CAPE TOWN: The colonial spatial design of Cape Town impacts not only how people access basic services and navigate the broader City, but has further implications on people’s quest to produce artistic/cultural work, which is an integral enterprise in creating a generative social life. Put differently, the farther one stays from the City centre the more fucked they are and less likely to join the often cliquey and white social circles (it is no longer a secret that access/acceptance into these circles puts one at an advantage- getting gigs, studio time etc). But people like Samkelo, though discarded into the margins/periphery, soldier-on with passion and utmost commitment to their craft.
We had a chat with the Cape Town rapper and all-round creative to find out more about his head-state and where he’s at creatively. . .
Sam, can you tell me more about you, a young bio?
Well, i-gama lam ndingu Samkelo. Well, I prefer that over my first name, which is Simbulele...Simbulele Zwedala. Born late '96, 9th August (National Women's Day), by a very loving mother, Nonkosi Zwedala. Sadly, never grew up with my father. I am the first son, a 2nd born out of 4. I was bred in the Mother City, in a township known as Kraaifontein in the surrounding areas of Cape Town. I got attracted to the music when I was around 8, 9 years old, when my older sister would play around with the radio after school, and on a random day had stumbled to the radio frequency, "89.5", Bush Radio.
That's where I would vibe to this bouncy music genre that was filled with more complex or broad lyrics, that was Hip-hop, but I was young to even know what a genre was, let alone adapting to that because we grew up by the time when Kwaito was getting world recognition, house music was starting to be on its prime as well. Now the 1st Rap song I fell in-love with was a song that featured Maraza; it went like this, "Beng'ngazi Ukuthi Ngenzen...Indlala Ing'mel'emqaleni..." and on and on and on. Man! To my advantage, ‘Everyday People’ was my next stop. Got exposed to the likes of Proverb and the whole Outrageous Records conglomerate, couldn’t understand what they said but I knew all of that lyricism should and must embody real life "grown up" matters.
Then came H2O, came Teargas, came Pro (RIP), theeeen the most sentimental valued sub genre of mine...Spaza Music. Only after that I got exposed to the mainstream & the international music from the national radio stations. In 2012 I started writing my own raps, made rapping friends, started getting into their circles, like open mic sessions, to study more about this rap thing. Kraaifontein used to be one of the Spaza Music hubs along other hoods around the cape flats and as a result I got fortunate enough to be close to people who knew people who worked on music and production. Request Records then allowed me to join their stable on the same year, where I met a couple of very promising rappers there and that came as a huge learning opportunity for me. 2016 May, I got a life changing request to be on a cypher that was hosted by ‘vij’ in collaboration with Oate Margin. After that I started getting the right calls from around; from producers, beatmakers, graphic designers and videographers, and that influenced me or reminded me that the time is of the essence. So I went and recorded a song titled "MOOD", shot a music video before the song got released.
That whole movement kind of sparked the Hip-Hop community support because people loved the music & the music video. That opened doors for me and I even got an opportunity to open for Pzho at Makukhanye Art Room on his 3rd Album Launch in 2017. Same year I released a Freestyle-Series that consisted of four monthly freestyles accompanied by visuals. Fast-forward to 2018; I got fortunate enough to make it to the 4 artists that were picked out of thousands of artists from the whole country when Nasty C opened a label (Tall Racks Records). That gave my music & my soundcloud a very great boost. Later on in the same year I released my 1st 12-Track mixtape, "The BLUE Mixtape" that came as the most powerful work that was ever made in my neighbourhood. Now I'm still reaping the fruits of my mixtape, things haven't been so great because I'm indie but now I'm starting to see the light. 2019 and the future is looking to be on my favour.
Can you share with us your most prominent influences as an artist?
I have had my fair share of influencing a bunch of rappers from around because I came up around the time where Spaza Music was still a thing, and I challenged myself by rapping in English. I had no Model C schooling in my life, I attended township government schools, so it was never easy to sharpen the skill I have, and as a result a line of rappers look up to me already. I've been told I'm a role model a couple of times now, some idolize me at this age and stage of my musical career.
20 years from now, how would you like to be remembered?
Well, I'm trying to be a legend, not a trend. Trends fade over time. Legends live forever, DOA. I wish I could be remembered for my music’s impact on people's lives and ways of seeing things. I want to be remembered as an artist that made other artists, so that the culture continues. I don't want to be remembered as a 15-Minute-Fame artist. One of the major reasons why I put a lot of lyricsm and real life stories in my music is that I'm not all about the vibrations and turn up, because that turn up time fades away too with time, but real life matters never end.
I'm trying to be a legend, not a trend
As a black artist in Cape Town, what have been your worst experiences? And what are the positives you’ve taken from being an active MC in the CA art scene?
I'm not sure if I should say ‘the obvious’, lack of ‘right connects’. In which ever way you look at it. Having no management or having no connections have both been the major blockade for me and many more artists from here and around. In a couple of months being in the CPT hip-hop scene I realised that you get to experience a lot of heavy traffic to get anywhere or to anything with your skill alone, so that means you have to find the right people to help you towards a right direction, but towards all of that I saw that it's not about the raw talent alone anymore, it's about a lot of elements that somehow still need to be backed by an amount of money, sometimes as funding or as PAYOLA. Of which some of us artists don't want to work like that, hence our progress is a bit slow.
However, the culture from here has taught me that as much as everybody is in this for themselves, it's no longer about the crews, favours and many events etc., we are still working towards one goal, which is putting the city on the map. Our circles are now smaller, but the moves are greater, we have names now that did good for themselves with the less help they had to climb up the ladder. We have the likes of Motion Billy, Mailo Music, Dee Koala, Amilca Mezarati and of course the legendary Driemanskap to mention a few.
Can you tell us about your current project(s)?
Yeah, currently I'm working on a couple of songs that might just end up as an EP to back my tape or pave for my next full project. Also, I have been juggling ideas and gathering enough resources to shoot about 3 music videos out of the BLUE Mixtape. I opt on not giving out full details now up until everything is set, I know my people, mostly in KCity(Kraaifontein) are going to catch me on the street and start asking me about a video shoot and new music if I spill every bill right now!
According to you, what would be an ideal hip hop industry?
Man, for me it would be an industry where the real talent is recognised. Nowadays it's mostly about being all swagged and connected, it's not really about the impact or about the art no more. I've lost hope on record labels because of what I see them doing to artists, especially new artists that are hungry, so I wouldn't want to involve Majors in all of that formula. I would really love to see the industry growing inside our country just like in the US, where artists from all over the country are recognised and appreciated, no matter where they come from or what they represent. Whereas here in Mzantsi it's difficult to catch attention if you haven't got the Jozi connects. So a recognizing & appreciating industry would be my short way of explaining it.
I would really love to see the industry growing inside our country
What do you think is the future of South African hip hop?
Bro, we looking at a very amazing future here no lies, and by here I mean the whole South African Hip-hop. So many Hip-hop acts have been flying the flag and selling our music worldwide and they getting the recognition they need. I can count and use both my hands mentioning big artists that represented us in the US, Europe, Central & North Africa, Asia, everywhere man and that is a very promising future there, and I want to be a part of it!
Connect with the cat here:
IG: @thereal_kcityagent
Twitter: @kcitygod_agent
YouTube Channel: KCity AGENT
SoundCloud: https://m.soundcloud.com/user-603360761
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