Last week we already mentioned Spoek Mathambo (by way of Schlachthofbronx) in passing, and I figured it's about time for a little spotlight feature on some of the interesting things brewing in South Africa.
Because boy, there's some good shit happening down there. Spoek and Waddy Jones are among my favourite MC's at the moment.
Spoek Mathambo is, of course, all over the place nowadays. There's Sweat.X, a collab with producer Markus Wormstorm. There's an EP he did with Douster. There's this track which I really like. Ah hell, there's too much to list. Go on, dive in. Do the Google.
I think I first heard Watkin Tudor Jones, Waddy in short, through a mix of Maga Bo's, a couple of years ago. Being Dutch, the Afrikaans accent struck a chord (notwithstanding all the Apartheid-connotations- that language is just funny as hell to us), and after some research I stumbled upon the sadly disbanded African Dope Records , and the wonderful "Ziggurat" by The Constructus Corporation. The Constructus Corporation is a multimedia project, which sprang from the mind of Waddy Jones, consisting of a double-album of narrative futuristic hip-hop and electronica, as well as a graphic novel, both of which are interwoven as a sci-fi tale of a young MC's life aboard an enormous interstellar spaceship called "the Ziggurat". The beats are done by Sibot, Felix Laband and, there he is again, Markus Wormstorm. The very nicely designed book and CD even comes with a blank CD, meant for you to fill with the freely downloadable second part of the album.
Another side project/alter ego of Mr. Jones's is Max Normal. Here, he seems to present himself as a sort of marketing-guru-motivational-speaker-type of MC. Odd, but in a good way. In fact, I think that's one of the main reasons why I like these guys: they don't take themselves too seriously. It's swagger with a wink.
It's funny to see this guy change shape between projects. In fact, we come to the main reason I'm writing up this post: somewhere this month, his new project is gonna drop: Die Antwoord. White-trash-afroravecrunkhop! And it's awesome. I really dig Yolandi's flow.
You can stream the album on their site. It will be published this month by Magnetron Music. (yep, Bas Bron's label)
Make sure you check out the vids!
(just one side note: I think it's like the fifth time that I heard "Super Evil" in some form now. I think it's time to let it go after this one, guys.)
