This is brother Kamma from Grahamstown greeting everybody who is active in hip hop. We as the family in Grahamstown or Rhini and the surrounding areas would like to contribute to AG by giving people an introduction to Rhini’s Hip Hop scene.  Read more for our story.

Well firstly Rhini’s Hip Hop history is young but promising with one of the first Mc crews emerging from Fingo Village running by the name of Def Boyz that use to compile of 16 Mc’s that broke up in to several other crews but still fall under the Def Boyz banner. Right now Def Boyz consist of three Mc’s and a producer/Dj going by the names of Mc “X” Nasty, Producer/Dj Biz that is the founding members of Def Boyz and two new Mc’s joined Def namely Noize and Mega Prayer. Def Boyz were established in 1996 and debuting with tracks “Def is for real” ,” The Foundation“,”Let Them Bark” and “No Apologise”.  Their latest track is titled Unique which was Biz’s last track that he Mc’ed on, handing the mic over to the new members of the Def family Mc Noize and Mega prayer.

The Hip Hop culture is also supported by two local radio stations, one university station and one community station. Both running on weekends and both running for plus minus four years playing nothing but real Hip Hop. The Hiphocalypse show is one of the first Hip Hop shows to air in Rhini since 1999 on Rhodes Music Radio station hosted by Dj’s Sensei Tate and So. The show use to be on a Friday night between 22:00 -01:00 but now airing on Saturday nights 22:00 -01:00 hosted by Sensei Tate during the year when Rhodes university is open. It is actually a bit sad to introduce him to you and to say good bye also cause he is finishing of this year but temporarily it will be handed over to Black Mental lyricist and Rob1.  If you would like to know more about the hiphocalypse show check it out on Hiphocalypse.

In 2001 Def Boyz approached local community radio station radio Grahamstown to have a time slot that gave birth to Food of Life as a means of satisfying the cravings of Headz when the Hiphocalypse is not airing and to bring a different flavour of HipHop to the table. Food of Life aired from 0:00-03:00 on Radio Grahamstown on Friday nights but now broadcasting from 21:00-0:00 on Friday nights still hosted by Def Boyz with Dj Biz on the board giving the listeners mixing eargasms and “X” nasty, Kamma and Vemvane on discussion panels called Chillies discussing various African conscious related issues. The two radio shows is also a hang out place for the headz ,so feel free to pop in.

Then in 2002 the B-boy culture was introduced by two brothers that is originally from Grahamstown.  It was perceived as a fashion which and now it is officially a culture. The B-boys caught my attention immediately and gave a hand to take them further. The first battle and real Hip-Hop B-boy battle were hosted last year 2002 in April that followed by a B-boy workshop in July hosted by X-a-Qusion Style. In September 2002 the Bionic Breakers(Rhini) battled X-a-Qusion Style(P.E) and Bionics won the battle. Then there was battle of the year 2002 consisting of three categories Girls all ages that had no winner due to a lack of interest, then there was Boys 4 – 12 and Boys 13 and older. The winners was “Mai” Marlon Elbrecht walking away with the title, trophy and T-shirt ages 4 – 12 and the Boys 13 and older category was won by Donavan May also walking away with the title, trophy and T-shirt.

Giving Hip Hop promotional designs flavour and life one of the only Graff artists in Rhini – that’s a citizen of the town going by the name of Sane. There is other Graff artists around town but their identity remains a mystery. Sane is a artist and prints T-shirts at home for a nice price. You should check this guy’s work out.
If you around G-town check out the Graff wall at the Fiddlers Green Sports Field.

From this side of the continent ……..

Peace, Justice and Guidance
Brother Kamma

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