Adam Haupt in Cape Town
HIP-HOP subculture is alive and kicking in Cape Town. Spots such as Angels, in Green Point, represent the tip of the hip-hop iceberg here. While devotees gather there ever so often to do their thing, the culture doesn’t stop with rap, but graffiti art has been taken to dizzy heights as well.
Graffiti maestro Evron Orange of Athlone, for example, is a graphic design student at Peninsula Technikon. In fact, he has recently designed a larger-than-life mural for the Technikon’s resource and writing centre. His surreal design, which features the image of a baby kneeling before a computer monitor along with a profile of an extremely hip intellectual, is apt.
This is so not merely because its representation of young black aspirations speaks directly to the very process of learning that is meant to take place at the centre, but also because one of hip-hop’s central aims is black upliftment. Orange’s work subtly suggests that upliftment should take place through the spiritually rewarding process of education, as opposed to the accumulation of wealth.
Cape Town’s most influential and successful hip-hop crew, Prophets of da City, have committed themselves to this aim in interesting ways. In Shaheen’s own unmistakable words during a previous interview: “Hip-hop is about no compromise. It’s about saying your shit. It’s about doing your shit.”
The degree of censorship and repression that POC’s Age of Truth generated bears testimony to their essentially black consciousness agenda. Their return to South Africa from the United Kingdom marked a new approach to realising their objectives. They committed themselves to developing young talent. This included providing young acts with studio time as well as participating in the recent Rhyme Unit Feed the Needy Concert.
They joined Deen Louw in organising Rhyme Unit’s feeding scheme, which depends solely on non-cash donations from the Mitchell’s Plain business community. POC’s participation in the concert was not a once-off thing as a number of young artists, such as Mr Devious, are under the crew’s wing.
According to Louw, a number of these acts will be released under the Polygram label with POC manager Lance Stehr’s assistance.
After the release of POC’s long-awaited Ghetto Code, albums are to be released by Brasse Vannie Kaap (BVK), Deen Louw (to be known as Dee Lo), Skeem, Ishmael and Four Feet Deep. Shaheen and Dion are apparently involved in these projects.
They have, for example, produced Louw’s songs, which combine elements of rap, R&B and kwaito. Louw is excited about Ishmael’s album, in particular, because a Xhosa cover of a Stevie Wonder song is planned.
Interestingly, one can’t say with absolute conviction that they are US clones. Deen Louw shifts in and out of Afrikaans and Brasse Vannie Kaap (BVK) rap almost exclusively in Afrikaans. BVK’s rof en onbeskof style is conversational and invites audience participation, even between songs.
The ease with which they work the floor has much to do with the fact that Dion is a DJ in their crew. In fact, he’s mentoring BVK’s other DJ. Younger rappers such as Mr Devious, Q-Rock and Four Feet Deep have much going for them but they do tend to slip into the American thing. They may develop their own style as they grow older though.
With the odd exception of Four Feet Deep, female rappers don’t feature too much here. Is this merely because hip hop, particularly gangster rap, has tended to side-line women? Or is the problem situated within society at large? How many famous female rock guitarists are there, for instance?