In the past couple of months we’ve noticed that everybody is talking about this mixtape. Eversince we downloaded this compilation from the Harambe website we’ve been playing it to death at the AG headquarters. This release features a range of artists like Subzz, Konfab, 3WR, Han Dolo, Snazz D and many others. There is also a good mixture of producers on here e.g. Ootz, Caveman, Mr C plus others. After receiving a dozen or so emails from people demanding that we find out more I decided to get in touch with Mr C and DeePea. In this interview they talk about the process of putting this out, track selections, inspirations and future releases. Read more to check it out…

What’s happening man, great to see that the mixtape is doing so well. Let’ start off by talking about the founding of LandMynz – how did you guys get involved with the movement?

Deepea: What up Milk. First of all thanks for the interview. Me and my man MrC have been friends for a long-time and we first got together to form LandMynz Entertainment in 2003. Prior to that we were involved in this hip-hop thing through the whole Le-Club movement and as well as doing a hip-hop slot on a community station called Voice of Soweto. We linked up with my man MaraD on Africasgateway and our other partner Vuba, came through later on. The 4 of us right there are the current owners of LandMynz Entertainment.

Our boys Neon and Caveman, we met during auditions we held when we were trying to do our first project. They were in a crew called Immortal Elements but we convinced them to come over and form this clique now called LandMynz. Currently Caveman is temporarily out of action handling some personal shit, so MrC and Neon are the artists in the group and everybody else is putting in all the work in the background to make this shit a success.

What gave you the inspiration and drive to put this compilation out?

MrC: Before we started with the project, we took time out to analyze the local hip-hop industry to see where it’s going and we started noticing that a lot of cats don’t really collaborate with each other. Everybody just seems concerned with doing their own thing and keeping to their own. It’s extremely hard to break through as a new artist in this industry, especially if you don’t have the a big recording company behind you, so we figured we could create a platform through our mixtape series, to get all the dope cats together on one disc and have them all marketed and promoted at the same time. There’s a lot of so-called bedroom MC’s out there whose music might never get to be heard by the general public, so this is our way of exposing all the talent and dopeness that we know of. For ourselves as well as new artists we wanted to test the waters out there before coming out a full-length album and see what the reaction would be.

Tell us about the track selection criteria coz that is something I can see was mastered vividly because all the songs compliment each other.

Deepea: The track selection took about 3 months as we really wanted to put together the best compilation we possibly could. All tracks we received where on constant rotation for quite a while, everywhere from the house, to the car, to the laptop at work, we made CD-R copies of the tracks and bumped that shit everywhere we went. You know there are some tracks that grab you the first time but don’t really have a great replay value and then there are tracks that don’t hit you on first listen but grow on you after a while, so we really wanted the best of both worlds. Quality was also a key factor in our track selection, we really didn’t wan the burden of having to get the artist to re-record or re-mix the track all over again. And the ordering of the tracks was very important as well as we wanted the CD to have sort of theme to it. If you check carefully, the CD starts with more kinda of introductory tracks like One Step Kaboom and Konfab’s KontraversialFabeticks, then the focus shifts to tracks about hip-hop like 21 Rhyme Salute and Gridlock’d, after that comes the hard shit like We Will and Pump Action, then the street shit kicks in with The City and Trapped, the ladies tracks are at the lower end, then to finish it off we had the joints talking about real issues like When Its Real and Hell is Home. That whole grouping right there was to take the listener through different moods as they go through the CD.

How many tracks did you receive for the submission and what were the quality of these submissions?

Neon: We received about 30 tracks in total. Quality-wise a lot of them were really up-to standard and then obviously there’s quite a few that needed some work. We also left about 4 to 5 of our own tracks out of the compilation which we might re-work for later releases.

What does the title of your mixtape mean (for those of us who don’t want to use google)?

LandMynz : Perigo Minas means Danger Mines! in Portuguese. This is really a way of us saying we have arrived and are here to stay, so niggaz better watch their step or get blown the fuck off the map. LOL ! But nah on the real, theres a deeper meaning to the whole thing about LandMynz and Perigo Minas. As most people would know there’s a serious problem in countries such as Angola and Mozambique regarding landmines that have been left over after the wars over there. This is something very close to our hearts and we hope that we can raise awareness through our name and music about this cause that a lot of people seem to have forgotten about. 

MrC: I personally got a five year old son, and it just break my heart when I see another shorty over there with both legs amputated cause of this shyt. If we ever make it big one day, that’s the first charity we gonna do something for.

How many units did you press?

DeePea: About 300.

How many have you sold / given away?

DeePea: We gave them all away. The mixtape is totally free.

Where was it pressed / burnt?

MrC: We used a place called CD Copy Center in Pretoria. As this was our first project we really worked hard on trying to get the product to look as professional as possible even though the mixtape was distributed for free, hence the full cover and all of that. A lot of cats when they put out their promotional joints, it’s just a thin-cover CD-R with a single-sided front-page cover and that’s it. We really wanted to take it to the next level with this joint as this was our introduction to the world. 

I’ve seen the feedback on this has been unparalleled. How have you found the reception from the streets, radio and TV so far? 

Neon: Oh man, the shit’s been real crazy and totally overwhelming. We never really expected the kind of reaction we have received and are still kinda surprised by it. The streets in particular have shown us mad love; especially at all the shows we have been performing it. For us that’s the ultimate man. Even if it’s just one kid that comes up to us after the show and gives us a pound, that’s the real love right there. It makes us wanna work harder at what we do and make sure elevate the standards for the next project.

Will we see some more material from Land Mynz in the future and if so who and when?

MrC: We are currently busy in the lab working on Perigo Minas Vol.2, which if all goes right should be in stores around September/October. We are trying to get proper distribution for that one so that it’s available across the land. We also in the process of signing this very dope cat from Soweto, whose name I can’t mention right now. Hopefully his EP will also come out before the end of the year. Then next year we’re looking at the official LandMynz album around February March, then solo albums from Neon and then MrC later on.

What is LandMynz and what is the purpose of this organization?

LandMynz : Currently LandMynz Entertainment is primarily a record label, but there’s big plans being put in place to expand into other areas of entertainment. We are looking at developing a monthly hip-hop show probably to kick-off with the launch of Perigo Minas Vol.2 in September. The ideas we have for the show are on some next-level/ first-time in SA kinda shit so people should be on the lookout for that, its gonna be huge. Then we’re also looking at a Clothing Label which should also happen during the course of this year. Later on we wanna move into areas like Artists Management, be a Full-Production House and eventually also setup up a Film Production House in the company. The purpose really is to provide all-around entertainment that is mainly structured around hip-hop. We feel that since we have more resources than a lot of other talented cats our there, then we can offer them a platform to realize and achieve their goals and take their art to the next level.

Who does production in your squad?

MrC: I handle most of the production for the Clique. DeePea has done a couple of beats for other projects we previously worked on and Neon is also starting to slowly dabble in beat-making.

What tools do you use to make beats?

MrC: I use FLStudio 4 & 5. That’s the main ingredient right there. I use CoolEdit for recording, Wavelab for Editing, Cubase for mixing. Just got my hands on Reason and Protools which I hoping to learn quick enough, but for now the tools I have do the job pretty well. This is continuously a learning process.

And recording, where is this done?

MrC: We have a little setup at my house we call the LandMynz Factory. That’s where everything gets done, the beat, the song-writing, initial recording. Once the track is done and we’ve got all the little bells and whistles then we take it over to a more professional setup for the final recording. For this project we used Base2Base Studios in Yeoville. For the next project we gonna shop around for other recording studios, we really want a bigger sound this time around. 

Where do you draw your inspiration from?

LandMynz : Music. Music. Music. We have a wide range of artists we listen to from Prince, Kool G Rap, Stimela, Nirvana, Brenda Fassie, Nas, Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrixx, we listen to almost everything man. Listening to all those great artists alone is a huge inspiration. It makes us wanna do timeless music that will be relevant for generations to come.

You guys came out with a totally different angle wedging sharp blades into the comfort zones of SA Hip Hop. This is one of the dopest compilations I’ve heard from SA. Nuff props and I hope that many people buy this shit from the shops. Any last words?

LandMynz : Thanks to everybody that has shown us love from day one. Your support is really appreciated. Bigger and Better things are bound to come. Big ups to Africasgateway.com, africanhiphop.com, haramberafrica.com, hiphopcalypse, beneathdasurface.com and all the other sites out there pushing local hip-hop. Big Ups to all the artists that made the first mixtape. Big Ups Slaghuis, SplashJam, 1808 in Pimville, BattleGround, KasiMental and ROACH cats holding shit down in Pretoria. Perigo Minas Vol.2 baby, coming in September. Keep Hip-Hop Alive ya’ll !

DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE MIXTAPE HERE

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