someone just pointed out to me that there are no white rappers (or females) on planetary a**ault - i must say that had never crossed my mind!
i think there are a number of reasons for the perceived 'rifts' between various factions within cape town hip hop. i'm not a sociologist or anthropologist, but in my experience, people are naturally tribal in nature - whether it's supporting arsenal and hating tottenham, or loving 'underground' hip hop and hating jiggy hip hop - people have a natural tendency to divide themselves from others, often imposing artificial motivations to justify their divisions.
south africa had apartheid which physically imposed these divisions along racial lines, but divisions happen all over the world for a whole variety of political, economic and social reasons.
it's easier for outsiders to come in and bring people together because they are not part of any local 'tribe' and have no local affiliations. a cuban MC called ephniko has been in town for the last week or so. he has been taking in our local scene, trying to hook up with as many crews as possible just to take part in the global culture of hip hop. he has been warmly accepted wherever he has gone, and made tracks with terror mc and archetypes.
i'm not trying to say that there aren't divisions in cape town hip hop, but i guess my point is that these divisions are imaginary - and so easy to break down with the right motivaton. we turn 'other' into 'enemy' so easily that we don't even notice we're doing it. you have cats talking about some dude they don't even know like they have beef with him.
I'm always hearing cats saying stuff like, 'they always get the gigs', or 'he thinks he's the shit', or 'they always get the press coverage'. if they actually spoke to whoever they're bitching about they'd realise that we're all trying to achieve the same thing. hip hop should be a unifying force, not a divisive one.
this reminds me of the 'crabs in a barrel' theory where you have a group of people who discourage or attempt to sabotage the success of another member of the group, causing a cycle of failure. The term is based on the belief that crabs placed in an open barrel will not escape because they will pull each other down, each crab attempting to be on top, meaning none of the crabs will succeed in escaping (from wikipedia).
this 'crabs in a barrel' theory is often applied to post-collonial or post-slavery societies,,, but like i said, i'm not a sociologist so maybe i'm using it out of context here.
like i said, i guess my point is that this division (where it does exist) is a mental construct that can be broken down so that we can all move forward.
