EDITOR OF HYPE AIMS TO SKOOL THE MASSES ON REAL HIP HOP

By Kopano Marumo


Almost overnight, Mizi Mtshali went from a relative nobody to being the most sought after man in SA hip-hop. Before he was at the helm of Hype magazine, Mizi was just a credible hip-hop producer and a BA in Creative Brand Communications from VEGA to his name.

Now, with no previous journalism experience, he runs ”South Africa’s only hip hop magazine” and one of the biggest youth culture brands in the country. At first glance, he paints a meek picture. He is a big guy with glasses and appears to only speak when spoken to.

One can’t help but envision him sitting in front of a computer for hours trawling the net for the one. All misconceptions are thrown out the window once he starts talking. He fears that he may be rambling. But even though he tends to, he does make some sense. Hip-hop heads, pay attention, the gatekeeper speaketh!


Name: Mizi Mtshali
Age: 24
Position: Editor of Hype Magazine

Q: What do you bring to Hype that was lacking before?
A: What was lacking before comes through in the new features. Scenez forces the whole country to be covered. Before, we couldn’t see what was happening in the Eastern Cape at a grass roots level but now we are featuring street cyphers, small events. This is a positive as every little person now has a platform.

We are now advising recording companies with the Top Five Unsigned MCs. To date three artists now have recording contracts. So we want to reach and influence the industry.

Q: Why do you think you were given this position?
A: I know hip-hop, SA hip-hop specifically. Since I am a producer I have been part of it. Musically I know what’s good. I can hear it. Someone else, who doesn’t know what music is all about, would let that diluted hip-hop slide into the mag.

While most people just handed in their CVs and chilled, I put in a lot of work into putting together a proposal and describing a vision for the mag.

Would you have been surprised if you hadn’t attained the job?
Yes. I submitted over 50 pages of stuff. No other applicant had put in as much work as I had. It had even gotten to the point where they were consulting with me. My vision was clear, it made a lot of sense and it appeared to make a lot of sense to them too.

Q: What is your vision?
A: I want to school people. Make a balance between mainstream, accessible music and developing, underground music. I tend to lean towards the underground stuff, as there is valuable information there that can help other up and coming artists. In fact, Hype sessions will have no major label artists on it. Mainstream artists already have a platform on radio etc.

Some people make a conscious decision to make music for the streets. In my vision, the point of Hype session is to give a platform to people that wouldn’t normally have one on a national level. MCs like Ben Sharpa do not make music for radio but it deserves to be heard by the country.

Q: From which point of view do you put the mag together, Editor or businessman or industry role-player?
A: All aspects of my life contribute to my approach. I must approach the mag as a business first and foremost or else there will be no mag to run. My creative background affects the finished product. My producer background helps me pick out what’s good.

Q: What is true hip-hop?
A: I am a hip-hop purist. I have listened to hip-hop from the beginning. The golden era of hip-hop (early 90’s) was all about nice lyrics, dope production with all the elements of hip hop being on point. None of them were compromised. Each received the same amount of effort.

That hip-hop is my point of reference. I can’t explain what true hip-hop is but it can just be felt. It isn’t a technical thing but a feeling. Anyone can lace a beat with 16 bars and a chorus.

Q: What is not true hip-hop?
A: That’s the problem with being a hip-hop purist; you feel like it is the only hip-hop so you want to keep it that way. Crunk is not hip-hop. Crunk is horrible! It is diluted hip-hop that is lyrically weak and it is all about the beat. They only rap to fill the song and to make it sound like hip-hop. Even I could be a crunk artist.

In South Africa, kwai-hop is diluted hip-hop. (He declined to supply examples)

Q: Who fits your definition of hip-hop locally?
A: Tumi, Zubz, Pro-verb, Optical Illusion. I feel Pretoria hip-hop is pure hip-hop. Cats like The Anvilz, Damola take pride in their lyrics. It’s all about the scripts. They always want to up their game and be better than the next guy.

Q: If these guys are true hip-hop in your point of view, why have they yet to make it big?
A: Hip-hop in the states is successful as the music is designed for their environment. We haven’t really seen or assessed our environment properly. Purist hip-hop is based on New York style hip-hop, which is all about the lyrics and the music.

People travel in subways and cabs and that calls for headphone music, as there is no need to get in the car and bump your music so the lyrics and the beat are important. In the South, there are big open spaces. Its all about who can hear you two blocks away and so the music reflects that. So it is all about sounds and dancing. It’s all about catering for your environment.

Q: So what kind of environment do we have?
A: If anyone knew that, hip-hop in this country would sell. Some people are making music for people to dance but that only serves to cater for the markets of other genres. We have to know the industry. SA is not being covered! SA hip hop needs to grow into an industry.

We can’t call it an industry when the biggest selling artist only sells 18 000 copies.

Q: How can it grow?
A: The underground cats all feed the same market, which is tiny. You can’t make money as guys if we are targeting each other. New hip-hop markets must be found. Hype for one sells more in the outlying areas of big cities like in Northern Natal and Mpumalanga. People are hungry for hip-hop but are not being targeted or catered for.

Hype sells 30 000 copies every two months so can you. Follow the locations where Hype sells.

Q: How do you deal with pushy A&R’s and artists and management etc? Are you ever undermined?
A: Yes, lots of people are asking each other what is my experience, what have I done before? I don’t know if undermining is the right word. I think hating is the correct one! I know because I came out of nowhere, it is natural for them to enquire why?

People have tried to push me around; some people who had relations, good or bad, with the previous editor, bad mouth him to get my favour. But I am always conscious of the fact that they are just trying to push units as a manager.

Q: Why did you apply for the job?
A: Before this job, I was working on my graphic designing company, mostly government clients. It was getting monotonous and boring and personally I wasn’t growing. I’ve always wanted to be in a position to influence hip-hop positively so when the opportunity came up I went for it.

Q: Do you think after Hype you will go into more publishing roles?
A: No. I don’t particularly like the publishing industry. If it weren’t for the link to hip-hop, I wouldn’t be doing this.

Q: You’ve been accused of bias with regard to pushing Pretoria hip-hop much more than any other city- are you biased?
A: I actually think that the mag is more Cape Town than anything else. I think it’s a fair coverage of Pretoria. I am from there so it is my first point of reference. I have collected stuff from all over the country. But I do trust in Pretoria. Its hip-hop is really good, lyrically and production wise.

Q: How is this job affecting your beat-making? Less beats less often?
A: I am not trying to produce, as I don’t want to compromise my integrity. The latest projects which I began working on a year ago are, Zubz’s “Headphone Music in a Parallel World” and Tumi’s “Music from My Good Eye”. So for now I am not committed to any projects, just concentrating on the mag.

Q: How has your life changed?
A: This job has changed the way the industry sees me. Groups and artists that wouldn’t give me the time of day before when I was just a producer from Pretoria now want my attention. I have become the guy that judges other people’s music. Never been in that position before!

Q: Does that make it harder to judge? Is there pressure on you because you were in their position before?
A: No. There’s no pressure. I know what’s good music. I don’t feel bad for rejecting music for the Hype sessions, as there is a certain goal that I am trying to achieve.

Q: Has this made you unpopular?
A: Yes, I’ve made a lot of enemies. But I’ve dealt with rejection myself and accepted that I had to step my game up. Guys should also be able to accept. So I can’t feel bad about it.

Q: Besides Hype sessions, this is a hard job that faces plenty criticism? How do you deal with that?
A: Hype as a brand is very arrogant and conceited. People are opposed to that but that is what hip-hop is. It’s good though as it makes the mag very topical. The brand image is in your face and creates talking points. And that sells copies.

Q: Why do you think Hype is SA’s only hip-hop mag when the US has quite a few?
A: The industry is still very small. No one has taken the initiative to drop another hip hop mag. SA hip hop was only really taken seriously in 2003 after the SAMAs included a Best Hip Hop category. It made no business sense before. When Skwatta won, that gave it credibility. I think it’s just a matter of time.

Hype retails for R18.95 and can be found at book stores and other retailers nationwide. The June/July issue featuring Flabba on the cover is on sale now.

CAN I CALL YOU NIGGA, BROTHER?

By Nick Kaoma

“Why is it offensive if a white man calls a black man a nigger, when it is acceptable for hip-hop artists to call each other niggers?”


I love Sundays. Friends or associates of mine will tell you just how true this is. I always bother them with regular diatribe of how in my books, a lazy Sunday afternoon is verrrrry precious.

Apart from mundane activities such as doing laundry and cleaning the crib, I pleasure myself in just kicking back and listening to some soothing sounds with the Sunday papers in hand.

For some reason, I have always enjoyed columns where the likes of David Bullard and Fred Khumalo wax lyrical about whatever it is that pops into their aging, but nevertheless imaginative minds.

Mindless, irreverent, passionate, ridiculous and controversial are some of the adjectives that spring to mind when one thinks of these opinion pieces, and judging by the amount of letters they generate, I am definitely not the only one who finds them ‘soul-stirring’.

So it was with keen interest that I read Fred Khumalo’s opinion piece titled, “Loaded words that deserve extinction (Sunday Times, March 2007)”.

The valiant columnist, who, picking up on the tone in his speech, seemed elated at the fact that the City of New York has banned the use of the word “nigger”, asked, “Why is it offensive if a white man calls a black man a nigger, when it is acceptable for hip-hop artists to call each other niggers?”

I’m sure Fred was speaking on behalf of a lot people because I have heard this rhetoric countless times. African-American luminaries such as Oprah Winfrey, Rev. Al Sharpton and Bill Cosby have also occasionally come out against this “destructive habit”.

They ask, “Why would black people call each other nigger, a term that was used to degrade our forefathers?” And “how can young black people call themselves nigger when our ancestors sacrificed their lives so that that word would never be used again?”

Well I say: these are all pertinent questions, so much so that they occupy a fair share of my thoughts on a daily basis. However people can choose to look at this matter from different angles and one of the angles surprisingly underscores the stupendous power that black people have amassed over the past centuries.

It’s safe to say that in the history of mankind, no other race has had it worse than black people! We have been colonized by probably every other race; Arabs, Europeans, Asians have all had a pass at us for centuries. Despite all of this, black people found it in them to overcome slavery, apartheid and other forms of oppression to realize the liberty that every human being is entitled to.

The fact that we were able to overcome such difficult conditions without losing our essence or soul means that we are a special breed - don’t let those fools on CNN make you believe otherwise!

Now, during that exciting time of post-slavery, a phenomenon developed in the USA: black people started calling each other nigger, at first it was probably in a teasing attempt to put each other down, kind of in the same way that you’ll hear a black person in Mzansi referring to a friend as having kaffir hair or a kaffir butt.

But in due time the psychological undertone of the word “nigga” changed, suddenly it could express affection and love towards the next man. Personally it sounds very reassuring when a close friend says, “you’re my nigga man, and you know I got your back”.

I have even heard Russell Simmons affectionately refer to his friend and business associate (the very white) Donald Trump as “my nigga” (LOL).

This reversal in the usage of word has understandably confused many, but so where does one draw the line? Consider this, a popular Caucasian radio personality, Imus, unleashed a hailstorm upon himself earlier this year after he referred to black women on the Scarlett Knights basketball team as “nappy-headed ho’s”.

According to MTV, he also used words such as “jiggaboos” and “wannabes”, comparing them to fictional characters from Spike Lee’s film, “School Daze”. The aging and frail-looking DJ has been subsequently fired from his radio show by his employers CBS despite apologizing repeatedly.

The predictable American media has now decided to focus its energies on other public formats that are a catalyst for such behaviour and guess what: hip-hop is already Public Enemy No.1, again!

Speaking to MTV, self-appointed activist for the marginalized, Rev. Al Sharpton mentioned that discourse will be initiated with the hip hop community to see if consensus can be found somehow with the usage of certain emotive language. "We have for a while said to the hip-hop community that we believe in free speech, but at the same time, we also have the right to say this whole sexist, racist overuse of the word 'n---a' and 'ho' we need to deal with in our community," he said.

In this whole debacle that seems to resurface every now and again like an irritating skin rush, I concur with the sentiments aired by the Godfather of hip-hop himself, Russell Simmons. "Hip-hop is a worldwide cultural phenomenon that transcends race and doesn't engage in racial slurs," he said through his Hip-Hop Summit Action Network.

"Don Imus' racially motivated diatribe toward the Rutgers women's basketball team was in no way connected to hip-hop culture. ... Don Imus is not a hip-hop artist or a poet. Hip-hop artists rap about what they see, hear and feel around them, their experience of the world.”

“Like the artists throughout history, their messages are a mirror of what is right and wrong with society. Sometimes their observations or the way in which they choose to express their art may be uncomfortable for some to hear, but our job is not to silence or censor that expression. Our job is to be an inclusive voice for the hip-hop community and to help create an environment that encourages the positive growth of hip-hop."

Personally I feel a profound sense of victory when I or my close associates use the word “nigga”. They say great people are not great because they don’t have weaknesses, but they are great because they are able to transform their weaknesses into strengths.

When I use the word “nigga”, I bear in mind that this word was used to connote hate and demean black people and that our indefatigable nature has allowed me to reverse that psychological impact by using that very same word to express brotherhood.
So sorry Reverend Sharpton, Ms. Oprah, Fred and everybody else, I find no problem in calling my close buddies “nigga”. So big shout-outs to my niggas Jermaine and Sivu for helping make Encore Magazine a reality.

(Nick Kaoma is the publisher of theencoremag.blogspot.com – Mzansi’s premier online music magazine. Off the Wall is his favourite Michael Jackson album)

BONGIWE WALAZA: AFRO-COUTURE FASHION FOR THE 21ST CENURY

Last year, Bongiwe Walaza’s dress worn by Miss South Africa contestant Catherine Reiters made it to the front page of the Sunday Times for being “too revealing”.

That Sunday, the eventual winner landed on page three, suggesting that perhaps she was not as newsworthy as the dress that caused all the trouble. That incident was merely the latest in a long line of fortunate incidents that have characterized her career in the fashion industry since the late Nineties.

Her work lies outside of trends but still influences them, to such an extent that people have continuously asked if she was part of the inaugural Stoned Cherrie team.

The fact is she wasn’t. She was just one of the pioneers of Afro chic, which has since become a staple in the industry. She spoke to Kwanele Sosibo about her late start in the industry, navigating it successfully and her future plans.


Q: So I hear you initially did not study design?
A: No, I studied for a national diploma in electrical engineering (light current) at Peninsula Tech from 1987 to 1990.

Q: How did you survive that?
A: I had to forget all about designing. My father didn’t approve of it, so I completely forgot. The only reminder was the design students I’d see [on campus]. My heart would be torn apart, in a way. I eventually worked as an engineer for seven years.

Q: How did you eventually move into designing?
A: I used to make dresses for myself and people showed interest. I used to design for colleagues and people would come to my house asking me to make them stuff so I decided to study it.

Q: You were already good at it, why study again?
A: I would buy books on designing and pattern making, you know. I could do patterns from looking at them but I was still not satisfied because I could see the difference and you could tell which one was homemade but my clients were nevertheless still impressed.

Q: So how old were you when you studied fashion?
A: This was around 1997. I was 33 years old but I never considered that. At one stage my father and I were studying at Unitra at the same time. I wasn’t the only old student and I didn’t appear my age, anyway. I was already married and my husband was doing his articles in accounting. We were basically living by the grace of God.

Q: So how did your career kick off?
A: In my first year, I won a competition that was not usually for first year students. Initially, I didn’t want to participate but the school (Natal Tech) made it compulsory for everyone.

It was also open to professionals with less than three years of experience in the industry… I won a lifetime subscription to True Love magazine and a 10-day trip to Paris, spending time with top international designers and attending a fashion fair.

In 1998, I won the Smirnoff Fashion Award and later I was a finalist at the Durban July. In 2000 I joined the Young Designers Workshop in Braamfontein.

Q: By then had you made a name for yourself?
A: In the student field, yes! I entered the M-Net-Anglo Gold Africa Designer competition and was chosen as one of those to showcase stuff in the New York Fashion Week. That’s when my name was known.

For me then, the excitement was just going to New York; I didn’t approach the whole thing as a business opportunity. I didn’t even have business cards. And when they’d ask me: “Where are your outlets?” I’d tell them I don’t have any.

Because of that exposure in New York, I was allowed to participate in Fashion Week in 2002. As someone fresh from school, you can’t showcase at Fashion Week, you’re supposed to go through the young designer’s showcase.

Later that year, I won the Turfontein Designer Cup, where I won six sewing machines. I started getting invitations overseas. The embassies would call me if they wanted something traditional and modern, which showcased the current time. 2002 was a big year. I went to Japan, Switzerland, India, Vietnam, Singapore and I also participated in the Milan Emerging Designers Fashion Week.

Q: How did the traveling enhance your work?
A: It was a mind opener, not only in influencing my design skills, but it (traveling) affected my perception and thinking.

Q: How did you get your label off the ground?
A: I’ve always operated as Bongiwe Walaza. It was only through Fashion Week and all these other events that I got known. I’ve never had a marketer. It’s really been word of mouth and dressing these characters that are known in the media and through the buyers of Edgars that attend Fashion Week and see the response.

Q: Tell us about your label at Edgars.
A: They wanted me to design casual wear for them. I had a lot of names in mind, but I chose Bozza. The BO is from Bongiwe and the ZA is from Walaza, but I just put another Z to make it look vibey.

Q: Was there a lot of pressure to produce?
A: There wasn’t a lot of pressure in the sense that we are only required to make samples and give it to them (Edgars) and they make the clothes for themselves.
There was pressure in the beginning because they didn’t know what they wanted from us we’d come with sketches then they said they wanted samples, then they didn’t want samples, it was experimentation. I think they weren’t ready for us.

Q: What’s expected of you?
A: Every two months we submit a range. So that’s six collections a year.

Q: How has that responsibility affected your business?
A: In the beginning it affected my business in a bad way. But this year I will plan more in advance. Last year, decisions were made haphazardly.

Q: How are you handling the Vlisco deal?
A: They came to me and asked me to help promote the fabric locally. They’ve got celebrities who are known as ambassadors of the brand like Graca Machel. They approached me before Fashion Week so I asked them to sponsor me with fabric for Fashion Week in return.

Q: What’s your approach to trends? How do they affect what you make?
A: There are so many designers so there’s no point in just offering people what they like or what they want. Your originality shouldn’t be affected, depending on [the strength of] your concepts. I love elegance and doing something with an Afro touch. It doesn’t have to be a fashion trend.

A fashion trend starts when a designer comes up with an idea and a celebrity wears it. Once they [celebrities] wear it, people will like it and it sets a trend. A designer that follows fashion [trends] will make that same outfit.
I focus a lot on the finish of a garment. It must be well-stitched and well-ironed, not necessarily fashionable but appealing.

Q: What are your plans for your business in 2007 and beyond?
A: It’s a process to go from being a designer to being a business person. It’s still a process for me and I’m working hard at learning. So I’ve started with accountants and I have employed designers but the core of the business still has to be me.

LUNGELO BRINGS A FRESH NEW SOUND - BUT ARE THE MASSES READY FOR IT?

Gugulethu native, Lungelo, has come full circle. Not too long ago, he was grinding and hustling like any other artist in the notoriously unreceptive Cape Town underground music scene.

His charisma, hunger and determination (not too mention the tight voice and production skills), have however catapulted him to the national stage with the big dawgs of Mzansi’s music scene, where screaming honeys bay for a peek of his six-pack and playing-hating fellaz pray for his downfall all at the same time.

Our publisher, Nick Kaoma, sat down with the man behind the controversial “Dirty Girl” song for a chat, mano a mano, about the struggles of life, the meaning of success and exciting new projects such as Spazashop.


Q: So, when and how did your love affair with music begin?
A: It started when… its actually one of my big life stories, I was about nine years old growing up with my uncle, right after my father passed and we’d go to this hotel/casino, the Amathoya Sun, and while having supper with the family I noticed a pianist playing and I was immediately smitten with what he was doing.. and that’s where the love began, I was really interested in it.

After that everything became about a piano. At home, I started asking if they could buy me a keyboard; they were reluctant but I cried and begged until they let in. So when they got me the keyboard I booked the very same guy who was playing at the casino for lessons.

At first he said, “I don’t teach”, but I offered to pay him R5 per lesson if he agreed. So he reluctantly took me on and he became my first music teacher. After that it was on. I started playing at church, while creating and writing my own stuff.

So it grew on me, until I realized that it was my calling. At school, it became my claim to fame; you know I started getting attention from chicks because of it. It became the only thing that made sense to me and I loved it to bits.

Q: Did you study music?
A: Yeah, I studied composition in jazz; I studied piano as well. I went to P.R.O.M.T.


Q: Would you say that you gained a lot from studying music academically?
A: Yeah, they taught us a lot. We learnt about stage dynamics and many other important musical things. That’s where [P.R.O.M.T.] most of Cape Town’s musical talent went to and was honed before people started rebelling against it all because it was being run by a British guy.

On a personal level, music school helped me with the discipline, the technical theory and because of that I’m a better musician.


Q: Why name your debut album Collision?
A: Because that’s how it happened. I met Ryan [co-producer] from Soniclab and we one day found ourselves in the studio. We started jamming and before you knew it, we had four tracks in the bag, and they were hot.

I put them on a CD and gave them to a couple of club DJ’s and the feedback I got was that people were feeling them. Soon one of the tracks made its way to the Top 10 at Good Hope before I even had the opportunity to mix it properly.

So everything was like… (does smashing motion with his hands). Even our mode of working, we wouldn’t come with a planned way of doing it. We would just go with the flow. Everything was just boom, bang hence the name Collision.

Q: You were obviously in the Cape Town underground music scene for a number of years; how was that period for you?
A: It gave me a lot of character bra, and I always know what goes down in my hometown. And through it all, I picked up some very important lessons. I learnt that you really have to struggle and strive for what you want and that’s the reason I decided to do Spazashop.

Q: Spazahop! Tell us a little about that.
A: It’s basically a collaborative compilation album with various peeps, mainly from Gugs (as in Gugulethu, for the ignorant). All of the underground hip-hop cats would just come to the studio and I would just put the beats to go. We have cats like Driemanskaap, Kritsi, Soldier, Spencer, and a whole lot of other talented peeps on the album.

Q: Sell your album to us, why should we bother with the album? What does it have to offer me as the consumer?
A: It’s a collision into the stereotype that to be respected in Mzansi you have to be on that exact local sound or flavour; it is well-balanced album with a sound that has global appeal.

MTV, Channel O… jeeez, all those cats are loving it! It’s really a collision, I don’t care who you are or what you listen to, there’s something for everyone on the album. It’s like nothing that is out there; it’s definitely a fresh sound!!

Q: How’s everybody receiving it (the general public, the media etc.)?
A: I’ve been very humbled by the response and I appreciate all the coverage and respect that I have garnered. At the end of the day this is my first album, so there are still people that don’t know yet what I’m about.

It’s cool when I’m ekasi and hear a car passing by with full blast on “Dirty Girl”; I just dig that! And the live feedback that I get when I perform at shows like the Kanye West concert is also incredible; it’s an amazing thing being able to move a crowd of 20 000 people.

Otherwise, to those who still don’t know who or what I’m about, they will certainly find out very soon!

Q: What were the highlights for you in 2006?
A: There is a couple. Of course I have to mention performing alongside internationally renowned acts like Pharell, Snoop Dogg, Sean Paul and Kanye West, and actually meeting them. I mean I’m still in touch with Snoop Dogg’s bass player.

Rubbing shoulders with these cats does something to you; it’s like a pat on the back that ‘bra, you did it’. I got a lot of inspiration from that crowd in those numbers; just seeing those hands waving side to side was an adrenaline rush for me. Other highlights were the Miller Music Tour, we toured everywhere with that. You know with that tour it was the first time I saw a Jacuzzi erected ekasi joe and peeps were digging it, so it was definitely a cool thing to be part of.

But I think 2007 is gonna be bigger for me, it’s the 7 baby, Lungelo is after all 7 letters.


Q: What is favourite track on the album?
A: My latest single, “cheri kabani”, which has been released to radio and start promoting full on.

Q: Why “cheri kabani” out of all the songs on the album?
A: I love the concept of the track and the inspiration behind it. I really dig the hook on that soon; I also like “Collision”, for similar reasons. I also love “Where I’m from”; I like what it represents and I featured some of my best friends on it.

Q: Tell us about your controversial video of “Dirty Girl”? What went into it?
A: Obviously, some people see it as very controversial and I always have to explain the meaning of that track. Be that as it may, peeps need to understand that I’m growing up and I’m exploring my sexual side, I’m just expressing myself; the track is simply a sexual expression from LUNGELO.
On the video, I teamed up with Groundglass, a local film production company; it was real cool, everybody was nice and tipsy. And I must blow my own horn here, right after that video many peeps start taking the black and white direction.

Q: Being a Capetonian yourself, how do you feel about the notion that CT cats are unreceptive and unsupportive of new music?
A: My take on that is that Capetonians will not just bite any wack shit that is given to them. Capetonians are very good and discerning music listeners. You have to throw a really good bait if you want them to listen.

I saw that when I introduced my music to them, it was different but they got it. Cape Town is the only place where you’ll find a club playing four different types of music genres in one night, from trance, house to hip hop.

Q: In closing, who do you genuinely look up to in the music industry?
A: Oliver Mtukudzi, the guy can pack up a stadium anywhere in the world. Abdullah Ebrahim, my favourite pianist and former teacher.

IS LUPE FIASCO THE ANSWER TO HIP HOP'S ILLS?

When the nerdy-looking native Chicago released his first single, Kick Push, hip hop heads took notice immediately. The resultant buzz positioned his debut Food & Liquor as a highly anticipated affair. As good as the album is, is it fair to put the livelihood of the genre in his hands? Kwanele Sosibo finds out.

Is Lupe Fiasco the saviour of hip-hop? That question is troublesome because it immediately assumes that hip-hop, a genre that is so dear to many is in need of saving. It doesn’t. Hip-hop is doing better than ever, growing from strength to strength.

Ever since DJ Kool Herc manually looped a section of a record at a block party in the Bronx some 30 or so years ago to create a break beat, what some dismissed as a passing fad has become the most influential and mimicked culture on this earth, making billions for exploitative record labels, and turning thousands of ghetto and uptown children the world over into independent cultural producers and millionaire entrepreneurs.

Lupe Fiasco, raised in a ghetto on the west side of Chicago by a well-traveled gourmet chef mother and a percussionist father who found Islam in the military, is just one of those entrepreneurs.

His record label 1st and 15th Entertainment, which he started a half a dozen or so years ago at the tender age of 19, basically helmed his entire debut album Food & Liquor, releasing it through a joint venture with Atlantic Records last year.

Calling Lupe the saviour of hip-hop would be tantamount to buying into the often-bandied about theory that all or most hip-hop music is obsessed with materialism, endorsing the status quo and denigrating women. It isn’t. There is no such thing as “your average rapper”. That is patronizing to the culture.

But if your only access to the music is commercial radio, satellite television and the SABC’s three channels, you can be forgiven for thinking rap music is generally shallow, grotesque, misogynistic or my favourite, “dead”. You can be forgiven for thinking that b-boys sell Chappies bubblegum for a living.

Okay some might, and Too $hort did invent the term “beeyatch”, but the point is that beyond the apparent sea of sameness, hip-hop is propelled forward by stylistic innovations, which, I concede, have been lacking in the mainstream for some time.

Record labels need to survive and that “commercial” style that we might disdain is what brings in the dollars. In the wider hip-hop terrain, however, Lupe with his bookish and nerdish approach, and “dressed up” social commentary, is not an anomaly and therefore not a saviour.

And since mainstream, by definition, means “the ideas, actions and values that are most widely accepted by a group or society”, then the 24 year-old is one of those who have obviously chosen to swim against the current.

Usually, decisions like that are not made out of a need to extend benevolence, but because a said individual truly feels comfortable doing things his way.

I’m purely speculating here, but my guess is Lupe couldn’t make his music any darker or sweeter than it already is. There is earnestness about him. The fact that his is a lucrative formula is purely happenstance.

Make no mistake about it, Lupe is purely mainstream. Pushing 80 000 copies on the first week of release validates this claim.

But if you’re not convinced, here is further proof of his ubiquity: The day before the writing of this article, I went to visit a black skater friend of mine who raved about having heard the metaphoric, deck-referencing Kick, Push on Glenzito’s Metro FM drive time show earlier that Friday afternoon.

When the song was over, he flipped to YFM only to be confronted with the waning strains of the loosely penned manifesto Real. Two weeks before, I had woken up, somewhat hung-over on a sunny Saturday noon, to Jill Scott’s luxurious pipes on Daydreamin’, the album’s satire about hip-hop’s penchant for excess. The dial this time was on 5FM.

While writing this very sentence two Saturdays later, Lupe Fiasco suddenly appeared on MTV Base with his ode “to rebels looking for a place to be”, sandwiched between Prokid’s threats of sorcery on Storm and E-40’s attempts to get to “you and that booty” ( on U & Dat).

The legendary Twista, who should’ve known better, appeared next, his first lines being something about his “gold teeth, gold chain…”

Okay, fine. Hip-hop is slightly out of balance, with its elders knowing no better, shaming them with his youth; Lupe is offering a different voice, telling a different story. But he once told hip-hop magazine Elemental that “I don’t truly believe I’m the Great Reviver, prophesied to come back and save hip-hop.”

So why do the critics keep insisting? Because rarely have the personal and political met in such a nuanced, non-threatening and ready-to-be-sold manner.

Because he’s a Muslim - not just any Muslim in hip-hop’s long-standing fascination with Five Percenters and such - but an orthodox one who believes that “terrorism is condemned in Islam”; A record label existing in paranoid post 9/11 America needs “a nigger” to say that.

Quite importantly as well, he actually writes beautiful lyrics that to the untrained ear pass off for harmless fodder. He is also incredibly shrewd. Lupe was lectured on brand building by none other than Jay-Z, who besides appearing on a verse, is one of Food & Liquor’s executive producers.

In nobodysmiling.com, Lupe proffers that the game is “10% music and 90% everything else”, explaining the calculation that all-round “mathematics” droppers like Ras Kass, Canibus and Chino XL forgot to do, hence their fall into obscurity.

Hence the calculated side deals: the Reebok sneaker gig that preceded his debut album, the clothing and design company Righteous Kung Fu, the series of Farenheit 1/15 mixtapes, the weekly FNF Radio college radio show hosted from the Illinois Institute of Technology and the careful alignment with Grammy-winning friends (Jay, Kanye, Pharrell).

It is little wonder that the bespectacled one was nominated for a few Grammys himself, namely Best Solo Performance (Kick, Push), Best Rap Song (Kick, Push) and Best Rap Album. As a clearly shrewd businessman he probably doesn’t even care, but appreciates what it will mean for him and his 1st and 15th partners in the long run.

In an interview with internet station Breakdown FM about his experiences in the industry, Lupe says, “I know what the music business has to offer and I know how to circumvent it and get what I need out of it.”

While Lupe is definitely good for the wider acceptance of hip-hop and the restoration of its conscience, he is, in his own words, merely “an interesting addition to the rap audience”.

I’m not quite sure whether his arrival was scripted in the Qur’an, so to speak.
Still, his largely cameo-free album was refreshingly in-house produced, with sweeping, operatic beats and catchy if not slightly weak hooks. I could argue that Lupe could have upped the ante on the flows but then dizzying patterns can actually be more gimmicky (Bone Thugs anybody?).

But in closing I’ll just say, Lupe is not the Alpha and Omega of hip-hop, he’s just an important soldier to have in the mainstream. We’re thankful he’s not preaching to the converted!


Side note: Lupe Fiasco’s critically acclaimed debut album, Food & Liquor, was released in October 2006 and has sold more than 380 000 copies. His follow up album, tentatively titled The Cool, is scheduled to be released in October 2007. Word from the grapevine also suggests that a new super group, comprising of Lupe, Kanye and Pharrell, is in the works and is set to release a full collaborative effort in early 2008.

BOOK REVIEW - TUPAC SHAKUR BY THE EDITORS OF VIBE

By Nick Kaoma

About ten years ago, I was in a very interesting period of my life. As I had just fallen deeply in love with hip-hop music, I used to spend endless hours bumping the latest hits, international or local, so much so that both my parents regularly threatened that they would sell our decayed Hi-Fi system just so that they can get some tranquility in the house.

Of all the artists that endured the underwhelming speakers of my beloved old-school Tedelex system, none featured more prominently that the late Tupac Amaru Shakur.

I caught on Tupac’s music a little late than most, his earlier albums such as 2Pacalypse Now and Strictly 4 My Niggaz don’t conjure as many fond memories in my head as Me Against the World, All Eyes on Me and Makaveli. So I listened to his music day after day and night after night as if trying to make up for all the lost time.

To me Tupac was an enigma. He was a man who contradicted himself more times that one could have considered possible. He was many things to different people. He was a revolutionary, a brother, a thug, a son, a gangster rapper, a philanthropist and a convicted criminal all at the same time.

Perhaps, it is this – his realness or authenticity – that endeared him to so many in a way that has yet to be seen again in the hip-hop fraternity.

Vibe magazine, a preeminent American urban publication, covered Tupac extensively; he appeared a total of 5 times on its cover. Vibe decided to publish a book or collage of Tupac’s articles and interviews as they appeared in the magazine from 1993 – 1998.

The result is a nuanced book simply titled Tupac Shakur. Aside from articles and interviews, the book also includes brilliant essays and letters written by prominent hip-hop scholars such as Kevin Powers, Dream Hampton, Cheo Hodari Parker and current editor of Vibe, Danyel Smith. Quincy Jones also weighs in on the phenomenon that is Tupac in a concise but poignant foreword.

This book provides an invaluable insight and glimpse into the chaotic life of Tupac. Potent and enthralling images also grace the pages of the book; taken by renowned photographers such as David LaChappelle and David Clinch, they bring the unfathomable Tupac to life in a way that I had never seen before.

If Tupac is someone that influenced you in any way, I strongly suggest that you get yourself a copy of this captivating book, even if it is just to mark ten years since he left us poor hip-hop souls.

COMMON AND CONVERSE JOIN FORCES FOR THE RED MOVEMENT

Common, who is scheduled to release his highly anticipated seventh album Finding Forever later this year, has been selected by popular sneaker company Converse to be the face for its new Ad Campaign dubbed Weapon of Change, in support of (Product) RED.


Converse announced recently that Common, Grammy award-winning hip-hop artist and actor, will be the face of Converse (PRODUCT) RED. Common will appear in Converse's first national print campaign to further support Converse's partnership with (PRODUCT) RED.

The Fall 2007 advertising campaign is entitled "Weapon of Change" featuring irreverent messages and bold illustrations encouraging consumers to be optimistic rebels and become agents of change. The Converse (PRODUCT) RED Weapon(R) will be available exclusively through Foot Locker, Inc. and on www.converse.com.

"Converse approached me to join the (PRODUCT) RED initiative and affect change. I have always felt my purpose is to do for people. Converse and (PRODUCT) RED are about people -- educating and reaching out to people to help humanity. I do this through my music, activism and with people I come into contact with everyday. For me, Converse (PRODUCT) RED allows me to help affect change and have an immediate impact on people. Knowing the contributions from this initiative help people who need it makes it incredible because there's no such thing as small change," said Common.

"This campaign embodies the spirit and soul of Converse (PRODUCT) RED. Common is an outstanding partner who has inspired a generation of musicians, poets, aspiring actors and children through his work. We want to inspire Converse people everywhere toward this kind of energy and creativity - to become agents of change," said Dave Maddocks, Chief Marketing Officer, Converse.

The "Weapon of Change" campaign featuring Common was shot on location in Los Angeles by photographer Bryan Adams. The campaign includes black and white photography with an illustrative overlay giving the campaign visual depth playing on the graphic nature of expression on a blank canvas.

The print advertising will run in national (American) magazines beginning July running through September in Complex, ESPN, Fader, Rolling Stone, Spin and Vibe. There will also be out-of-home billboards, wild postings and bus shelters in Common's hometown of Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City.

The Converse (PRODUCT) RED Weapon will be available nationwide (in the USA) exclusively at Foot Locker, Footaction and Champs Sports and on www.converse.com with a suggested retail price of $75. Additionally, there is a Converse (PRODUCT) RED Weapon Ox available with a suggested retail price of $70.

Converse has two additional print ads to support the campaign launch including "Combat Boot" featuring the iconic Chuck Taylor(R) All Star(R) shoe and "Conscience REQUI(RED)" Chuck Taylor All Star Ox. For over five generations, consumers have used the Chuck Taylor All Star blank canvas to express their originality through art, messages, graffiti and illustration.

This campaign celebrates this expressive medium to inspire consumers to become agents of change by getting involved in (PRODUCT) RED, purchasing (PRODUCT) RED items and designing a MAKE MINE RED shoe on www.converse.com to help stop this global emergency.

In addition to the print and out-of-home campaign, Converse will premiere the Summer Issue of the company's website www.converse.com in mid-June featuring Converse (PRODUCT) RED home page. The site will feature exclusive interviews with Common, behind the scenes footage and Common's first single "The Game" off his seventh album "Finding Forever" on sale July 31. The site will also feature ways for consumers to become agents of change and join the (PRODUCT) RED movement.

Converse will collaborate with celebrated designers, artists and musicians to inspire originality by offering limited edition Converse (PRODUCT) RED shoes each season on a unique canvas that preserve culture and embrace creativity.

Depending on the product sold, 5% - 15% of net sales from Converse (PRODUCT) RED shoes will go to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Geneva, Switzerland). (PRODUCT) RED is an economic initiative created by Bono (U2, singer and activist) and Bobby Shriver (Chairman of DATA - Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), designed to deliver a sustainable flow of private sector money to the Global Fund to invest in African AIDS programs with an emphasis on the health of women and children.


About Converse
Established in 1908, the Converse brand has built a reputation as "America's Original Sports Company"(TM) and has been associated with a rich heritage of legendary shoes such as the Chuck Taylor(R) All Star(R) shoe, the Jack Purcell(R) shoe and the One Star(R) shoe. Converse was the first basketball shoe to ever make contact with the court in 1917. Soon after, Converse gained iconic status with the creation of the Chuck Taylor All Star shoe in 1923, which went unmatched through five decades of professional basketball.


About Common
Common's seventh LP "Finding Forever" will be out July 31 and he will co-star opposite Denzel Washington in "American Gangster" this November 2007, directed by Ridley Scott. He's currently on location filming "Wanted" with co-stars Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy and will soon start work on director David Ayer's "The Night Watchman" starring Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker.

Common made his big screen debut last year as a musical performer in "Dave Chappelle's Block Party" and his acting debut co-starring opposite Jeremy Piven, Ben Affleck, Alicia Keys, and Ryan Reynolds in "Smokin' Aces" for Universal Pictures and writer/director Joe Carnahan. Additionally, Common has written children's books including “The Mirror and Me” which teaches lessons of life, the human spirit, and human nature. His follow-up book” I Like You But I Love Me” was recently nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and his third book, “M.E.” (Mixed Emotions), will be out later this year.

He also started The Common Ground Foundation, an organization dedicated to utilizing the cultural relevance of Hip-Hop to serve as an advocate for justice, education, to fight poverty, and to increase health awareness among youth in underserved communities throughout the United States.


About (RED) (TM) and (PRODUCT) RED
(RED)'s primary objective is to engage the private sector in raising awareness and funds for the Global Fund, to help fight AIDS in Africa. Companies whose products take on the (PRODUCT) RED mark contribute a significant percentage of the sales or portion of the profits from that product to the Global Fund to finance AIDS programs in Africa, with an emphasis on the health of women and children.

Current partners are: American Express (U.K. only), Apple, Converse, Gap, Giorgio Armani, and Motorola. MySpace.com is the first media sponsor in the United Kingdom and MTV Networks is the first media sponsor in the US.

Since its launch in the spring of 2006, (PRODUCT) RED and its partners have raised more than $25 million for the Global Fund. More than $11 million of the (RED) money is already at work in Swaziland and Rwanda providing anti- retroviral treatment for HIV positive individuals, funding HIV prevention programs, feeding and educating children orphaned by AIDS, and providing the 12 cent treatment needed to help prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child. Because of (RED), over two hundred thousand HIV positive mothers in Rwanda and Swaziland have been given treatment to help ensure that their children are born healthy and over 25,000 people are now on lifesaving drugs.


About the Global Fund
The Global Fund is the world's leading funder of programs to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, which taken together kill over 6 million people per year. Created in 2002, the Global Fund has approved grants worth $7.6 billion to programs in 136 countries. Of this, $2.8 billion has been committed to AIDS programs in Africa.

As of May 2007, Global Fund-financed programs had put over 1,000,000 people on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment; had distributed 30 million insecticide-treated bed nets to combat malaria; and had detected and treated 2.8 million TB cases -- which are rising sharply due to co-infection with HIV -- under DOTS, the internationally-approved TB control strategy.

For more information about the Global Fund, visit: www.theglobalfund.org.

Source: Converse

MOTEL7 - A GRAFFITI ARTIST ON A BLONDE MISSIO N

By Larissa Focke

It all started in an airport for local graffiti artist, Motel7. She looked around at all the morbid expressions of the passers-by and wondered, “Why are all of these people so miserable and sad?” This experience inspired her to start drawing characters, all of whom are grouchy, depro and unhappy. Soon she had five large sketchbooks full of drawings. Motel7 looks nothing like her characters. She is young, blonde and pretty. She is a 19-year-old artist, hailing from Claremont, Cape Town. For legal reasons, her real name can’t be divulged. For the same reasons, she may have to change her alias soon. She is one of the only active female graffiti artists, other than Faith47, on the local scene. ENCORE caught up with her to talk about bombing, wheat paste-ups and being threatened by the big boys.


How do you describe yourself and your style?
I am a graffiti and character artist, but I also do other mediums like wheat paste-ups and stickers. At the moment I’m working in a collective called Love Stick, our stuff is all around town. The concept behind my characters is that I want to make people laugh. I’m just taking the piss, basically.


Why the name, Motel? And why the seven behind it?
Motel can be anything, but the 7 makes it unique. At first I used the number 7 just to finish off my tag. Then it just kind of stuck. Cope2 is the biggest artist in New York, he’s a bomber and does throw ups. There are lots of “Copes” around the world, but only one Cope2.


What does graffiti mean to you?
Graffiti has always been a way of life for me. I look at pictures from Europe and America and feel motivated and inspired. It is everything I think and do. It’s a way for me to be creative in a new and exciting way. None of my work is very political; I try instead to make humorous art. My aim is to make people laugh, or even just smile while they’re on their way to work. I look forward to doing art every day when I wake up.


How hard is it being one of the few girls out there on the scene?
Very hard! Most girls get into graffiti because their boyfriends were bombers and writers. It wasn’t like that for me. I wanted to become involved in the scene, I was passionate about it and so I went for it. There are a lot of guys who don’t want girls to be a part of the graffiti scene. Some of them even threatened to beat me up if I didn’t quit.


Hectic, you must really be passionate about art then, to face all these obstacles and still be a part of it.
Yeah, I love it! I love art. But for me, street art and graffiti comes first, above fine art.


Did you ever study art?
I did for a bit, but soon realised it’s not for me. Fine art can sometimes be too academic and pretentious. In the end it’s all about making money, which makes it very commercial. I want to do 3D Animation though, so that I can make my characters evolve and really bring them to life.


So are you going to study 3D Animation then?
Yes, for two years at Universal, in Woodstock. I’m really excited about it!

What inspires you? Which graffiti artists do you look up to?

I’m inspired by New York graff artists and European styles. In South Africa, I’m inspired by Faith47. Being a girl, I can relate to her a lot. Rasky, Mak1, Toe and Falko are artists who made me decide this is what I want to do. All the graffiti artists in South Africa inspire me actually, the way they create art even though everything is against us in this country. Also Fafi, Mist, Bed, Bates, Cope2, Can2, Mode, Dave Kinsey, Freaklub, Sam Flores, Dface, and Banksy. People in general inspire my characters.


Why are all of your characters so miserable?
It’s a subconscious thing. I like my grumpy characters. You can relate to sad people more than you can to happy people and in a way, everyone is sad. It’s also a comment on society, because it’s kind of sad that everyone is so miserable.


When did you get involved with graffiti?
I started painting three and half years ago, doing hardcore stuff, legals and illegals two years ago and street art a year ago.


Ever been arrested?
No, but almost. I’ve been caught though. I think being a girl makes it a lot easier; you can talk your way out of it.


So, if you were invisible, what wall would you paint?
The Wall of Fame in New York - it’s where graffiti all started. Or something very illegal, like parliament.

Motel7’s work, as part of the working collective Love Stick, can be seen in Orchard Bank, Long street and pretty much all over Cape Town. Check out more of her work on www.flikr.com.

BUNNY CHOW DIRECTOR READY FOR THE BIG STAGE

By Kwanele Sosibo

“There was no film industry when I was in high school and there were no filmmakers to aspire to be like,” says director John Barker when I ask him about his entry into the film industry. “Everything was censored back then anyway so you couldn’t really make a film like Bunny Chow.”

What Barker, an art major in high school, is referring to here, is probably not the sex, drugs and rock ’n roll that stitches the deliberate narrative of this movie together, but that his film sort of circumnavigates some of the pressures filmmakers put on themselves in this country’s budding industry; you know the pressure to make grandiose films that centre on apartheid with or make a pantomime out of a nursery rhyme.
“What Bunny Chow is doing, is it’s saying you don’t have to have a story that’s about an epic moment in South Africa,” he continues. “[What you have now] is the same old people doing the same old genres and they are political and angst-driven. Anything outside of that suffers [funding wise]”.

Bunny Chow, which won Barker the Lionel Ngakane Award for Most Promising Filmmaker and one of its stars, Kagiso Lediga, the joint best actor award at the Cape Town World Cinema Festival, is a simple story about a bunch of comedians on the road to a gig at Oppikoppi. Before, during and after the trip, they share some hilarious moments and a few tragic ones.
Comedians, after all, need the tragedy to create the comedy. The gags, the pithy musings that pepper their conversations and the setting probably reveal a whole lot more about South Africa than any pedantic period piece or news bulletin ever could.

Made with virtually no budget except for a bunch of very dependable volunteers, the movie - cloaked in an otherworldly black and white tint and wittily edited - is ingeniously executed and refreshingly unfettered. The world has noticed too.

MTV Films Europe along with DV8 Films’ sales arm Deviant Selling has hopped on the bandwagon, handling world sales. The Rotterdam Film Festival is the last in a queue of major film fests to have validated the film earlier this year, after a buzz that took off while it was being edited for free at Terraplane Studios.

It may be just the flick to open the floodgates for similar local product that, as one Screen International critic put it, “shows the middle finger to the country’s apartheid past”.

Although currently directing traffic at this country’s film crossroads, Barker’s entry into the industry some ten years ago was a deviation from his original plans.

“When I qualified I went to Cape Town to look for work with my graphic design portfolio,” he remembers. “It was naïve of me to think I could get a job in two months to pay rent. So I ended up joining a film set as a runner to make some money and I absolutely loved it. My first day on the set, I ran past the arts department and the art director asked me to mix paint and he was quite impressed. So for the next six months I worked in the arts department, as an assistant to the art director. When the season was finished I went to London to look for work in the film industry. I struggled there because it was competitive. So in between I worked as a waiter making sandwiches until I found work as an assistant on the BBC’s Big Breakfast Show around 1998.”

A grinding resourceful type, Barker used some borrowed props and a cameraman roomie to make a forgettable little film about screwed up bicycle riding thugs called Rasta Dogs, before returning to pass himself off as a director. He landed up at Channel O, where he basically taught himself how to shoot, edit and direct.

“I chose locations and I worked with actors who were working as presenters like Tumisho Masha, Fat Joe and Hlomla Dandala. They were very creative and we had a lot of fun. I was given creative freedom to do a lot of things,” he remembers. “I would suggest to people to go to film school but there is nothing wrong with learning it yourself.”

In 2001, after roughly three years at Channel O, Barker parlayed his stockpiled knowledge into several freelance projects, which included camera work for the South African Music Awards, music videos, inserts for the Phat Joe Show and documentary making with Black Rage Productions. This flowed into Blu Cheez, a mockumentary about a bunch of self-important geek rockers.

“All this time [I was making doccies]; I was learning how to tell stories because I always tell myself: “This is not what I’m going to do forever but I’m going to learn what I can from it”. So I mimicked all the stuff we were doing and I decided to make it more humorous. It was picked up by M-Net and they flighted it a lot [in 2003] which was a surprise. It opened up a lot of doors for me in the industry.”

However, it was the Pure Monate Show’s often improvised and risqué sketches that laid the groundwork for the formation of Dog Pack films, and ultimately, Bunny Chow. “Kagiso (Lediga) drew up the Pure Monate Show,” recalls Barker, who acted and directed the first episode before joining the second season in 2005 as a director.

“That was Kagiso’s thing that he wanted different writers [on the show], like in the States, whereas here we try to save on writers. I was one of the writers and it’s good to write and direct at the same time because you can see immediately what works and what doesn’t. The experiences from that ensemble set up gave me a lot of confidence to forge ahead with Bunny Chow. It’s difficult to go on the road and shoot a film at a rock festival with all these huge egos and with Pure Monate that’s what we did everyday.”

Produced by Lediga and Leanne Callanan and written by Barker along with comedian David Kibuuka under the Dog Pack Films’ banner, Bunny Chow’s success will give impetus to the company’s other projects, like the upcoming carnival-referencing The Umbrella Man, about a bank robbery in Cape Town and the Pure Monate spin-off The Dictator, which is already in script form.

As we’ve come to expect, they will most likely be inventive, simple and entertaining. “People want to see me and you, your relationship to your girlfriend, the South African accents, you being in love with the girl that dissed you for your neighbour,” proffers Barker.

“Like the movie Number 10 [for example], “I bet you they saw Any Given Sunday and thought lets make our own version. That’s crazy. That’s $100 million and you have like R10 million. I think people have to watch more Woody Allen films where it’s just about characters and you just have to write.”

BOUGA LUV GETS HIS BUSINESS SWAGGER ON

Intro by Nick Kaoma

Interview by Lesley Mofokeng

Kabelo, at his young age of 29, has seen and done more than an average person can ever attempt in a lifetime. Born and bred in the historically-lush township of Diepkloof, it goes without saying that the man fondly known as Bouga Luv by his fans had a vibrant and colourful upbringing. What with the music-ridden and alcohol-heavy summer nights of the 80’s and 90’s that parlayed exciting sounds of the likes of Brenda Fassie, Stimela, Joe Nina and Mdu Masilela.

As he said so himself on his 2^nd album, ziyawa eDK and people there really do party like there is no tomorrow bra wami. If you’ve ever listened to TKZee’s timeless records and Bouga Luv’s own solo efforts, it is easy to see that those times rubbed off nicely on him and are firmly entrenched in his music psyche. The melodies, the groovy lyrics, the carefree attitude and that trademark chuckle serve credence to this. It’s been 10 years since Kabelo entered our humble lives.

As a teenager, he recorded Take it Eazy with his childhood friends Tokollo and Zwai (I cannot blame you dear reader if that album doesn’t trigger any memories as not too many people bothered with it); although the market practically ignored the album (maybe the industry just wasn’t ready for that type of sound), to me it was a sign of things to come in the same way that the earth shakes just before a volcano erupts.

Thereafter, Mzansi bore witness to an unprecedented music massacre; TKZee enthralled and captivated the entire nation as they released albums Palafala, Halloween, Shibobo, Guz 2001 and Trinity which went on to sell more than 500 000 copies combined.

The summer hits that sprung from this collage, had chicks shaking everything that their mothers gave them and a bo guluva ba se kasi fronting with their gusheshes all the way from Zola and Eldorado Park to Mitchell’s Plain. International tours came beckoning; money, fly chicks and fast cars followed fast like manna falling willingly from heaven. It was however in this realm of success that Bouga Luv would meet his worst enemy, an enemy that has destroyed the lives of artists as far apart as John Coltrane and Brenda Fassie. Drugs were presumably offered to him by one of those opportunistic Joburg drug peddlers.

It’s hard for a die-hard fan to picture a music hero struggling with such a habit – imagine the frequent nose-sniffing that comes with it and the erratic and uncontrollable behaviour that follows- wooh, crazy stuff! Although the other group members dealt with the problem in different ways, Bouga Luv took on the problem as a challenge that could be turned into a blessing. His current way of life should shut-up any naysayers (the brother ran the comrade marathon and raised R250 000 for charity for crying out loud!).

After kicking the habit he took on the mantle of the ‘hardest working man in kwaito’, releasing platinum album after another creating a stranglehold on the lucrative festive season, just like Jay-Z did in the late 90’s on the other side of the Atlantic. His five albums have sold close to 500 000 copies, thus threatening to overtake his alma mater’s record, something even Moses would have struggled to foresee. I am unfortunately not aware of the album that he feels is his Reasonable Doubt or Kind of Blue, but in my journalistic opinion his latest, Exodus, should be heralded, even if it is for the sole reason that it is the album that marks his exodus from the comfort (and sometimes shackles) of the major labels that control Mzansi music (whether its for its own good or detriment that’s a topic for another day). For anybody that undermines that as an achievement, engrave into your greasy head that the dexterity or skill that is required to do that is lacking in most of your favourite stars; if you doubt my well-calculated words try naming 2 ‘artists’ other than the ‘founders’ of the genre that have forged successful boutique kwaito labels. Exactly! So it is apt that Mr. Kabelo Mabalane is the first record executive to be featured in our inaugural The Biz section of this magazine. The busy mogul-to-be discusses his flourishing deal with international sports brand Reebok, Groove Luv Productions and Bible School (yes, you read that right!). Woza nazo!

What motivated you to set up your own record label "Groove Luv"?

I believe in the principle that if you are not growing you’re dying. My being a record company executive was inevitable; it was time for me to execute what I have learnt in the past decade in the music industry. Besides, I’m not one to shy away from a challenge.

What are some of the challenges you met in this regard and how did you deal with them?

Running a business out of your pocket is never easy, the biggest challenge I suppose is staying focused on what I have set out to do regardless of the mistakes and setbacks that I meet.

What would you say was the biggest lesson you learnt while setting up the label?

Raw overheads, cutting out unnecessary costs that you don’t need; you have to apply the lean and mean principle especially in the early stages of the business.

What have you learnt from the TKZee financial situation where you ended up owing SARS millions of rands? Advice to other artists in this regard?

This ordeal brought to light the fact that record companies then and management agencies turned a blind eye to the tax issue and let the artist figure it out on their own. I was young then and had no advisors; things have changed since then in my life and in the industry regarding tax issues. We are more aware. My advice to other artists is to seek professional advice and take heed of it.

How is the deal with Reebok unfolding?

The Reebok deal has been a blessing requiring lots of work at times especially with regards to the touring and promotion of the brand. Financially, I have benefited tremendously and there are still three more years left in the contract.

Any upcoming developments? New stores/new ranges etc?

Watch this space for a hot new shoe range amongst other things.

How much of a contribution are you making to the actual merchandise?

I have let them run with the clothing side of things, as you can’t really mess up sporting gear. Otherwise on the shoe side of things, I have a bit of a say as to what the design should look like.

What other business opportunities are you interested in?

I am interested in affiliating my brand with other brands in different industries as long as there is a mutual synergy.

Which other music proprietors do you admire and why?

I admire various business people because of their varying business acumen, but of course the boys from TS Records (Sbu and TK) stick out because of their successes and their tactics; I especially admire the way they execute their street guerilla marketing campaigns.

What is your personal business and financial philosophy?

If you can’t afford it don’t buy it.

Are you attending or have you attended any courses to fine-tune your business sense?

I am considering doing an MBA after bible school.

Who advises you?

The word of God is my benchmark for advice as well as my inner circle which is made up of my pastors, colleagues and close friends.

What do you hope to achieve with all these ventures?

I hope to inspire people and show them that if they get their act together the world could be their proverbial playground. I also aim to serve as living proof of God’s saving and restoration power.

How do you feel about your new album Exodus? How has the market received it thus far?

I am satisfied with Exodus and the market has received it wellish but for my standards I feel I could have done better sales wise.

Are you eyeing a SAMA for best Kwaito album? What are your chances?

I have a Kwaito album out there of course I am eying the SAMA, I stand a good chance.