#phresh clique

 The Mother City Live Arts Experience is an annual music festival which features some of the best local hip-hop acts and DJs. Taking place exclusively in Woodstock, Cape Town - hence the name - the festival also featured some of the hottest local talent to grace the stage. This included headlining acts Jimmy Nevis and Youngsta; and up-and-coming talent Janice and Dope Saint Jude.

 Attending this event was rather out of character for me as I consider myself to be quite a newbie when it comes to South African hip-hop, let alone Cape Town hip-hop. Nevertheless, I went with an open mind and had a great time, despite the wind which threatened to blow me over a few times.

  Here are a few of my favourite performances in no particular order:

  Fonzo

I’ve seen Fonzo perform quite a few times and I’m always blown away by his clean lyricism and energy on stage. The AKMG rapper also dropped a new project with vocalist Hunter Rose this week.

  Phresh Clique

A dynamic duo borne out of the humble studios of Cape Audio College - their energy, dance moves and solid bars really got the crowd hyped up. Producer of their Mam’G joint Psykobeats also made an appearance on stage.

  Uno July.

! Hailing from Cape Town, this performer made a fan out of me with his energy, combined with banging bars and trappy beats. July really got the crowd hyped up by dropping fan- favourite i‘Skelem’.

Dope Saint Jude.

One of my favourite rappers; hailing from the Northern suburbs; Jude delivered a superb performance enlisting two male back-up dancers. An up-and-coming Cape Audio legend and producer for Jude, K-Faith also joined her on stage.

   Tehn Diamond.

A proudly Zimbabwean rapper, Tehn Diamond brought an entirely different flavour and spice, effortlessly switching to Shona during his verses. However, it was his stage presence (his dance moves) which really got the crowd going.

  Youngsta.

How do I even describe his performance? One man behind me was so excited for the Cape Town rapper’s performance he demanded the mic be handed to him immediately. He performed some of his favourites which included ‘Top 10 List’ but surprised the crowd when he dropped ‘Way it go’ by DJ Switch. Worth mentioning was his freestyle which really got the crowd going.

  Festival-goers - myself included, were fairly disappointed that the second stage had closed, as many talented DJs were not given the opportunity to perform. Nevertheless, Mother City Live 2017 looks to draw bigger crowds next year, promising Capetonians an afternoon of turning up to hottest and best talent.

Having just appeared on the Le Femme Remix of “Now or Never”, Phresh Clique present the visuals for their Psykobeats produced single Mam’G

 The video was shot in March but had been held back for the right moment. Asked about why they decided to release it now, Phresh Clique, comprised of Kush and ZeeKay said, “We may still be far from reaching our ultimate goal, but we’ve never had as many eyes on us (Referring to the publicity gained from the Now or Never feature). We had to take this opportunity to show our new family who we are as an individual act”.

  It starts with a few synthesizer keys and a producer drop, soon giving way to a deliriously catchy and relentlessly repetitive hook. About four young men trade verses, both adhering more or less to the same sing-song cadence as if compelled by force or deep induced trance. It's the sound of something you'd like to fuck with, something so goddamn new that it's hard not to become stupefied by it.

 BooLz "Aphe Ekapa" [Prod. By Touch Narcotics] & the remix of that very same song, should have spread with pandemic intent and achieved a certain cultural ubiquity because that shot was tight and inherently different. Unfortunately, it came with regular baggage, my criticism of the actual video & whatever marketing team he had behind to push it to its full potential. Labels not giving him creative freedom to visually depict what the lyrics of the joint actually entailed. These arguments however do grasp that the song's lack of popularity was a function of its DNA (by that, I'm referring to what labels let you do & don't, also referring to what fans of today want to consume) nature, not nurture.

 There's a host of millenial go-getters here in CPT alone who could prove to be the genetically engineered solution. A sunny sibling to Amilca & Slim's "Hayi Sho Bhowzey" was supremely safer, Youngsta's problematic verse on "The Way It Goes", the West Wing Academy "Season Yama Yakuza" packed danger,  Maestro Zen's "Indiewaves" had venom whilst exuding that superb and superior newness. Sharing many of the same characteristics described above, like any other rapper, just as rigidly formulaic as any breakout hit you've ever heard, the template equally as proprietary - credit due to our rappers though, respectively.

The shit our artists are providing should thrive on without credibility challenges, or any need for trigger warnings. Neither Chinga Time nor Phresh Clique (female rap duo) pretend to be drug kingpins or streetwise arms dealers. Like their spiritual forebears LMFAO, the nigga's just want to make dope shit, get paid off it & have a good time. After all, to them swag is something you unlock as if in a video game (Word to Rae Sremmurd). Their youthful spark still very much alight, their exuberance is played up throughout their work, often to the point of exploitation, which is okay, because that's their lane.

  Any artist associated with the American subculture tends to get facepainted with a broad brush. Serious critical assessment of those making music in our local rappers orbit is conveniently scarce. After nearly 3-years of consistent existence, BoolZ latest album makes the strongest argument for proper assessment. Does Uno July still adhere to a formula of themes over hip hop boom bap reinforced by b-movie level skits ? I can't make a critical assessment of man's music or contribution to the culture because I know nothing of it, & I'm honestly not looking to either, but if he has, and anyone who would like to school me, hit me up via management, bruhbruh. All jokes aside, credit to our rich scene of producers whose work is very well executed, with their beats more or less on par with what rap has been receptive to over in recent years. 

One could also argue that both our rappers and producers have demonstrably better than anything JHB/DBN have peddled lately. It strikes me as odd that pop culture's embrace of dude's shark biting tendencies has extended to rap music when one of rap's main premises has always been about originality (for example, how WTF are doing a really bad impression of Rae Sremmurd), I mean, listen, I get that local rap is *mostly* derivative, but dudes repackage an entire concept & that's just mad lazy, but then again, that in itself is a conversation for another day. Though overall CPT's rap scene can be unconvincing as a phenomenon, I do believe it has the potential to, and what they're up to now is hardly as poor as some of their predecessors.