Cape Town-based Brook-lon emcee Whosane stopped by at Bush Radio for the Headwarmaz Hip Hop Show last Friday (August 1st) to promote Pharoahe Monch’s upcoming Cape Town gig. The last chat we had with the emcee was while he was doing a promo for Mos Def’s Now Year’s Eve gig towards the end of 2013. Bumping into him and him telling me “I’m coming through next week” doesn’t count as a chat. And never once did he keep that promise.
What was supposed to be just a short slot for a promo and a ticket give away ended up turning into an inspiring conversation both on air and off air. He started by stating that it’s disturbing how the new generation has no clue who Pharoahe Monch was. “My squad was putting up posters around UCT. UCT, man, do your homework, man. Y’all paying all that money for your tuition, you better know something. Do your homework, Pharoahe Monch is a hip hop legend,” he mocked, to chuckles in the studio.
He went on to introduce EFT (Entertainment For Today) – a company he owns and one that is responsible for bringing Pharoahe Monch down to Cape Town. “Basically, my company EFT – as the acronym for ‘Entertainment For Today’, we are a whole other type of events company where it’s all about inclusion. It’s not just about getting money; it’s about quality music, it’s about quality folks, about people enjoying themselves, about bringing the culture to the forefront in a way that’s accessible to the masses. You know what I’m saying? So tickets are a 120 Rand!” he revealed. “Which is very low for an international act,” I added. “Yeah, I was at The Foreign Exchange [Cape Town gig]. God knows man, the tickets was like 300 Rand!” he exclaimed. “I was looking, like ‘there’s only two midgets here’ and then I found out the ticket price and I was like…” he gestured. “Any of you Jo’burg promoters listening right now, stay in Gauteng! Don’t come here with your Superman, Wonderwoman prices and expect Capetonians [to attend],” he added. “Listen: The people here would rather eat curry chicken at The Old Biscuit Mill on a Saturday than pay R350 for some act from overseas. Come on, this ain’t Jo’burg, this ain’t Pop Bottles, this ain’t VIP. DJ Dimplez and Vigi ain’t here. Why’s the price so high? Nobody came for that. Entertainment For Today is never gonna price up more than R150. Full stop, that’s it,” he promised.
The Pharoah Monch show is happening at Zula Bar, a venue that has been part of hip hop culture in Cape Town for close to a decade – having hosted acts such as Kev Brown, Bahamadia, Yasiin Bey, Blu & Exile, Ill Skillz, Mingus, among others. A few months ago, Zula announced that they were closing down! “Zula Bar was done,” he said. “Zula Bar came out and opened their doors back up [just] for this gig!”
Reintroducing the emcee – who seemed really inspired and adamant to drop some bars – properly after he had complained about us playing a Ja Rule and Ashanti song just before he came on, we played his song “Mamela”. Off air, Andy asked him why he had to pronounce “wena” as “weyna” on the song. “It was my engineer’s idea. He said ‘a foreigner pronouncing it wrong will get the people talking’” Riiight.
Off air just before we could do the ticket giveaway, while playing his “We Didn’t Have to” – the opening track to his Brooklyn to Cape Town release – which features ProVerb, he spoke about how much he respected the Kimberly emcee. He went on to spit a verse over Biggie’s “Kick in the Door” instrumental.
We played CyHi The Prynce’s Reason-featuring “Mandela” remix. He had something to say about Reason too. “I’m not a fan of Reason by the way. Y’al like Reason?” he asked. A confessed Reason Stan, I sure-footedly responded with a fat “Yes!” “Keep debiting,” he said referring to DJ Vigi’s Reason and Tumi-assisted hit. “I mean, really? Even somebody like Akio; you see him down here, he wylin’ and hustlin’ hip hop, real hip hop. He gets to Jo’burg, it’s like he’s in Las Vegas. He stop doing Kool Out, he’s just over there. [I was] talking to Jimmy Flexx and Uno like, ‘what happened to your deejay?’” We burst out laughing. He went on to break down the importance of quick hits and longevity, pointing out names such as Yasiin Bey and Tumi Molekane as prototypes of legacy artists.
“Anyway, I’m always a critic of fly-by-night friends. Loyalty is the biggest thing in my book. If you can’t be loyal to who you are, Kanye West said, ‘I’d rather you hate me for who I am than love me for who I’m not’. Come on, at the end of the day, you gotta sleep with yourself,” he added. Forget about all the groupies, you have to sleep with yourself,” he said earnestly before adding: “We should have had this talk on air, ‘cause I wanna air shit out. Niggas were gon’ be like ‘Oh Whosane got beef with Reason’” We burst out laughing again. There’s a few songs that I’ve done that I’d never just talk about…matterfact let me spit a verse.” Not willing to stand on the way of the man’s inspiration, we allowed him, even though time was not on our side. He spat a verse that began: “The smile of a ghetto child so damn priceless/ The face of a billionaire so dam lifeless”
Last Friday was definitely not the first time we had met Whosane. But never before has he been that expressive and inspired. He was in his element. He delivered his verses with a rare fervour and exuded the type of energy he usually brings on stage.
Headwarmaz Hip Hop Show airs on Bush Radio every Friday from 10pm – 1am.
Image by Andiswa Mkosi
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