“Set up the HIPHOP BROTHERHOOD”

Explain how you first got invovled with Hip Hop and what was your earliest memory, influences?

The year was 1984…I have just spent 1.5 years running with a gang. Part of being a gangster was the saturday afternoon ritual. This entailed putting on your Jack Purcell takkies, Pringles Shirt, Navada pants etc and jumping on a train to jam the afternoon away at Route 66 in Mitchell’s Plain. After my gang got banned from the club we started going to Club Fantasy around the corner. It was here that I had my first taste of hiphop. They hosted 3 breakdancers (who turned out to become friends of mine 5 years later) from down the road calling themselves the Ballastic Rockers. The deejay of the club (Charlie aka SPOOK) himself was a breakdancer. I was fuckin’ blowed away by what I saw these guys do… and immediately I knew I wanted to get involved in that shit… Club Fantasy then announced that they were gonna start facilitating breakdance training on Tuesdays after school. First tuesday came and I was there. After a while I could master most moves(it was just about popping and locking then) and started staying away… After getting out of the gang rather gradually, myself and two of my homeboys (Ricardo and Eugene) formed a crew called the Back Street Breakers. We did ok in Manenberg where we lived…. doing shows… getting our asses promoted (making no money whatsoever) as breakdancers etc… later in ’84 we discovered Body Rock, a little park in Crawford Athlone – that had a smooth concrete pitch – where breakdancers from all over teh Cape Flats gathered on saturday afternoons to flex their skills and to “bite” styles. Crews that represented were Body Breakers, G-Force, Balastic Rockers, Hot Rods, City Breakers, Pop Glide Crew and many others. It was at body rock we started learning windmills, flairs, suicide moves etc.. The breakdancing then moved to the Cape Town CBD, where crews would jump on the train with a ghetto blaster and piece of vinyl flooring.. lay it down in St. Georges Street (it was a street back then) and just boogie on down. Body Rock and street dancing started fading out in 1985. when some Chinese dude decided to open a “jol” called T-Zers in Harrington Street opposite the Castle… kids like myself could NEVER afford to go there…I left the gang and had no means of generating a legal income to get into T-Zers(i “stole” train just to get to town)… so Ijust said FUCK IT… and went back to gang bangin’… robbing, stealing, hurting peops etc…(until 1988 whenI got back into hiphop – seriously this time)

What was in your view the major high point in south african hip hop and it’s low point?

High point… there was a time when everybody was NOBODY… we were all just hip hop headz… peops were approachable… peops were accessible… low point… every wants to be LARGE UP IN HERE… hiphop evolved into an EGO TRIP for some of us… in fact many of us… so now nobody does anything TOGETHER ANYMORE

When it comes to the low point was do you attribute that to?

I guess i was one of the first people to start making money out of hiphop… (after Brian Ebden) myself and my boy Chris started making keyrings with pix of prominent MC’s etc… this was in ’93… in ’94 i tried to re-open THE BASE… others followed down the entrepreneurial trail… and let their egos get involved… they just could not keep a level head…

You ran with the Mobshop for a while, how did that start and what was the significence (sic) of that?

Around 1995 i have been out of circuit for a while (university studies)…. and when i bounced back i heard that Ferdinand Isaacs started a zine… i approached him asking to get involved… by then i was known for “organising” and “getting shit done”… we started running with that shit – and BAM!! Ferd pulled out of his own publication… being the one who got things going i then ran with Mobshop as editor… managed to up circulation from about 50-100 per month to 5000 per month…I have to admit that Mobshop kinda UPPED my ego somewhat… in ’97 i left full-time studies… and dropped Mobshop… (tried to start some other shit… but i won an I.T consultation tender with Cancer Assoc and that took up all my time) i think Mobshop proved that a hiphop publication is needed… it also proved that hiphop muthafukkas will rather support Quincy Jones and David Mays who don’t give a fuck about them.. than support their brothers and sisters right here up in their faces…

Can you explain the concept behind Urbantainment and are there plans for it to be reborn?

Urbantainment was just me acting on my passion to inform, educate and entertain… my passion has since brought me nothing but popularity… and popularity does not feed my kids… so.. URBANTAINMENT IS NOT CURRENTLY ON MY PRIORITY ROSTER… IT IS ON MY AGENDA… BUT SOMEWHERE DOWN THERE…

Who in South African Hip Hop do you think has the ability to take to another level?

People like DJ Sinus, Ready D, Mr. Devious and Amu have the skills…. then guys like Hamma, Thabiso Khati, Rozzano Davids and DJ Bionic have the acumen and intellectual capacity… if all these peops can come together – form some type of hiphop brotherhood – it can be done in UNITY but no ONE person has all the ingredients… that includes me..

Are there any people in the past who you think could’ve made a difference to this hip hop thing?

DEFINITELY. i have on cassette a track that was produced by Kimaldien Oliver… the original producer for Nasty Weather… Kim has one of the best musical minds in the bizness… but he procrastinates… There is also Shamiel X… who by now should’ve owned the first hiphop record label in South Africa… Then there’s Shiraaz, Rodney etc. who were members of the Cool Posse… they had crazy emceeing skills… but hiphop was just a fad to them… it passed..

In terms of rap selling units in south africa, it’s obvious nobody has really been successful at it. What do you think is the way forward in terms of making a sale?

WE NEED TO DO IT OUR FUCKING SELVES… Set up the HIPHOP BROTHERHOOD… and harness every individual’s skillpool to MIND OUR OWN BUSINESS… sony, universal, gallo… NOBODY’ s gonna notice us if we don’t get it right by ourselves first… WE need to walk the streets and sell product… WE need to put together press releases… WE need to put shows together WE need to market our artists… at the end of the day… WE will benefit from al that..

What is the way forward for south african hip hop in general?

A HIPHOP BROTHERHOOD… that’s step no. 1….. it’ll all flow from there… look at the south african club deejay fraternal… they banned together and got invited to the Winter Music Conference in Miami… the kwaito artist fraternal…. Mandoza, Ishmael and others are launching their own clothing label soon… if they can – so can WE!!!

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