Interviewed: Adrian Different
When you sit down with Adrian Different itās difficult not to emulate everything about him. You have to consciously tell yourself not to talk like he does, not to gesticulate like he does, not to sit like he does, not to BE him. Because heās cool. Naturally cool.
As he leans back in his chair and casually calls you āmanā or ābraā, youāre pulled deeper into his world and his passions: for hip hop, and spoken word, and Saul Williams ā where it all started.
āMe and my brother always used to write raps you know? Fun raps. Coz I mean the first hip hop song I listened to, Digable Planets, āRebirth of Slickā, and that whole era was like where Iām from. So you know hip hop always had me from a young age. But the more poetical side? Slam poetry got me. I was like ā man - I donāt know. 10/11? My sister went through to London. She always knew me and my brother were deep into hip hop. And she hooked me up with this dude, Saul Williams, and she told me, yo, listen to this. She sent me a little CD with āAmethyst Rocksā on, man, and I didnāt know what he meant or what he was saying coz I was like tenā¦elevenā¦but thenā¦ā
With a kind of childish sheepishness he confesses that he was always writing. Before Digable Planets and Saul Williams. And because of them, he just kept on writing. A āNorthern Suburbs kidā, his first performance on stage, aged 15, tanked. āYoh, man, me and my crew the four elements, we went on stage performing...I choked man...I was like too nervousā¦ā. He laughs, and maybe blushes, at the naĆÆve confidence with which he approached the event. Granted, Diffās debut was slightly derailed by his battle partner, Shaaid, writing a new battle behind his back and catching him completely off guard on the night. āHe dissed me hard in front of the whole grade braā¦and I was likeā¦oh shit! Ja I never got him back for that, but that was the very first thing I remember on stage...me and him...ā I have to bite back the āshit braā thatās on the tip of my tongue, not wanting to sound like Iām trying too hard. But itās difficult. Diffās language burrows beneath your skin.Ā
Different credits Durban based hip hop and spoken word artist, Ian EWOK Robinson a.k.a Creamy Ewok Baggends, as being the most influential mentor in his life. They met while Diff was on a school trip to a Grahamstown Schoolās Festival, and instead of attending the gumboot dancing workshop he was signed up for he attended Ewokās. āMe and him got into this freestyle cipher...I never even knew I could freestyleā¦it was the first day that I actually freestyledā. Ewok subsequently entered him into a poetry slam that was happening in Cape Town. Not knowing what a slam was or who the other writers were, and with no internet sources available, Different won, with a piece he still performs to this day ā The Darkness of the Night. He was 17 at the time.Ā
Five years later, Different has GROWN. Heās learned how to handle an audience, to break that barrier between stage and audience, and experiment with imagery, āusing language in itself to decorate the canvas, you know the pageā. Not that heāll ever fully break away from the simple A-B rhyme schemes and quick-fire stagger rhyme, ācoz itās fun man, itās the best part everā. While he humbly describes his style as simply being āchilled outā, he re-adjusts his flat cap and sits forward in his chair, as the conversation takes a more serious turn to the nature of his creative process. āI have a notebook that I carry coz Iām always just writing because I just love language and the construction of words. I adapt the way I speak and itās just meā¦in this notebookā. Reading āon the constantā plays a big role in his writing process. āI read enough to have a vocabulary. Itās based on vocabulary, you have to have a developed vocabulary. Some cats are just more blessed than others, like Rimestein, that manās Afrikaans vocabulary is probably one of the illest Iāve ever heardā. One of Diffās more compelling qualities is the respect and adoration he holds for his fellow wordsmiths. He appears almost star struck when he mentions artists like Ewok and Rimestein, despite arguably being held in the same category. āYou canāt be writing, and not read. That just doesnāt make sense. In order for you to put out you need to take in as wellā. Iām slightly surprised when he mentions Fanon. Not because Different seems ignorant, but because I was unaware of the influence a writer like Fanon may have on hip-hop, and spoken word.
Ā āI like drawing on whatās happening in front of me, Iād find all ways how that topic impacts me and my surroundings. Like the other night I had this crazy conversation with a lady at BP about Tik. It was a 5 min conversation and she told me about what happened with her brother and with her cousin because of Tikā. When being peppered about the fundamentals to his creative process he concedes that he first writes on his phone, and then copies it down into his notebook. āYou canāt write something once and think itās gonna be perfect. Not for me. Itās not gonna be perfect. You work on it, you write it over ten, fifteen times. You chop away. Me, I first think it through, you know? Okay, this is the beginning and I want it to end like this. So, the journey has to end here. And that adds a sense of structure to it. But with freestyling man, you just take that leap. You just open your mouth and you see where you end upā.
The second time Different takes me by surprise, is when he mentions that he doesnāt enjoy āfreestyleā. āIām never happy with it, itās always just me making gat. I mean, when we have a gig we do leave anĀ element for freestyling for crowd interaction - thatās the best way of interacting with a crowd is going amongst them and freestyling about where we find ourselves. Thatās why we do it you know? Just comment on the immediate situation where we find ourselves, and to show a bit of skill you know? Like some lyrical skill comes into the element of freestyling. But it adds that immediate sense of enjoyment like āyoh, thatās dope!ā you know?ā He pauses and reflects on the balance between spoken word as an aesthetic display of wordskill and the connectivity between performer and audience and the message it encapsulates. To Diff, it seems, the ink flows from the tension between the individual in their environment.
āI comment on things that I see, outside and shit. I know there should be people that relate to it always, but, I donāt do it for the relation factor just to get likes on Facebook. Because youāre moved, something happens. And thatās why you go to the page, you know. Just taking notice of things. Sometimes it becomes too much to carry this overwhelming experience, I donāt like carrying it man, I like putting it down on the page so I can remember itā.
Differentās submersion in Hip-Hop is undeniable. His speech, his dress, his attitude, all speak of his personaās integration into the culture. But, and this is the germ of the person known as Adrian Different, itās all authentic.Ā From the moment he started listening to Local Prophets of the City, and illegally tagging āDiff-erentā on public spaces, hip-hop has been interwoven into his maturation and development as man, and performer. āListening to DJ Ready D and Local Prophets felt so rebellious man. Because it was like, damn, theyāre actually saying shit. Iām like 8 or 9 and oh fuck, theyāre actually saying shit about where Iām from. What I like about it is the culture. Rap forms part of the culture. The whole concept of everything fusing together, making one major element which is yourself, and how you must have knowledge about yourself and where you come from. And I like history. So, hip hop was a culture that was one of the teachings that told me, yoh, you need to know where you stand, where you come from, all these things in order for someone to take you seriously. That knowledge of self was the element that got me from day oneā.
Despite having shared the stage with the likes of Zapiro, Marlene van Niekerk and Antjie Krog, Different admits that some people still struggle to take him seriously and that heās occasionally treated like a stereotype. āStellenbosch is a beautifully fucked up place. When I got here in 2007, people were always ājokingā about me being coloured, theyād say some shit like āoh donāt pull out a knifeā ā you know? Always ājokingā, but still. And my response would be just to writeā. To make his point, he raps out a couple of lines from his famous piece āSo-Called Colouredā: "I have a brother who hasnāt spent time in Polsmoor Penitentiary, I have a sister who hasnāt been a statistic of teenage pregnancy, I have a father whoās still around who doesnāt drink himself into a stupor on papsak, better known as Elsieās Geluk, and as you can see, I donāt do tikā. He points to his frame and laughs, āCoz you know Tik usually makes you thin and shitā.
Different acknowledges the volatile space of Stellenbosch as having blessed him in dealing with encounters such as, racial prejudice, and more importantly, providing inspiration for his passion. āAt the end of the day, I really donāt give a fuck if Iām a stereotype or not. I donāt write for anybody man, I write for myself. Interactions that Iāve had that I think are special. Things that trigger me like yoh thatās dope. And I wouldnāt mind if you give me some of your earspaceā. He shrugs and laughs. Ā āIām chilled outā.
"Stay Different" and follow Diff on twitter, here.
-- words and photo by MEG










