Pioneer Unit

This photo of Ben was taken by Dutch photographer, Krijn van Noordwijk, in Eindhoven at the Extrema Festival.

Krijn is working on a book called DJ that will feature portraits of various artists who have been performing on the European festival circuit.

The two sample copies of the book Krijn has made so far contain strikingly beautiful portraits that capture the personality of the artists with amazing intensity. His portrait of Chuck D is one of the best I have ever seen!

Check out Krijn’s blog here

Our very own Ben Sharpa was interviewed by Rob Boffard in the number 1 newspaper for South Africans living abroad, The South African.

Luckily for you, they have an online version so you can check out the piece. Some of you may know Rob Boffard aka Rob_one from his regular contributions to Africa’s Gateway.

Anyway…. check out The Sharpest Knife in the Drawer

That’s how we rrrrrrrrrroll!!

Ben Sharpa and Milanese have been rocking crowds out in Europe for the last couple of months and the response to their unique brand of hip hop and UK bass music has been amazing. The day after rocking a crowd of around 4,000 people at Dour in Belgium, Sharpa and Milanese gave Extrema in Eindhoven a taste of the future.

Extrema is one of the largest festivals in The Netherlands, with an estimated 40,000 people in attendance. The musical line up was mostly commercial techno, so Sharpa and Milanese really stood out. The Novalectra tent was packed to capacity and the pair killed it with a big performance.

Check out the photos…

Ben Sharpa, Milanese, Dplanet (click for larger image).

Beach with fake palm trees! (click for larger image).

The Sharpest Knife in the Drawer + hottie (click for larger image).

Fuck me, I’m fabulous! (click for larger image).

Sharpa and Milanese rockin’ it (click for larger image).

The crowd feeling it (click for larger image).

The crowd feeling it even more (click for larger image).

Sharpa Soul Power (click for larger image).

Click here to see the full set of photos on Flickr

That’s how we rrrrrrrrroll!!

Just a quick update to let you know that we haven’t disappeared off the face of the planet.

Pioneer Unit is on tour in Europe at the moment. Ben Sharpa has been killing it with Milanese all over the place and I’m chilling in Amsterdam until the 30th of this month.

There will be news and photo updates in the next few days. Hold tight!

Please bear with us if you’ve emailed recently - we’ll definitely get back to you as soon as we can.

Peace!

Dplanet_

Our very own Ben Sharpa has just finished a recording session with critically-acclaimed UK Hip Hop crew, Foreign Beggars. They got together to record a track about the lunatics taking over the asylum, which by all accounts, is a banger.

For those of you that haven’t heard of Foreign Beggars, let me put you in the know… the crew have achieved a range high profile accomplishments from appearance s on Bjork’s Medulla album and the Gorillaz single Tomorrow Never Comes, to remix production for Amp Fiddler and Corinne Bailey Rae, and touring the States with James Lavelle’s UNKLE outfit. Whilst also having collaborated with a slew of hip hop heavy weights including Stones Throw’s OhNo, Guilty Simpson, Wildchild and Dudley Perkins, producer supreme DJ Vadim, Dabrye, Scratch Perverts, Skinnyman, Task Force and Spain’s Griffi and Tote King they have worked from a host of other genres including Vex’d, Virus Sundicate, Natalie Williams, Noisia and Ram Record’s Subfocus.

Ben is currently on tour in Europe, performing with groundbreaking UK Bass Music producer Milanese. Check him out at Bangface in London on July 11th, Dour Festival in Belgium on July 18th and at Extrema Festival in The Netherlands on July 19th.

Foreign Beggars on Myspace

Foreign Beggars on Dented Records

Foreign Beggars Official Site

That’s how we rrrrrrrrrroll!!

Breis (UK) / DJ Spooky (US) / Ben Sharpa (SA) - (click for larger image).

Your boy Ben Sharpa is on tour out in Europe right now. Last Saturday he participated in MCs for Life as part of Bass Festival. Other participants include Black Thought, Lord Finesse, Rich Medina, Ursula Rucker, DJ Spooky, Tumi, Nappo, Omekongo, Lebo Mashile, Charlie Dark, Hymphatic Thabs and many more.

The photo above shows Ben chilling with Breis and DJ Spooky.

That’s how we rrrrrrrrrrrroll!!

Cash Crusaders invited Pioneer Unit to come and judge at their community initiative Ekasi Hip Hop Explosion in Nyanga.

The Zolani Centre was packed past full capacity to see rappers, dancehall artists and poets battle it out for prizes and the chance to have their song aired on Cash Crusader’s in-house radio station for 3 months.

Big up to the sponsors and everyone who took part.

Check out some photos…

Dplanet, Rattex and Mika - the judges (click for larger image).

Enjoying the show (click for larger image).

The hall was packed (click for larger image).

Performer holding it down (click for larger image).

Rattex spits an acapella (click for larger image).

Rattex announces the winner (click for larger image).

Check out the full set of photos here.

That’s how we rrrrrrrrrroll!!

On Saturday night I went through to Albert Hall in Woodstock to watch Jaak performing at the Max Normal TV show. We’d been at the 7784 launch party in Khayelitsha all day so I was pretty exhausted, but Leon Botha was warming up the set with some classic old skool jams and some tight scratching, which helped give me some energy and get me in the mood.

Jaak, or Jaak ‘Paarl’ as he was introduced by Waddy, absolutely tore up the set and worked the crowd into a frenzy with some banging jams including How We Roll. I was incredibly impressed by Jaak’s stage craft - one of the tightest MC performances that I’ve seen in a while.

We took a breather outside while Die Vegas and Parow Show did their thing, then came back to check out Waddy, Yo-Landi and Neon Don do their thing. If you’ve never been to a Max Normal TV show you’ve really missed out. It’s pure, deranged entertainment.

Check out some photos:

Jaak and fan (click for larger image).

Jaak on set (click for larger image).

The crowd goes befok (click for larger image).

Max Normal TV doing what they do best (click for larger image).

That’s how we rrrrrrrrrroll!!

There’s a nice feature on The Realist in the latest issue of One Small Seed.

“The Realist deals in bruising combustible beats, caustic rhymes and moments of jarring beauty.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself!

Go and buy One Small Seed, it’s definitely one of SA’s best publications.

(click for larger image).

(click for larger image).

That’s how we rrrrrrrrrroll!!

I have a lot of respect for what Mizi and his team are doing for SA Hip Hop at Hype Magazine, but I was concerned with the Crack Boys fashion shoot in this month’s issue.

Do we really need to glorify drug dealing, gangsterism and gunplay in South Africa? Is this the sort of imagery we want to have associated with SA Hip Hop?

I know they are called the ‘Crack’ Boys, but as Cash has explained on numerous occasions on Africa’s Gateway, that is just a metaphor borrowed from Juelz Santana to explain the addictive nature of their music and the street hustle associated with selling it (although Cash does stretch the nature of that ‘metaphor’ to breaking point by having white powder on his CD cover, but that’s another issue).

Doing a photo shoot that actually portrays the Crack Boys doing drug deals, unpacking cocaine and posing with gats takes the concept beyond a metaphor. Hype Magazine is buying into, and implicitly supporting, the glamourous gangster fantasy that white corporate America has been force-feeding the world for years. Remember, we’re not talking about real life here - Hype is not addressing the reality of the social situations that lead to gangsterism and drug dealing - it’s just a fantasy fashion shoot.

Putting a red circle with the diagonal line through it over the guns doesn’t absolve Hype of their responsibility for promoting this imagery. Where is the red circle over the cocaine? Is Hype saying that guns are bad, but cocaine is ok?

50 Cent has a beautifully shot series of photos that portray G-Unit in a variety of strikingly similar scenarios. The difference there is that 50 actually claims that that imagery represents his real life, and has built his whole persona around this.

You could argue that Curtis Jackson has created 50 Cent as a fantasy gangster for the sake of entertainment no different to Ray Liotta playing Henry Hill in Goodfellas. Indeed, this is an argument often used by ‘gangster’ rappers when they get arrested. However, the point still remains; in a country that is afflicted by drugs, guns and gangsterism, is it responsible behaviour to glamourise gang culture, drug dealing and violence to an impressionable young audience?

What would have been wrong with showing the Crack Boys hustling their mixtapes at parties, choosing which Louis Vuitton bag to buy or investing in property? These are things that are based in reality and that would provide something positive to aspire to?

Wordsworth made a great point at the Red Bull Academy talk he gave in Cape Town recently. He said that rappers are often poor role models because, when interviewed, they just talk in cliches instead of saying anything that a young kid can listen to and learn from… “yeah, you know how we do”, “we’re grindin’ dawg”, “we ballin’ out of control”, “we thuggin’ it out big style” etc.

It’s ironic that Hype is guilty of putting out mixed messages. On page 7 of the same issue there’s a ‘Hype court order’ made out to Seida Crook for being involved in a cheque fraud syndicate. It says, “You’re meant to be a role model Crook. Do the right thing.”

Maybe I’m making way too much of this whole thing (it is just a fashion shoot after all), but the Hip Hop community and the media that represents it mustn’t forget its responsibility to the community at large.

Peace to everyone at Hype Magazine and The Crack Boys.

Check out your boy Rah in the June/ July edition of Hype Magazine. Like we always say, support local Hip Hop and go and buy the magazine. Rah is on page 19.

That’s how we rrrrrrroll!!

What better way to start the week than with a fresh new banger from your boy Rah!

In the wake of the xenophobic attacks, Rattex and Jaak got together to record a track that warns Africans not to be divided by language or culture.

For those of you that don’t know, ‘Pasop’ is the Afrikaans word for ‘watch out’ or ‘beware’. ‘Lumka’ is the same word in isiXhosa.

Check it out…

Pasop (Lumka) - Rattex Ft. Jaak - MP3 - (5.59MB)

Pasop (Lumka) - Rattex Ft. Jaak - ZIP - (5.52MB)

That’s how we rrrrrrrrrroll!!

(click photo for larger image).

Putting Heads Together. Your boy Sharpa featured in this short piece in the Mail & Guardian on Heads Against Violence, an anti-xenophobia benefit gig in Johannesburg.

That’s how we rrrrrrrrroll!!

Pioneer Unit is taking Hip Hop entertainment back to the hood with a series of spectacular events that will showcase South Africa’s finest talent, both established and up and coming.

We’re keeping the price of entry down and the quality of the entertainment up at the highest level. There will be super-high quality sound, rap battles as well as dance and singing competitions where the crowd decides who takes home cash prizes. There will also be hot, home-cooked food on sale for only R2 a plate.

This is entertainment for the whole hood, so don’t miss out!

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To celebrate the release of Rattex’s new mixtape, Pioneer Unit Records proudly presents the first in a series of music spectaculars…

7784

“Lezi zezase kasi. Gcwala uchiteke.”

Featuring a full-length set by:
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> Rattex
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Plus extra special guests:
> Driemanskap
> Jaak
> Garlic Brown
> Crosby
> Kanyi
> Sim
> Maxhoseni
> Mic Substance
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> DJ Eazy (Faculty of Hip Hop)
> DJ Azuhl (Beatbangaz)
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Kritsi Ye’Spaza - Your host with the most!
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> Huge super-high quality sound system!
> Rap / Dance / Singing competitions to win cash prizes!
> Hot home-cooked food for only R2 a plate!
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Date: Saturday 21 June, 2008
Time: 12 - 6pm
Venue: New Hall, Site C, Khayelitsha
Price: R10
Food: R2 plate
Competition prizes: R100 per competition

Click here to join the Facebook event for updates and reminders.

That’s how we rrrrrrrrrroll!!

Check out our very own Ben Sharpa posing with Yfm’s Lee Kasumba and legendary New York producer/ DJ, J-Live in the 8th May 2008 edition of Drum Magazine. The photos were taken at the annual Back to the City street festival last month.

That’s how we rrrrrrrroll!!