Shit, Rob, if I knew where this info was going...
The Peasant, an album by Wax Lyrikal from PTA is all political. Only like 1 out of the 13 tracks is not politically. It's all relevant too. It was released in 09 as a free media fire download (
www.mediafire.com/?n28xv99r1a645no). And it's super dope.
Then there's Reason's 'Selfish Politics', a remix of Slum Village's track which is titled the same. It's a track which attacks the current political land scape and the lack of service delivery. It was released on Reason's WenzTheAlbumCominOut mixtape (
http://capital-magazine.blogspot.com/2011/05/selfish-politics.html).
R-Senic and I did a song called The Building on Trompie's Siamese Midnight Remixtape (
http://www.africasgateway.com/forums/index.php/topic,26007.0.html), there was political and social commentary on that.
There's probably a lot more, but none in the mainstream. And the rest of the peeps here on AG can probably list a myriad of songs they're aware of which tackle social issues. And I don't need to tell you why the songs mentioned above aren't/weren't being spun on radio.
The last songs which got some sort of mainstream attention that I can remember right now got banned: Skwatta Kamp (Mr. President) , and Zubz (Get Out).
Just saw your article and it reminded me of this. I completely agree with your article though - not enough social commentary is made in SA hip hop lyrics.
