One Wednesday, I saw Hip-Hop Revolution, a documentary about underground hip-hop in the Republic of South Africa. Despite the dismantlement of apartheid in the early Nineties, problems still exist in the country. Beginning in the Eighties, young people were influenced by American hip-hop and have developed their own home-grown version of the music which is documenting HIV/AIDS, poverty and crime.
The documentary itself is okay. It could use more historical and political context. It was also clear from talking to the filmmakers after the screening that the film focuses on a particular brand of positive hip-hop, as opposed to the entire scene in the country. But it is nevertheless a fascinating film.
In this country, rappers have attracted controversy for attacking the police. In South Africa, the police routinely set upon blacks with dogs, clubs and guns. Groups like Public Enemy and N.W.A. were hugely influential. As Weaam Williams (who directed, wrote and edited the film) and Nafia Kocks (who shot it) described the situation, all of the youth’s positive role models were killed or in exile during the Eighties. Hip-hop became the voice of youth rebellion.
Members of Prophets of Da City (POC), the first important group to start in the late Eighties, are interviewed, along with newer artists. Kocks told me that there are rappers that emulate contemporary American rap in a very derivative fashion with the exact same bling and the same lyrical content. The scene documented in this film have a more indigenous style and are not focused on marketing at all, instead employing, as one set of lyrics puts it, “Guerilla type techniques to test beats…”
In South African rap, a record that sells 200,000 units is a hot seller. Piracy is a problem, so the way these guys make a living, as Kocks put it, is “Gig, gig, gig.”
One of the interesting groups in the film is Godessa, a female trio from Cape Town, composed of Shameema Williams, EJ von LYRIK and Burni. Here is an interview with the group and here is the video for their song “Mindz Ablaze.” You can also find footage from the film on the Shamanic Organic Productions website.