At regular intervals the band Arrested Development, who arrive in the country this weekend, are at hand to witness South Africa’s politics and the vicissitudes that come with democracy.
When they first visited in 1994, it was during the formative Nelson Mandela years. Hinting at his own insight, bandleader Speech (aka Todd Thomas) says: ”I feel it’s different now. South Africa has a new president.” Clearly he has heard of President Kgalema Montlante.
When they first toured South Africa, they were flush with the success of their debut album, 3 Years, 5 months and 2 days in the Life of— (the time it took them to get a record deal), winner of Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1992.
Today, on the phone from Atlanta, Georgia, Speech recalls those heady days. ”People were still trying to get used to the idea of a new South Africa. Everybody was nervous and people were hopeful that things would come good,” says the leader of the eight-member, crossover hip-hop ensemble that he formed with his friend Headliner (Tim Barnwell), who has since left the band.
The songs on their debut album didn’t naturally lend themselves to pop success, songs such as People Everyday about ordinary lives and black-on-black nastiness; Tennessee, a tune that deals with problems, prayer and hope; and Mr Wendal spoke about helping the destitute.
When the band arrived on the hip-hop scene, anger was in vogue, displayed by the soar-away success of gangsta rap groups like Niggaz With Attittude (NWA), then at the heart of the genre in the 1980s.
They seized the traditional hip- hop beat and incorporated a positive spirit, rootsy melodies and an old country bluesy nostalgia into their music. They went digging deep into the cultural history of the South, where the group is still based. This came with, as they say, the territory.
In the South, where they lived, racism is traditionally at its most toxic and as musicians they felt obliged to make use of many of the Southern traditions. Using Southern motifs also meant they were reaching into the same wells from which Negro spirituals and blues drank. But, crucially, they brought something else, a certain joie de vivre and bouncy spring into their music.
All of this was conscious. Speech understood the searing anger in early gangsta-rap fury in black communities against the police, the government and a justice system.
”The problem [with gangsta rap] is they stayed at the level of anger; they didn’t come up with solutions,” Speech says, volubly. ”While their music brought awareness to the problem, it also made it greater as gang violence rose.”
The attitude that runs through the lyrics of groups such as NWA mutated into noisome strains on the bleak streets where the black man decided: ”I will do whatever it takes to survive. It’s all about me.”
Speech says black men became the biggest perpetrators of spiritual and physical violence against black women and black communities. ”They sold crack and cocaine, our women and mothers were called prostitutes — You’ve got to move beyond anger and show love.”
Speech doesn’t think hip-hop is any different now: ”it’s only the stripes that have changed. Now ghetto youth wonder ‘how do we become corporations?”’ The attitude now is ”do whatever it takes to make money”. The result has been records containing adult content targeted at children, selling clothes, drinks and other wares to black communities at ridiculous prices they cannot afford. This explains why ”we are still active”, eight albums and many singles later.
One way of changing life on the streets is having a responsive president and Speech is optimistic about Barack Obama’s chances in the US presidential elections. ”We think he’s gonna win,” he says, adding that the symbolic and literal value of an Obama presidency will be tremendous. ”If he wins we’d have moved closer to the rights and values we profess. It would mean many white Americans have changed their views about blacks and black leadership.”
The group courted black America’s cultural history and the links with Africa in their music. Their Afrocentricity was not a chic, passing fad, but central to their identity. ”Most African Americans have not understood Africa, their ancestry. For many Africa is still a concept.” This is because slavery severed black Americans from their past, he says.
”We love America, but because of atrocities like police brutality, civil rights abuses, slavery, we still find a need to connect to our time before America. Africa represents inclusion. We want to embrace both.”
Arrested Development perform on October 10 at The Bassline, Johannesburg; on October 11 at Club Galaxy, Cape Town