Two winters ago I found myself in Gugulethu, in El Nino’s ( the dude who wears all the hats in Driemanskap) back room. Our little four man camera crew was jammed in there; the cameraman and sound guy ever the rebels, had just finished sharing a spiff with El Nino and we were seating down to do his interview in the heart of Gugs. The Cape Town weather was not cooperating as usual hence the bedroom. El Nino head was bobbing to the beats coming from his PC/mini studio, which he made, and he was showcasing his latest microphone that they( Driemanskap) had just bought. Cause like most young MC’s in the hip hop industry know, when you start up ,your bedroom becomes your first studio.
Slikour also had a familiar tale about starting off recording in the bathroom; selling magwenya and hosting house parties just to raise funds,so as to buy their own studio gear and record albums. iFani had to catch taxis and get none music gigs to put money to fund his own videos, without a recording deal. The young industrious dreamers chasing their dreams; that’s the story of SA Hip Hop and that’s what Fedefokol tried to capture…
SA hip hop has literally moved from being at the fringes of SA music in the times of Ready D in the 1980’s to a business that has created the biggest Hip Hop festival on the Continent ( Back to the City), mega stars who are in TV Ads,magazines and even soccer shows. The SA hip hop industry has plenty of radio shows, blogs and hip hop magazine all home grown, even Ukhozi has a hip hop show. The SA scene is growing we may not have billionaires yet ,but some Artsit have already seen millions in their accounts just from SA hip hop, ask Jr aka Mr.Make-the-circle-bigger.
Yet at the heart of the music in SA has always been young people. Whether as just imitators of the Fresh Prince and DJ jazzy Jeff flow or clothing, or innovators of their own grungy sound ,or fans of the music. SA hip hop was built by the youth; from Prophets of the city to our own AKA and iFani today. All the artist came into it at a young age and kept at it, some grew with their audience, some were left behind by their audience, some have reflected challenges facing the SA youth ; from American cultural imperialism to machismo culture to issues to do with heritage and finding a sense of self as an African in todays world, to those who want to have a good life. To the realities of living in a post apartheid society. SA hip hop has all that and Fedefokol in a small way tried to capture this and more.
Although our hip hop has changed a lot since the day of “yo baby yo baby yo” by POC ,in the days of Doc Shebeleza and celebration,the young still push SA hip hop forward.
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Catch the documentary Fedefokol : 25 Years of SA hip hop on CTV channel 263 on DSTV 23 August 2014. Thabang Phetla is the director and producer of the documentary,which chronicles the evolution of SA hip hop from 1986 to now featuring ; Slikour, Driemaanskaap, ifani, DJ Lemomnka, AKA just to mention a few.