I was sent a press release about this fantastic new artist breaking in to the market locally. Rattex (seriously?) is his name. I am always very open to promoting new music in South Africa so I decided to give the music video a watch:
The above is precisely what is eating away at the soul of the music culture in South Africa and providing our youth with the misconception of what it is to be famous, young, successful and funky. This is a discussion that I have been having for years and years, since I was in a band back at university. We tried very hard to be local, have flavour and maintain bits of our heritage or at least we thought, as much as we could. It’s tough though and I will give muso’s that much, it’s tough to be local.
But is it really that tough? Is it so tough to be local that you mimic American artists down to the background colour of your music video, your caps, baggy shoddy denims and “bling”. Why are our young rappers trying so hard to be American? Everyone hates America and the only person who could change that perception is Kenyan? African is cool, can’t they see that?
And what’s more is that Rattex claims to be proudly South African:
Rattex is now at the forefront of the new school of proudly South African rappers who understand that Hip Hop, more than any other musical art form, is about addressing important issues and representing where you’re from. It is therefore not suprising that Rattex is one of the pioneers of the ‘Spaza’ movement, where lyrics are performed in a combination of isiXhosa, English and Cape Flats slang.
Rattex has always been a true Cape Flats soldier, representing Khaltsha (Khayelitsha) wherever he performs. His music has also been on heavy rotation on community and campus radio stations (such as Zibonele, Bush Radio and UCT Radio) across Cape Town and the Cape Flats. Noteable performances include the Fire on the Mountain festival, Drudge Dialect II, the Hype Magazine Live Session and the Planetary Assault launch party. Rattex has also performed on Channel O’s number 1 rated show, Mzanzi Ridez. Most recently, Rattex supported legendary Brooklyn-born super lyricist Wordsworth on his tour to South Africa.
Read the full bio at his website. What goes through the head of an artist who claims to be from the flats, to embrace South Africanism and then puts on a music video feature his hommies, big cars, bling, scantily clad women and a distinctly western flair to it.
I am sorry but I cannot believe that any artist who produces this sort of tripe can claim to be proudly South African.
Have a look at a couple of “big rappers” in the following music videos from the States:
Spot the difference. Just like his name, I think that Rattex and this Americanised-afro-wanna-be culture confusion is poising poisoning the music and culture in South Africa.
I am absolutely obsessive about music, about my music and my iTunes Library. I also don’t like to purchase CD’s often so that means that I occasionally visit some Russian cheapstores and download music for a dollar or a few cents. I also make use of LimeWire.
Downloading tracks from so many different sources means that a lot of the time I’m missing album art or genre, or album info or something. It kills me.
So I found Tune Up Media. I couldn’t help myself and bought a lifetime membership (risky in the current online platform I suppose) but for all of $20US you can sort organise and download your album art for your entire music collection.
I did have some trouble initially with the program. It wouldn’t open, it wouldn’t play, it wouldn’t let me register and all of this after I’d forked out the cash.
But a simple email to the support staff and I had an almost permanent member of the TuneUp staff helping me. I was asked to do a few things (very laborious work) that would help sort the problem. It didn’t work. I then tweeted my problem and was incredibly surprised to receive contact from the CEO of the company who instructed me to email him personally and he’d have it all sorted. Low and behold today, TuneUpMedia is working and I am sorting through all my music/album art as we speak!
Virgin’s VFest in December is officially on ice. The festival is being put on hold to gather a more incredible and powerful line-up of international acts. This is probably a good move but dissapointing nonetheless.
Your options if you have tickets:
1. Hold onto tickets for next year’s Virgin Festival, as they will still be valid;
2. Get a full refund from Computicket;
3. Or attend the Virgin Mobile pre-show instead, which will be cheaper, so you will also be entitled to a partial refund of your original ticket price.
Here’s the press release I received:
Virgin Mobile announces postponement of Virgin Festival
Johannesburg, 30 October 2008 – “Changes have been made to Virgin Festival by Virgin Mobile in order to ensure an even hotter line-up, and one that will make South Africans proud,” announced Peter Boyd, CEO of Virgin Mobile.
The festival has been postponed to early 2009 in order to secure the international line-up that is more in line with what Virgin Festival stands for throughout the different countries. “Our criteria for a successful Virgin Festival are a great Greenfield venue, an impressive and eclectic international line-up, a huge local line-up, the Road to V bringing local unsigned bands into the mix, and some quirky brand activations for the crowd from Virgin. Four out of five of these are on track, but we’re not entirely satisfied with the international line-up,” said Boyd. “Some of the bands that South Africans kept asking for were simply not available at that time of the year.”
He went on to say that Virgin Mobile and Big Concerts will work hard together to achieve a line-up that will show South Africans what a festival of this nature is all about, and one that will make South Africans proud.
As a platform for the Road to V winning band, three concerts presented by Virgin Mobile will still be taking place. On the 13th December in Johannesburg at Coca-Cola Dome, 14th December at Durban’s ICC and on the 17th in Cape Town at Grand Arena at Grandwest. Maroon 5, One Republic, The Parlotones and Goldfish will be lighting up the stage together with Road to V’s winning bands. The grand winner will still open the Virgin Festival by Virgin Mobile when it goes live.
“International acts Maroon 5 and One Republic will still be coming to South Africa, therefore existing ticket sales will still be honoured, only now the concert will be a curtain raiser for Virgin Festival 2009. Unlike the festival it will be indoors, but the dance arena will still be included,” explains Attie Van Wyk, CEO of Big Concerts.
For those who’ve already bought tickets, there’s no need to worry. Current ticket holders have three options:
1. Hold onto tickets for next year’s Virgin Festival, as they will still be valid;
2. Get a full refund from Computicket;
3. Or attend the Virgin Mobile pre-show instead, which will be cheaper, so you will also be entitled to a partial refund of your original ticket price.
“We are confident we have arrived at the best solution for music fans, and it will be worth the wait for Virgin and South Africa.” concluded Boyd.
Yes, it’s true. I’ve mentioned this fact before here on this blog but only sporadically. There is a music video, there are mp3’s. In fact there are two of our songs in this very post. So go ahead and have a listen.
The bands name was Thus Far. I played with some fantastic musicians over the three years we were together. Thus Far shared stages with The Parlotones, Prime Circle, Arno Castens, Albert Frost, The Finkelstiens, Evolver, Airship Orange and a host of other bands who travelled through Grahamstown, the Eastern Cape and played at Splashy Fen.
I’m not really sure why it’s taken me so long to blog about this, but it just has. So there you go. I will be adding some of our more refined stuff at a later stage but for now, here are two songs.
The first one, Strongest Star, was written by Terence Hatting – the phenomenal bassist and song writer of the band. The second and more soppy of the two, Falling Down, was written by yours truly in all his emo, downtrodden and depressing days!
Satan has been in the news a fair amount over the past few days.
Krugersdorp – A schoolboy who stabbed a fellow pupil to death with a sword in Krugersdorp on Monday morning was apparently high on drugs, saying Satan had told him to kill the children…
Krugersdorp councillor Alex Raubenheimer said school children on the scene told him the boy was high on drugs and was dressed like Joey Jordison, a drummer of the band Slipknot.
I’m not sure if you’ve seen the movie “Primal Fear“? If you haven’t, you should. Ed Norton and Richard Gere are fantastic.
The basic premise of the movie is that an alter boy kills some people and uses his innocent, god-fearing “nature” to defend himself. This coupled with his apparent schizophrenia gets him off. He walks free.
This isn’t the same thing as stating that “the devil made me do it” ofcourse, but the premise is the same. It’s the same as saying I am incapable of making decisions on my own so I blame the devil. The devil is intangible and doesn’t exist therefore I need to make the concept real so I tell you that heavy metal is the devil’s music. I can therefore blame the heavy metal for my actions and by association, blame the devil.
{The way I see it (and I think this might ruffle some feathers) is that the devil does not exist. So in theory this is where my article should end, but for the sake of debate, let me continue.}
Is this some sort of twisted philosophical logic that I just don’t grasp? Why don’t we blame the parents, the school system, the child, the child’s friends and their influence on the child’s life and actions? Why do we have to make it about themusic and single the music out as violent, aggressive and possible of warping a perception so much so that the child becomes warped in action?
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that an under-age child should be listening to music or watching films that promote violence, sexual promiscuity or any other illegal or dangerous action. But that is for the parents to regulate, you can’t tell the music to stop playing itself if it thinks the child is under-age. That’s just ridiculous.
Furthermore, music can be intense, aggressive, cutting edge, loud, banging and harsh but that doesn’t mean the lyrical content reflects that. I am deep in to rock music, old, new, heavy, soft, refined and raw. I love it all. But it doesn’t all dramatically influence my action, choices, decisions and life. It provides me with insight in to what other people perceive the world to be.
Let’s step back 50 years or 40 years or 30, 20, 10 years in our history. Think back to The Beatles, The Stones, Queen (is the name a reference to homosexuality possibly?) and heaven forbid Elvis the once banned rocker and now the king of rock ‘n roll forever. These bands all faced adversity in their time. Why? Because parents, teachers, headmasters, religious pundits and many other groups couldn’t take responsibility for their actions, their children or their children’s actions. Basically, blame the music for the uncontrollable and rebellious nature of our children.
I thought we were meant to learn from the mistakes of our past? Are we not just repeating the actions of the ignorant and blind from the past by condemning the music and inadvertently pushing our children towards the messages that we are trying to protect them from?
When I was about 11 I got in to Skunk Anansie heavily. I loved them. The lead singer was a bald black woman by the name of Skin. Skin. Do you honestly think that my Greek Orthodox (then) father was going to tolerate it? Not a chance. The first song on the album featured the lyric “Yes it’s fucking political”. Ha! I didn’t stand a chance. Or did I? I made sure that the first thing I did when my father stepped out of the house was play that song. I credit that song alone for my political interest and for my degree in politics from Rhodes University. That Damned music, it ruined my life.
Here’s a Skunk Anansie cutaway:
No wonder I’m so messed up. This is what I was listening to at 11/12 years old and I haven’t killed, maimed, harmed anyone….yet…dum dum dum dum
All that my father’s harsh actions, forced law and pushy intention did was make me crave the message, the content and the music more. Get real, kids are smarter than we give them credit for. Nothing you do is going to make them stop listening to that music.
I’m not sure if you’ve looked around lately, picked your head up out of your bible, book, “reality” or life and noticed how liberal the world has become. Take your blinkers off. They are playing “the devil’s music” in clubs nowadays, they are playing that rock-metal-death-rap-craziness on the radio. The world has moved on. So why don’t you?
One murder happens involving teenagers and it immediately becomes anti-religious (as if the only thing that can save our children is god/religion) and name and blame towards the musicians. I listen to Slipknot, I have 16 year old female cousins who listen to them too, they aren’t suicidal, on a murderous rampage or intent on harming others. In spite of their personal lives they are actually very well balanced cousins who make me proud. The music they listen to gives them perspective on the world not insight in to the devil’s mind. This was one incident that occurred amongst a sea of socially uncomfortable youths who do not choose to murder. Let’s look at the one case, not clump the entire youth of SA and their music habits as satanistic.
I am not saying the research doesn’t oppose my argument, it might, I don’t know. But to be honest I am more than satisfied with blaming myself for my actions, my societal influences, my friends, parents or experiences but not the devil and his (her) music.
Last point, if you want violence, turn on Carte Blanche on a Sunday at 7pm, turn on SABC 1, 2, 3 and e-tv news at 7am or 7pm every day, listen to the radio broadcasts about war, dishonesty, crime, violence at home and abroad, cheating politicians world wide and more. Music, let me tell you, is a fraction of our problem today.
