Saturday, April 07, 2007
The number one Gang
We have just finalized the contracts for the Freak Out music series, starting at the Coca Cola Dome with a Kwaito/Hip Hop Festival on 22 June and can confirm that Mafikizolo, Mandoza, Pitch Black Afro (right), Tuks and Gang of Instrumentals are going to give you the party of the year!It’s a top class line-up, that we are very proud to have secured, on behalf of Beyond Events, and this is the first place you’ll be hearing about it.
Lenny is very excited that it’ll be our first booking a the Gang of Instrumentals, as we’ve been burning deep grooves into their CD Salute at the office. They are a group who know where they want to go!From Soweto, they have cool and groovy sound, with lead vocalist Tumi “Lady Naturelle” Masemola’s beautiful voice catching your ear! She finished in the top 50 of Idols, appeared with the international hit show African Footprint, and produced and stared in the multi-award winning SABC sitcom ‘City Ses’la’ – all giving rise to the professionalism that takes them forward.
"Lady Naturelle" (right) has Mandla N the “Pimville Spokesman” & “Bongo Riot” Zunga to complete the group, and add the hip hop flavoured reggae rhythms that are stirred together with soulful urban beats – a great South African cocktail!Salute is their second album, the first a lot of hard work and dedication – so hats off to them, because otherwise it’ll fly off your head as they whiz past on their journey to the top!
Here is their track My Number One from Salute (MMACD003) – listen out for Mandla’s “Koochi Koo koo, Baby Boo, I’m so gaga over you” hehehe – great stuff!
Tickets on sale through Computicket from 30 May 2007!!
Labels: G.I., hip hop, kwaito, Mafikizolo, Mandoza
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Mandoza - Nkalakatha
One of South Africa’s top and most successful cross-over artists to appeal to both English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa and probably all the rest of our 11 official languages, has to be Mr. Kwaito – Mandoza.Sol Kerzner got us to secure South African Music Award winner Mandoza as a surprise gift to his staff at his Klein Leeukoppie Estate family home, in Hout Bay, on New Years Eve 2005. Nestled on the slopes of the mountain, over-looking the valley, the Kerzners had invited some 500 people (I have never witnessed so much silicone before) and everyone was taking full advantage of the free bar and food – after all, it was New Years Eve.
When we first met Mandoza in the car-park, he street-hit Lenny with some totally incomprehensible kind of greeting, that if you do not come from the streets of Soweto or, just plain and simple, are white, you have no chance of understanding. So we just smiled and led him to his dressing room.
Despite some of the bad press he has received in the past, the Mandoza we saw was an awesome person to work with, and I admired how he handled the people around him.
Some of the staff had lined up on the side of the path to his dressing room, wanting autographs, pictures on their cellphones with him, and all along he obliged, giving each person a little personal attention.Even when things were abit delayed at the start of his show; we had to find Sol to personally announce his gift to his staff, Mandoza was ever the cool-cat and took everything in his stride.
Up on stage, he was just magnificent! With his hits like Nkalakatha, Tornado and 50/50 blasting out over this mostly white audience, who were packed around the stage, he brought such a real energy to the party. And it was a once in a life time chance to see jewel-bedecked prim and proper ladies kick off their high-heels to boogy on down with the Mama’s from the cleaning & ground staff, in honour of all Mama’s in South Africa.
Later on in the early morning I introduced Mandoza to Sol, and they were both raving to each other about how much they had heard of each other… so I quietly slipped away and had my first peaceful drink of 2006… satisfied with another job well done!
Nkalakatha (2001 Song of the Year and SAMA winner for Best Album) was one of the tracks that we heard played at every single ABSA and Engen athletics event held around the country; in small boere towns, to rural townships hidden on the maps of SA, to universities and school campus’s to every major stadium event hosting rugby or soccer. And even though I heard it mostly through the head of ABSA Ant (pictured right in full celebration!) or Chick-E – the beat always got my feet shuffling!A funky song I would say! And we're looking forward to more in the future!
Oh, and just a small reminder...
21h07 UPDATE: As fate would have it - I have just received news that Mandoza is going to be appearing in Australia on the following dates:
30 March @ The Convention Centre, Perth
31 March @ The Fitzroy Town Hall, Melbourne
01 April @ The Metro Theatre, Sydney
See come on expats - here is an excellent chance to see the man in action!
Labels: ABSA, Engen, kwaito, Mandoza, music, Nkalakatha, SAMA, Sol Kersner, Tornado
Monday, August 07, 2006
Teba & Godessa - A Revolution
Its the beginning of a new week, and so I feel like I need some new energy to get me going!I did a small feature on Teba last week, and so I thought I would profile another of his tracks, Revolution from his 20-5-2-1 Manifesto (VOLT004) CD.
I think we need a mini-revolution to get our minds right every now and then, to be able to focus on where we need to get to during the coming week, so we don't forget all that we stand for, and mostly to make this a better place to be in.
So let's let the Original Social Worker, Mr Shumba, get the beat/week going!
And because we're in Cape Town, to commemorate the August 9, 1956 march on Union Building in Pretoria by 20, 000 fed-up women, I wanted to introduce some of Teba's friends. (Not that they are fed-up - they just have important things to say.)
"There is no other group like us" says Shameema Williams, one third of the female fronted Hip-Hop group Godessa.
Speaking of Godessa's uniqueness could be no further from the truth as these women continue to make history and impact as the only recording and performing female Hip-Hop crew in South Africa. Shameema together with Eloise Jones aka EJ von Lyrik and Bernadette Amansure aka Burni formed Godessa in the year 2000.
In their lyrics, the ladies address social issues affecting their community such as crime and HIV/Aids. Shameema, Burni and EJ have separately and together as a group been involved in projects such as youth work in correctional institutions and HIV/Aids workshops using Hip-Hop as a learning tool. Godessa is based on the belief that women represent eternal life through giving birth, carrying knowledge with the balance of being psychological and analytical thinkers.
Labels: godessa, hip hop, kwaito, Teba
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Teba - the Origional Social Worker
Tonight I was very pleasantly surprised to see an artist I really admire, and have had the pleasure of working with a number of times - Teba Shumba - appear in SABC 1's Headwrap. Known as Teba and also the "Origional Social Worker", "The Shepard", "Mr Shumba" & "Teba 20-5-2-1 Digitally", he and Chris Chameleon, formerly of BOO, were introduced to each other and put together on stage after two short rehearsals to perform:From the press release:
HEADWRAP ask Teba and Chris to combine their artistic styles and produce a performance which fuses poetry and music. This performance will be done in front of an audience of Chris’ dedicated fans at the Dorpstraat Theatre in Stellenbosch. Can rasta and rock god rhyme together?
Watching how easily Teba and Chris got on together, and eventually gelled on stage confirmed what a down-to-earth, warm, passionate and talented artist he is!From Guguletu, a township just outside Cape Town, Teba has been on the music scene for a while having won a SAMA when he first started out with the Kwaito group Skeem.
We really got to know him during the filming of our mini-movie, A tale of South African Music, for the DVD Freedom to Celebrate (DVDC 001/2) we created, and we used his track "fck", courtesy of African Dope Records, because it has such an energy and beat, and reafirms what talent we have coming from South Africa.
This little insert features Teba, and Fletcher & Roach from A.D.R. - feel the beat!
Labels: African Dope Records, Chris Chameleon, kwaito, SAMA, Teba
