The Cape Town hip-hop quartet Driemanskap is taking their spaza sound to the masses with their new record label, writes Sabelo Mkhabela.
Driemanskap signed to the accomplished indie label Native Rhythms this year in what is poised to be a turning point for the Cape Town hip hop quartet and spaza (Xhosa hip-hop), which is under-represented nationally.
“This is what we’ve always wanted – to just be busy,” says Ma-B, one of the members on the Friday evening I interview the crew at Bush Radio. “Mina, personally, I just wanna be busy and never stop.”
Hlala Nam, the follow-up to the group’s debut album Igqabhukil’inyongo (2009), was promised to fans in 2013 but still hasn’t seen the light of day. One of the many speculations was that the guys were having issues with Pioneer Unit, the label that signed them in 2008. At the time, they were fresh off creating a serious buzz for themselves in the Cape Town hip-hop scene through mixtapes, street singles and rocking park jams and ciphers in Gugulethu, Cape Town.
Group members Dla, El Nino, Redondo and Ma-B are now focused on the future and talking about parting with the Unit is the last thing they would like to discuss. In Long Wait, the opener of their latest EP Journey of a Soldier, Ma-B raps: “Aish my bru, khaw’me ndiqale ngaphi? I don’t even know/ Sisogoliswe yi-label so we decided to let them go.”
Dla’s contribution: “Excuse the long wait/ Things didn’t go well as much as we prepared/ The plan was complete/ Implementation was dragging its feet.”
Apart from that, nothing. Just after signing the Native Rhythms deal, their explanation was: “We were on a one-album deal with Pioneer Unit [for] Igqabhukil’ Inyongo. There’re no bad vibes between us, we’re still friends and we’ll still be working together, we [just] wanted to flip [to] a new chapter.”
Native Rhythms’ roster includes successful names in the South African music scene such as The Soil, Zakwe, Siphokazi and Camagwini. Looking at Native Rhythms’s success rate, Driemanskap is in the right hands. In 2006, the label was able to make a star out of hip-hop star Zuluboy, whose conscious raps stood in stark contrast to the house and kwaito music the rest of South Africa were obsessing over.
Only time will tell if Driemanskap are on the way to making spaza as big as mostwako. One thing is for sure, though – the guys are in a good place and are happy with their new home.
For full report by Sabelo Mkhabela see Mail & Guardian
