Gasant Abarder ticked an item off his bucket list after meeting his favourite rap artist, Youngsta CPT, at an incredible hip-hop event.
It wasn’t an overly-publicised event because the sponsors and organisers knew their audience would know. And the talent on display was exhilarating, he writes in a new #SliceofGasant column
After more than 20 years as a journalist who relied heavily on writing, I enrolled for a master’s in creative writing in 2023. I am still in the middle of the programme and anxiously await the green light on my thesis proposal. But boy, oh boy, has it shown me flames.
One of the biggest challenges was a semester of poetry first up. I remember asking my lecturer in our class of four students why none of the stuff he was showing us rhymed. He just shook his head.
Next, he asked which poets inspired us most. I was like, ‘Dr Dre and Tupac.’ Again, there may have been eye-rolling at this point.
But I still disagree. Those guys are poets. Rap, especially freestyle, is really the rawest and most innovative form of the spoken word. It is also perhaps the most popular form of hip-hop culture. And the culture speaks to me in a way I can identify with because it is about growing up in Woodstock, the lure of twin challenges like gangs and drugs and the other social ills we know of.
Last Friday night, I witnessed an incredible freestyle by my favourite rap artist Youngsta CPT. During his set, he asked members of the audience to show him what was in their pockets. There were obviously smartphones, car keys, a jar of Vaseline and even one dude who had a toy broom on his person (I can’t explain why). Luckily, for him at least, it wasn’t in his pocket!
To show the audience his freestyle wasn’t rehearsed, Youngsta – to a beat from none other than Hip Hop Grandmaster Ready D – proceeded to blow minds with verses incorporating all these objects. It was unreal and unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
I have followed Youngta’s career since he launched his album Things Take Time. If he had a career in the United States, he would’ve been a global megastar by now. His lyrics cut deep and talk to many things I can relate to growing up in areas like Woodstock and Mitchells Plain. And he has collaborated with some massive names in the music business.
I was lucky enough to be invited to this Sprite Limelight Warehouse Party at the Biscuit Mill by my good friend of almost 30 years, Priscilla Urquhart. Priscilla is the marketing guru at Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages and has a knack for making well-established brands even cooler. She was my mentor when I was just a 19-year-old intern at The Star newspaper.
Priscilla arranged for me to meet Youngsta as soon as he arrived, and he autographed my Things Take Time CD. He knew my name from this column! Wow! I was fan-boying hard. And I can confidently report that he is as authentic in real life as the music he produces. We just don’t celebrate this immense, generational talent enough in South Africa.
Sprite has begun to remedy that. They’ve created the Sprite Limelight events in Joburg and Cape Town to bring the hip-hop scene into the mainstream. There were names I’ve never heard before whose energy and talent and poetry blew me away. Many of the original tracks performed were in isiXhosa but still somehow spoke to me.
Cape Town’s hip-hop culture, which was very much underground in the late 80s and 90s, with only a few groups like Ready D’s Prophets of Da City, is in great hands. As the grandmaster himself reminded the audience, hip hop was equal parts rap, breaking (or breakdancing), graffiti street art and Ready D’s skill of making turn tables do crazy things.
As I wait anxiously for the green light to keep on working on my thesis (a mini novel not poetry; I know my weaknesses), I will now make a special effort to delve deeper into Cape Town’s hip-hop culture because there are more talents out there, I’ve yet to see perform, and take Youngsta up on his offer to break bread with him.
I’ve avoided poetry readings because it’s just not my scene. I like a beat or three along with the prose. And no offence to the purists, but you might be as blown away by the power of street poetry if you can just step away from that comfort zone.
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Picture: Gasant Abarder
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