlessness that comes with wanting to leave familiar territory and everything else behind (“Anywhere But Here”), DISCO UTOPIA is first and foremost honest, and secondly damn wild. The EP ends with “April 5, 1994”, in which PatricKxxLee pays homage to Kurt Cobain, one of his oldest influences - not only in terms of sound.
Disco Utopia - Curated tweets by AfricanHHB
#FeatureFridays Interview With Miikah
Words By Phil Chard
“Up until last year I was basically fooling around on [Fruity Loops]without a serious drive for it. Then at the beginning of this year I felt like this was a viable option for my life.”
Michael Bopape aka Miikah is an enigma. That's the only way I can describe him. A 17 year old producer and rapper who balances his time between music, school, binge watching anime and pondering on the various topics of philosophy and introspection.
My first introduction to Miikah came in the form of his 8 track debut project - NegativeXero.
“The whole EP is based on the title Entropy to Nihilism. So the whole thing is idealistic Entropy from the surface of what Miikah’s daily thoughts are, which incorporates the influences from Japanese anime. Like 10 Tails”
For an artist so young and so new to music NegativeXero is surprisingly dense yet impressive. It's not an easy listen by any means. The beats are layered and complex, Miikah's lyrics touch on several abstract topics loaded with nerdy references that even I had to look up. From covering anime, to depression and the existence of God, it is by no means a project that the masses will latch onto.
What it is though is a well packaged window into the mind of an artist with a non linear and developed thought process and how it relates to his surroundings. Much like the Woke Warrior on our timelines, we might always get what they're saying or the references, but you can appreciate the art form. The way Miikah builds his beats with sounds that you would never normally pair to make diverse and palatable soundscapes is impressive. Even more impressive is all 8 beats are completely different to each other. There is certainly a lot of potential in Miikah's work and I look forward to hearing more.
miikah_2d
Friday Night – Magenge (Official Video)
by Phil Chard
Out of Johannesburg, South Africa we have the genesis of a new rap duo dubbed Friday Night. Consisting of SkyCityUno and Yung Tyran the duo say they
““seek to rejuvenate the Hip Hop industry on all fronts. Well written songs, infectious production and a fresh perspective on Africa form the foundation of the duo’s musical ideology.””
The groups debut release Magenge which was produced by Canada-based Zimbabwean producer Charlie Zimbo just dropped with its video. Shot by C.I Jizzle and Orlando Da Costa it makes clever use of simple yet entertaining snots that fit the motif of the band perfectly.
According to Sky City and Tyran “Friday Night is a metaphor for the anticipation and excitement the group generates with every release, performance and project, it’s always something to look forward to.” The groups debut Mixtape which shall be titled Friday ( that won’t get confusing) is apparently completed and is scheduled for a winter release. I am not sure which winter they are referring to because temperatures are rising awfully fast in this part of the world.
AHHB R&D | Producing Your Own Music Video – Part 1
Words By TNGlive
When you have a clear idea about how you want your music to sound, and there is currently no comparison around, it’s likely you’re the best person to go about bringing that idea to life. So maybe you’ll learn whatever instrument, VST plugin, or push the audio editor of your choice to its limits in order to craft that new original sound exactly how you hear it in your head. You’ll probably put so much effort into this area, such as finding the right professionals to do the necessary specialised tasks of mixing and mastering, yet when it comes to the visuals to accompany your masterpiece, you’re likely to wholly outsource that task with a basic brief of what you want.
Hate it or love it, the heavily driven social media promotion of music projects has amplified the necessity for the visual presentation of your music to be on point. No one is going to care more than you to bring your visual idea to life, and so here we’ll look at how you can produce your own music video once you’re in a position where you would otherwise be hiring someone else to put it together for you.
“Owning a camera doesn’t make someone a director.”
If you’re developing with your comrades, and the polish of your music is as much a work in progress as the polish of their visuals, that’s a good strategy for the long run. Growing together is a great investment. However, if the levels of proficiency are at different stages, beware of paying for subpar services. The same way a beat maker is not necessarily a producer, it’s important to do away with the idea that just because someone owns a camera and knows how to record images automatically means he’s a director or cinematographer
You’re better off lending that camera to a professional cinematographer, or to someone who works as a camera crew professional in a supporting role for a cinematographer. The latter often has ambitions of one day becoming a cinematographer, and working on your music video is a professional opportunity to showcase their skills.
Typical Film Department Structure
(For your perusal to spot supporting roles for your master plan)
Preproduction.
Your very first step, is taking this clear vision you have in your head, and committing it to paper. There’s an official way to right a script, and a general guide is that one page is equal to one minute of screen time. If you download free scriptwriting software like Celtx, it’ll format it for you correctly. The important thing here though, is just writing down all the ideas that make up the music video you envision. You could alternative do this using index cards which you make by cutting up little rectangular pieces of paper and writing descriptions of each scene onto separate cards.
Script Breakdown.
Doing the above, sets you up with an efficient way of breaking down a thorough list of all the people and things you’ll need. It’s literally listing all the things you’ll be seeing in front of the camera, and the cast you’ll need in each scene.
Scheduling
Out of all the things you’ll need to worry about producing your music video, scheduling is going to be the make or break of your production. It’s not so much about dates on the calendar, but rather the number of days you’ll need for the things and people you’ve listed in your script breakdown. Consider the following example. Maybe you want a scene where police arrive at a location at the beginning of your music video, then by the end of the showdown that has happened throughout the music video, they arrest some characters. Maybe you also want a drone shot of your city at sunrise and a drone shot at night to close the video.
Your basic schedule could look like this
Thanks to your script break down, you’ll already have every detail of things you’ll need from big items like a location to minor things like hand cuffs. Your scheduling process is to then break down how much time you’ll need with each item and person (model, actor, friend). Time is going to be money, and the idea with scheduling is to maximise your time wisely. For instance, in our example we have 2 cops and 2 characters scheduled for 2 days. But thanks to scheduling, you can spot that perhaps you shoot the opening and closing on the first day, you’ll only need 4 cast members for the one day. This means you’ll only need the two characters (non-police) on the second day. Even if friends are going to be working for free, the least you can do is feed them, and so now you’ve reduced catering costs for day two.
Budgeting
Your schedule will dictate your budget. At this point, you’ll have to research the costs of everything. How much is it going to cost to hire an interested professional assistant camera person to be your cinematographer? How much is it going to cost to hire a director if you don’t want to wear this hat and instead want someone to collaborate with on the creative side? How much is a cop car? Google is your friend here. Search for local film crew agents, and some would have their rate cards available on their website. Alternatively, investing in a directory produced specifically for the film industry, for example The Whole Lot, is a great way of accessing contact details for almost any relevant service you can think of for your production.
Your basic budget could look like this:
We’ve looked at the bigger picture that you’ll deal with as producer of your own music video. In parts 2, 3, & 4, we’ll look at details you’ll need for basic knowledge of each department because ultimately, the buck will literally stop with you. You’re better prepared knowing the difference between luxuries and necessities while still in preproduction, to limit nasty nasty surprise costs as much as possible during the latter stages of production and post production.
Meet The Muffin Man, Youngsta’s Performance DJ Since 2010
by Sabelo Mkhabela
Midway through his performance, be it at Rocking The Daisies, the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, or some show at The Assembly, the rapper Youngsta will pause for a few seconds. His performance deejay, a petite figure behind him, whose face is shadowed by a baseball cap, will tap the pads of his MPC drum machine robustly. Beat heads, and music connoisseurs will catch the Holy Ghost.
“Ladies and gentleman,” Youngsta will say to the crowd, “this is The Muffin Man. The beat you just heard now, he made on the spot. He is freestyling.” The rapper will then tell people in the crowd to lift up some objects, and he will bust a freestyle about them.
Youngsta and The Muffin Man have come a long way, since meeting in 2009 in an event in Ottery, in the southern suburbs of Cape Town. “I had my first mixtape with me – it featured various artists. I played him the CD, and two days after, we started recording,” says The Muffin Man, in a soft baritone. He has a few minutes to spare and chat with me, as the producer Arsenic is setting up the sound system at SAE in Woodstock. DJ Switch is chatting to Youngsta about the deejay’s latest rappity rap single “Now Or Never”. The guys are here to rehearse for Youngsta’s upcoming Skyroom Live performance.
The Muffin Man, real name Brandon Court, is an ordinary 25-year-old from Landsdowne. He says one of the reasons he got into music production was to help guys in his ‘hood who were “going through things.” “Not everyone plays sport,” he says, “so the music was an alternative outlet.”
Youngsta had no “things” to deal with, however – just a hunger to rap. The Muffin Man was the very first engineer to record him. They recorded about 18 songs in the nine hours they spent at his studio, on their first session. His equipment at the time wasn’t up to standard – he tells me they recorded some of Youngsta’s material with a karaoke microphone.
Youngsta's work ethic and hunger was outstanding. “At the time, he was doing verses in one take,” says The Muffin Man. “I could see this was what he wanted to do – he’s gonna die a rapper. There was nothing else that was gonna interest him.”
The Muffin Man backing Youngsta at Sneaker Exchange Cape Town earlier this year. (Image: Sabelo Mkhabela)
Youngsta, who has made it a point to shine in every song he’s featured on, is one of the most promising rappers in South Africa currently. He’s on songs with Tumi, Stilo Magolide, DJ Switch, but he tells me he will never desert The Muffin Man. “He is so humble,” says Youngsta, “I’m always telling him that without you, I couldn’t have achieved what I have.”
When Youngsta recorded about 24 mixtapes in a period of 12 months, between 2010 and 2011, it was mostly with The Muffin Man. “When I met him,” says Youngsta, “he already had a name in the ‘hood. One of the things he did was he would deejay in these R10 parties. Everyone in the southern suburbs knew this guy. And people in school were like, ‘there’s this guy, you must meet him, maybe he can help you.’”
Youngsta and The Muffin Man’s first street hit was “G Spot”. It was the first song they had a professional video for.
The Muffin Man became Youngsta’s performance deejay by default. When the rapper opened for Lil Wayne in 2010, The Muffin Man was the one on the decks. Youngsta reminisces about their early days. He’s more proud of the shows they did while still trying to get their names out there. “The shows where we used to come on stage and people would laugh at us because of our names. I mean, ‘Youngsta and The Muffin Man,’ it sounds like a cartoon show. When we went to (DJ) Azhul and (DJ) Eazy’s show, they were like, ‘That sounds like something my daughter watches on a Saturday morning.’ I will forever cherish those moments.”
The duo’s early performances were a matter of trial and error – testing out songs, setting the popular ones aside for the next show. “We had two songs that we were absolutely sure about,” says Youngsta. “Songs we knew that no matter where we performed, they worked.” He laughs when he tells me they have performed in weddings and birthday parties, before he continues, “But two songs is too short. So I said after those two tracks I’m going to freestyle to engage the crowd. So by the time I do the last track, they’re with us because the freestyle has won them.”
The Muffin Man is currently on a recording hiatus. It’s been three years since he recorded. He’s focusing mostly on his haircutting business – Mobile Cutz, which has been running professionally for two years. You’ll normally find him in events, like the Sneaker Exchange, with a chair and a portable kit bag.
He has been cutting hair since high school. After working at a barber shop for sometime, he had an epiphany that people aren’t always keen on going to the shop to get their hair cut. “So I took the barber shop to them,” he says.
Just before The Muffin Man joins Youngsta, DJ Switch and Arsenic for the rehearsal he’s at SAE for, he reveals he will be making a return to the recording business, but for now he’s focusing on elevating Mobile Cutz, because it’s his main income. And of course, he is still Youngsta’s main performance deejay.
Sipho The Gift – Morning Cereal
by Phil Chard
South Africa's Sipho The Gift has been relatively quiet since releasing his massively impressive Coming Of Age album last year. The lack of music releases has not been missed by Sipho himself either, while frustrated about his lack of productivity , the Kimberly born rapper hopped on signature Freddie Joachim beat to rant about the industry and his ambitions on Morning Cereal.
Kideo is just trying to make spaza sound fresh, but not everyone is pleased
by Sabelo Mkhabela
written by Sabelo Mkhabela and Sipho Fako
Kideo, though menacing on wax, doesn’t talk much in person. When I’m not asking him any questions, he’s mostly silent, passing a blunt back and forth between him and one of his boys. The rapper’s going through a transitory phase, as he’s steadily working on his first solo mixtape, Spunk Reign. As he moves on with the times, not all his fans are impressed with his new sound.
Circa 2008, Kideo was a deity of some sort, in spaza (Cape Town Xhosa rap), which was popular at the time. The rapper, the youngest member of the then-popular five-man group Backyard Crew from Cape Town’s biggest township Khayelitsha, had struck a balance many emcees spend a lifetime pursuing.
Hip-hop heads respected Kideo for his clever wordplay and slick delivery. So did the casual listeners for his humor and “swag” – a concept that was frowned upon in the subgenre that was built around social consciousness and street-centric rawness.
On both his solo and Backyard Crew tracks, Kideo proved himself over and over again that he wasn’t a chancer. For instance, his 2008 track “Iphupha” was pure genius. On the track, which is a gymnastic roller coaster of emotions, he plays around with the concept of death, throwing some humorous similes and metaphors. Towards the end of the track, he asks death to give him more time on earth by starting its mission in another house: “Kuluzizi lusizi ndiziva ndi-dizzy/ kufa asseblief khaw’qale kweminy’imizi.” He was rapping over whizzing pads anchored by a head-bobbing rhythm courtesy of the Backyard producer Mashonisa.
Kideo has always been next-level, and he’s not showing any plans of slowing down. In 2016, now rolling solo, he’s still sharp as ever, as indicated on songs like “Mtye Mali Yakhe” – a cautionary tale of a typical payday weekend in the ‘hood that involves well-off young men drinking themselves to a stupor and humping whores, among other hedonistic missions. The rapper’s storytelling is still unmatchable. Let’s not get started with the slang on “Pizza Zamadoda”, the first official single to Spunk Reign. Or his relentlessness on “Nku Axo”, a diss track to fellow rapper Axo.
The 26-year-old rapper’s on a mission to, in his own words, “make spaza fresh”. The subgenre has lost the momentum it once had. A lot of artists are distancing themselves from it. One reason is because, save for maybe Driemanskap, Kanyi, Pzho and a few others, there aren’t that many success spaza stories.
Given his rapping skills and his willingness to progress with the times, Kideo still stands a chance. “I’m planning to make it big,” he says as we chat in the studio in which he’s recording Spunk Reign, in Khayelitsha. Killa B, the producer of his latest single, “Show Off”, is chatting to a few of Kideo’s peeps, who are also rappers. On the other side of Khayelitsha, people are queueing to cast their votes for the municipal elections.
Kideo is not about that life. He feels voting doesn’t change shit, and he says it so nonchalantly you can tell he genuinely has no ounce of interest. Today’s just another day in the ‘hood for him. He’s hanging around the studio, a backroom shack behind his producer’s house. He’s rocking a high school blazer, knee-length black shorts and black and grey sport sandals.
He chants “Spunkrrrrr” in the adlibs on “Show Off”, which is playing in the background as we chat. Spunk is a subgenre of spaza, he says. “It’s a new colorful lifestyle mixing fashion with music,” he says. “We fuse spaza with crunk – we use 808s and synthesizers mostly.” Well, it’s not really crunk, it’s trap. But the term “crunk” has stuck to spaza heads, since the late 2000s and early 2010s when cats who were rapping over beats that had pattering snares and hi-hats instead of a boom and a bap, were sneered upon. They were known as “iicats ze-crunk” – crunk cats.
Kideo himself, was deemed “uLil Wayne Wasekasi” – the township Lil Wayne. He admits that Weezy was and still is one of his inspirations: “I used to rap over a lot of his beats. I had a hit track called ‘Move’ which I did over Lil Wayne’s ‘Ransom.’ And other songs.” This Weezy influence led to Kideo trying codeine – which he went to use for two years. “I’m clean now,” he says. He tells me that after I ask him about a line from "From The Era" a song by the popular spaza rapper Ndlulamthi – “I’m from the era iBackyard ibizom’lelwa uKideo kwaba bathi uy’parapara” – the line basically insinuates Kideo is on drugs. “Maybe it’s the energy I bring when I perform,” says Kideo with a chuckle. “And I also have a motto: ‘I’m on drugs,’ which means I’m powerful.”
Another trait he shares with Weezy is his consistent music output. His Kasi MP3 and SoundCloud pages are full of albums worth of music, a reasonable amount of the songs “freestyles” and “remixes” of rap hits like Juicy J’s “Benz A Make A Dance”, Young Money’s “Roger That” and others. He tells me now, though, that he is done giving out his music for free. He also plans to sell merchandise with his album. Basically, the only language he speaks right now is money.
Which is understandable. It’s been a long road for Kideo, and not one that’s been smooth, too. He smiles shyly when he relates the tale of how he became a Backyard Crew member: “I started getting involved with Backyard Records in 2003.” He was 13 at the time, having started rapping at eight, inspired by kwaito, particularly the artist Gciwane, who rapped in Xhosa.
“In 2009, while in grade 11,” he continues, “I did songs at Backyard Records, and the Backyard manager asked me to join the crew.” He had met Phoenix, one of the Backyard Crew members, in high school, who then introduced him to Mashonisa, the producer responsible for all the brass-laden bangers which became the Backyard signature sound.
“He was making beats,” says Kideo about the producer, “but they weren’t rapping over them. He thought he was wack.” He chuckles before he continues, “I recorded my first track by him called ‘Nongqause’. It only had one verse. Some guy from Masho’s school stole the track, and it leaked. That’s when I got excited because people started knowing Kideo.”
The track saw a rudimentary but promising Kideo rapping over a pure Fruity Loops beat which barely had a snare. It consisted of hollow strings that had no effects or tweaks – Mashonisa was still an armature. It did however indicate the direction he was taking with his production. Though he hasn’t been on the scene in the past few years, Mashonisa’s name is still hailed with a unanimous reverence among spaza fans.
Backyard Crew had a great run in their active years. According to Kideo, they wanted to take spaza beyond the township by performing in gigs in the CBD, which they did. The crew’s video single “Baby Girl” got some spins on the national channel SABC 1.
Their 2009 album Sebenzel’eYadini is a collector’s item. All crew members – Mashonisa, Pointwo, Phoenix, Van de Merwe and of course Kideo – were exhibiting their diverse personalities but the project was still a coherent body of work with a monolithic sound, and it still managed to elude monotony.
The tragic death of two Backyard Records members Chankura and Van de Merwe, in 2012 crippled the crew. In an earlier interview I had with Kideo, he told me that was some form of a wake-up call to him. It acted as a reminder that he wasn’t going to be here forever, and so he wanted to make the best of his time while still on this realm.
Which is why he’s adamant on releasing his first solo album, which was due in June, but is suffering a major delay, because the hard drive his songs were saved in recently crashed. He was eight tracks deep. He’s now planning to drop the project in September. “It’s a blessing in disguise,” he retorts, slouching on the studio couch, “because I’m gonna work on new music. I feel inspired.” He still hasn’t finalized the features on the project. He told me earlier this year he was planning to work mostly with “new school” producers, and of course Mashonisa who he refers to as “my Dre”.
The criticism for Kideo from staunch hip-hop heads right now is real. It’s mostly on Facebook – fans who knew the rapper since his early days aren’t too pleased with the new direction his music has taken. But Kideo’s a natural renegade. His stoicism can easily be mistaken for defensiveness when he says “I don’t care about those [who don’t like my new music]”. But he really doesn’t care. He tells me his fans, who he stays in touch with via Facebook, have already committed to buying the album when it comes out.
Though he doesn’t articulate it, Kideo is clearly that kind of artist who gets bored with doing the same thing over and over again. Even if it means replicating other artists, which is something one doesn’t get away with in the spaza scene. For instance, his track “Messed Up Nomakhwezi” – released around 2010 – with a rock influence and deliberately off-tune singing, was an obvious lift of Lil Wayne’s “Prom Queen”. It was at this time that the rapper started losing some fans. They started making comparisons between the old and the new Kideo, and consensus favoured the former. He never slowed down, though – he kept on churning out spaza trap bangers.
His latest single “Show Off” indicates that the rapper is aware of where hip-hop currently is. Apart from the burly trap production, on his verse he chants like he has hiccups, he spits his Xhosa bars discretely – adopting that flow made popular by Rae Sremmurd and other modern hip-hop artists from the US. His Xhosa is still intact, his lyrics still lofty and replete with comical double entendres.
He may have changed a bit, but one thing he never did is fall off. Hip-hop heads are stereotypically anti-progress, and Kideo is a victim.
Listen to a playlist of some of Kideo's key tracks. His album is due for a September release. Get at him on Facebook.