International media production company Nomadic Wax (African Underground/Democracy in Dakar) has teamed up with Genoa, Italy’s DJ Nio, Brooklyn’s Funk Nouveau, Blackler Mastering and producer Eliot Leigh to create a one-of-a-kind World Cup-inspired transnational hip-hop collaboration available for free download beginning June 8th 2010. The 12 minute multi-national musical melange features rappers hailing from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, the United States, and Europe.
“World Cup” is the first of it’s kind and explores the complexities and controversies of this historic event: the first ever World Cup to be held in Africa. According to The Economist, “South Africans themselves are grumbling about the eye-wateringly large amounts of money that FIFA…is poised to make, even though South Africa is bearing most of the cost.” Legendary South African emcee Emile YX (Black Noise Crew) used the ‘World Cup’ track as an opportunity to respond to what is currently happening in his hometown of Cape Town, rapping “We’ll foot the bill just so they can foot the ball.” Emile and 15 other artists from a range of nations, including Italy, Brazil, South Africa, Morocco, and Trinidad-Tobago, among others, rap their verses in French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, and Arabic and explore many of the controversies, benefits, and pitfalls of the historic 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
For more info and to download the track for free visit:
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Today, we’re going to begin with a foundation of Native Tongues lyrical spirituality.
Add 1 1/2 Cups of The Roots circa Do You Want More???!!!?
Fast Forward to the chance meeting at a 2002 Open Mic.
Add 1 MC (Tumi), published in the American Literary Journal, Subterranean Quarterly.
Add The Volume, a multicultural band in an often segregated, post-Apartheid South Africa.
Viola! Tumi and The Volume. Yes, Flight 808 has been out of commission for a few weeks. Or have we just been waiting for a band really worth our time? Either way, we’re back with a treat so special it might as well be in the back of a pedophile’s Buick.
In case you missed the hook, it goes something like this: “It don’t take a rocket scientist to get to the moon/ Every man and woman got their own 10 minute zoom/ People of the light generate a glow in the room/ I hear the wind whispering, I’ll be coming home soon.”
In case you missed Tumi’s raspy, molten flow or the ephemeral twang of live instrumentation… watch it again fool! Or, proceed to peep some of these mp3s.
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For the time being, Tumi and The Volume’s main page is undergoing construction. If you want to learn more and purchase some music– I promise, it’s all as good as the above tracks– hit up their myspace.
…and– why not– here’s one last cut, one for the road.
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Born in Soweto (Johannesburg), South Africa in March of 1977, Kgotso Semela, also known as Ben Sharpa, truly embodies what it means to be hip hop. From the outset, hip hop culture has been likened to collage art (Greg Tate famously compared hip hop to African American pastiche artist Romare Bearden). If you want to understand hip hop, you need to understand the blues, jazz, soul, the civil rights movement, the African tradition of the griot, trickster tales, badman narratives, Muhammad Ali, capoeira, the 5 Percenters, the traditions of signifying and playing the dozens, blacksploitation films, the politics of reggae music, the importance of rhythm and syncopation in African music, post-industrial NYC, the advent of samplers and new technology of the mid ‘80’s and beyond, party music, the importance of expression of style and aesthetics, and so on and so on. To be hip hop is more than to simply say words that rhyme or witty punch lines at the end of every measure. B. Sharpa (like “be sharperâ€, get it?) is hip hop, having spent the last 12 years honing his skills in myriad dimensions (music producer, freestyle emcee, hip hop activist, battle champ, performance artist [hip hop theatre], and lyricist). One video that truly captures Sharpa’s vibe is ‘Hegemony’, a track addressing the police state that Sharpa and his people face on a daily basis. The song’s poignant chorus represents this theme:
Why… do we have a police protection service?
When… their duty is to snatch me and arrest my person,
Who?… The usual suspect verbal Kaizer Soze,
What?… Doing what I must to get by the whole day
As is often the case with gifted emcees that use their talents to promote social change and create political awareness, Sharp’s brilliant aesthetics are often overlooked as fans and critics are often simply lumps him into the “political emcee†category. Truth be told, Sharpa is a brilliant craftsmen and ‘Hegemony’ captures this both in his wordplay (check for the line “we freebase beat breaks at least three days a week basisâ€) and the visuals he creates on screen (check his use of sparse, confined images and settings and the claustrophobic effect they create). Sharpa also does an excellent job of creating visuals (cells, straightjackets, dim lighting, shattered objects, flashing lights) that complement the beat (jagged, stuttering, broken) and theme (unpredictable harassment by authorities) of the song. This video is extremely capable at accomplishing it’s goal of creating within the viewer the visceral feeling of what going through daily life under the constant threat of attack and fear of having your liberties stripped from you. In particular, look for the juxtaposition of the concepts of freedom (dancing on rooftop underneath clear blue skies) and imprisonment (straight jacketed in a confined, four-cornered, dimly lit, smoky corridor). On top of all this, ‘Hegemony’ captures the hip hop as collage within Sharpa. The powerful imagery of interjecting historical video clips of police versus citizens and reversing clips of shattered objects (we see the thousand of pieces come back together to form one coherent, identifiable piece) embody hip hop as collage, as a constant evolving product of its past. But don’t take my word. Judge for yourself (and oh yeah, Sharpa just won himself extra fresh points in my book for referencing Kaizer Soze, the greatest movie villain of all time [The Usual Suspects]):
Sharpa moved to Cape Town in 1999, successfully permitting him to redefine himself and expand his ventures. Whether founding legendary groups Groundwork’s and Audio Visual, establishing a performance crew for the annual Hip-Hop Connected lyrical theatre event held at Artscape Theatre in Cape Town every September (Heritage Month), or using his crafts to effectively and artistically address relevant social issues and reinvent the forever fluid nature of hip hop, Sharpa has solidified himself as not only a staple of the South African underground, but of hip hop at large. For another example of Sharpa pushing boundaries within the genre, one need look no further than his ‘Five Fingers’ video, where he rhymes in a stream of conscious manner and again plays with the typical constructions of the music video and employs the use of sparse settings and negative space to his advantage. Interestingly, aside from the green on his T-shirt, the entire video is shot in black and white, and aside from Sharpa himself, the only object featured in the entire video is a knife, making a cameo in both the opening and closing moments. As always seems to be the case with Sharpa, it appears very deliberate and purposeful. This track is multi-layered, on the surface nothing more than a braggadocios battle rap, whereas the appearance of the knife, a symbol of violence, is juxtaposed against the color green, a symbol of peace, tells us to explore deeper metaphors and meanings. To see this video clip just click on the youtube link below:
In recent years, the globe has been fortunate enough to see more of Ben Sharpa, who also bears the moniker ‘Oh Kaptain My Kaptain’, as he performed internationally with the likes of Immortal Technique, Black Thought, and Jean Grae. In particular, in June of 2006, Sharpa headlined alongside Wordsworth and Jonzi-D as part of the Tri-Continental Hip Hop Festival, which was a 3-city Hip Hop tour held to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Youth Month in South Africa. For a sample of his live show, you can click the following vimeo link to see Sharpa performing his track ‘The Sick ‘n Tired’ at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Youth Day in June of 2006:
For one last flavor of Sharpa, check the video for ‘Ason of Old’, a track featured on his album, “B. Sharpaâ€, recently released on his indie label Pioneer Unit Records / Sharpaganda. Here you’ll notice how he uses modern graffiti (in a very antiseptic, corporate [reminds me of Urban Outfitter for some reason] and his trademark minimalist approach to subtly convey his message. Enjoy:
