Jo'burg's Muthaland Crunk

Nelson Mandela, Hip Hop and Football; what do they all have in common? Intrigued? The answer is a seminal South African Hip Hop group.

Prior to 2007, my knowledge of music from the African continent was confined to Miriam Makeba and some traditional East African folk songs passed down from maternal ancestors who were noted pioneers from India based in East Africa in the 1880s. Subsequent generations whether born and raised in Kenya, England or the USA still fondly sing Swahili songs taught to them by their Asian grandparents on occasion about the Serengeti and Uhuru. I am no exception and was therefore absolutely thrilled in 2007 when a music exec brought me upto speed about sounds from the mammoth continent by handing me an album entitled ‘Muthaland Crunk’ by a South African Hip Hop oufit named after Johannesburg…

Bongani ‘Bongs’ Fassie, Ishmael ‘Ish’ Morabe and Leslie ‘Da L.E.S’ Mampe form MTV Africa Music Awards winner JOZI.

The 2008 MOBO nominated group are one of Africa’s finest. Hip Hop rhymes eloquently mixed with traditional South African sounds have catapulted Jozi to African super stardom. Opening for international heavyweights Nas and Akon to becoming one of Mandela’s prestigious ‘46664’ ambassadors, Jozi’s admirable success story just gets better. The Hip Hop crew is taking to the stage in their hood performing in football stadiums across South Africa for the FIFA World Cup 2010. Collaborating with talented songstress Kelly Rowland on her World Cup track ‘Everywhere You Go’ Jozi are set to perform alongside Ms Rowland at the World Cup final, time to get ‘dem vuvuzelas out!

Ishmael ‘Ish’ Morabe talks to MOBO about the musical Bafana Bafana that is Jozi…

MOBO: Tell us about your childhood growing up in South Africa.

Ish: I basically grew up in a village with my grandmother and from there on I did half my schooling there in the village and then half in Jo’burg which is the biggest city in South Africa to pursue my singing career because I felt that if I were to achieve what I wanted to achieve, having an album or performing on stage, I must move to a big city where there are countless opportunities. Then what happened is, I kinda encountered a few problems obviously as I was homeless when I got to the big city… After that I met the guys from Prophets of Da City (P.O.C) who offered me an opportunity to join their group, singing and performing in a club so that is how it started, that is how I got into the music industry by joining P.O.C.

MOBO: Post P.O.C. and Skeem, how did Jozi come into existence?

Ish: With Jozi what had happened is Leslie and Bongani grew up together as friends. They were working on their album at the same record company which I was signed to which was Ghetto Ruff and we just managed to mess around one day with a track in the studio at that moment and it sounded very nice and we decided, you know what, let’s actually do an album together!

MOBO: Hip Hop culture has always been a representation of the social, economic and political realities of its artists. Growing up in South Africa which experienced a cultural transition of mass proportions, how has the socio-political climate influenced Jozi’s sound?

Ish: Well I mean in the Jozi sound what we do is, we mix basically what we call a music style called Mbaqanga which is a traditional style of South African music with Hip Hop so our path is to basically come up with a sound that has the Hip Hop influence but yet still has the South African identity. If a person is listening to our album they feel that aswell as compared to just you know doing straight up Hip Hop like American Hip Hop. We always try to give it a bit of identity.

MOBO: Hip Hop found its current avatar in New York but its roots can be traced back to West Africa and the djeli- for whom oral poetry was an age old tradition. How did it feel winning an MTV Africa Music Award and gaining prominence in a continent that has contributed so heavily to Hip Hop?

Ish: No, it was definitely a very big moment for us because first of all it was the first MTV awards held in Africa and for us to just to be part of it and actually manage to win something it was overwhelming and encouraging at the same time. So we were really happy to be part of it, a part of the whole thing.

MOBO: Jozi has opened for Akon, Kanye West, 50 Cent, The Game and Nas. What was it like working with the some of the most prominent names in the music industry?

Ish: It was crazy because for us it was like whoa, we can’t believe we are opening up for people like that! You know, people who have played major roles in the Hip Hop game themselves and we are you know coming up as a group so it gave us confidence and it gave us hope that we’re doing something right; that we are worth it. So it gave us a lot of encouragement and it made us feel happy and fortunate at the same time.

MOBO: Independently you have toured with international heavyweights such as Public Enemy and the Fugees. Tell us about the experience.

Ish: That experience was crazy because it happened with my first group Prophets of Da City and that was even crazier than sharing stages with people like 50 Cent because that was back then you know what I mean for us it was unbelievable and things like that, sometimes when they happen you’re like…. you don’t know what to think. You’re like “is this for real”? It’s kind of like you’re dreaming but you’re actually not dreaming, it is happening. So it’s just one of those things that you will always remember.

MOBO: 2009 Saw the release of your solo album ‘On the Edge’. Tell us about that?

Ish: It was a very nice experience because I also learned a few things. I started recording the album in London with a producer called Diamond Duggal, so it was crazy because I learned so much just working with him and I also think that it even helped with my production skills to learn a few things and bring them back into the country and improve on what I was doing. He is such a cool person and he is a very talented producer as well. He also won a few awards and for me it was like… wow, you know? It even won an award here in South Africa for the best engineered album, so it’s cool.

MOBO: You were named as one of the ‘46664’ ambassadors. How did it feel to be bestowed with such an honour?

Ish: It’s one of the highlights of Jozi’s career because it puts us in a place where we are actually not just a Hip Hop group jumping on stage but we are doing something important and there is some social responsibility there. For people to choose us to be ambassadors is an honour and as we all know 46664 is associated with Nelson Mandela so it’s like ok, this is big you know and we welcome it with big hands, with both hands and we are happy about it

MOBO: You have spent time in the studio with US Producer Tricky Stewart. Is there a new album in the works?

Ish: Well yes, basically what we are doing right now is, we are going to combine the two albums that we did, the first one and the second one and add a few new tracks to it and then come up with a release. We are always experimenting in the studio, we are always making music which is for Jozi or for other people. We are always in the studio.

MOBO: Are you going to be taking part in the World Cup festivities?

Ish: Yea, yea, there are definitely going to be a few shows we are going to be opening up at different stadiums and also we did a track with Kelly Rowland which is one of the World Cup songs amongst others, so we also are going to be performing with her just before the Final.

MOBO: What advice would you give to aspiring MCs?

Ish: I would definitely say you know, people must always think of new things in terms of new styles and new vibes and also to believe in yourself firstly because if you don’t believe in yourself it’s kinda hard to actually go all the way in Hip Hop. You have to work at it twenty four hours, you know to make it is not as easy as people think. You need to practice all the time you know it’s like the best athlete training everyday because that’s why they’re good because the more prepared they are the better they are.

MOBO: If you had the power to create THE musical artist, which artists from the past and present would you use as building blocks and why?

Ish: I’d probably take let’s say from back in the days Stevie Wonder and from the present I would take Jay Z. I think they will come up with something incredible because you look at Stevie, he’s just like a musical genius and you look at Jay Z who is number one in Hip Hop.

MOBO: Which artists do you recommend MOBO readers to look out for this year?

Ish: I feel Nicki Minaj can kinda like do amazing things not only as a female MC but as a person who is definitely going to inspire female artists to come up and you know and be back at it again the way it used to be during the days of MC Lyte and who actually put the fire back into the young female MCs.

MOBO: What does the future hold for Jozi?

Ish: The future is I mean we definitely don’t know what the future holds but what we’re trying to do is we are just going to keep working at it and the few things that we are working on you know like trying to release our album worldwide and stuff like that and keep people interested to work with us. I think the future is looking a bit good especially for us here in South Africa having this World Cup, it will actually definitely have people kinda like notice us coz you know, almost the whole world is down here.

MOBO: What does music mean to you?

Ish: It means everything to me it’s like a soundtrack to life basically. You know, everything is just music, if you look at anything there’s always music around you. You look at life, I can’t imagine life without it you know?

The might of music cannot be underestimated. Music played an instrumental role in bringing an end to apartheid in South Africa. The Nelson Mandela tribute concerts in London organised by the Anti Apartheid Movement were historic. The second concert at Wembley Stadium was broadcast by the BBC across sixty three countries to an approximate audience of one billion and tremendously helped in raising awareness, securing support- and the eventual release of Nelson Mandela from Robben Island in 1990.

My charismatic Physics teacher at school, the late Mike Terry spearheaded the Anti Apartheid Movement and I cannot help but wonder what he would think about Jozi?

Perhaps he would concur that Jozi are a living testament to the power of music, the power of dreams and the power we have within ourselves to make those dreams a glorious reality.

www.myspace.com/jozimuthalandcrunk

Written by Reema Kumari Jadeja

Reema Kumari Jadeja ©