Pioneer Unit

Aweh! Check out the pre-video video for Liberate Yourself by Terror MC. This montage of still photography taken around the Cape Flats was put together by visual artist Mustafa Maluka, himself born and raised in Bishop Lavis on the Cape Flats.

Maluka’s video is a prequel to the forthcoming full-motion video for Liberate Yourself that should be released in early December.

Also, check out this interesting blog post by Leo Africanus on the cultural/ musical significance of the new breed of Cape Town MCs.

That’s how we rrrrrrrrrroll!!

A couple of weeks ago Anne-Sophie from Apartment Applied Visual Arts took to the streets of Cape Town to shoot Archetypes for the Pioneer Unit Street Life campaign. The campaign will promote the new range of Pioneer Unit t-shirts and will be used online and in the form of postcards.

We’re really happy with the results. Check it out…

‘Massage’ (click to enlarge)

‘Wall’ (click to enlarge)

‘Robots’ (click to enlarge)

‘Cadiz’ (click to enlarge)

‘Archetypes’ (click to enlarge)

‘Sky’ (click to enlarge)

Back of the postcard (click to enlarge)

That’s most definitely how we rrrrrrrrroll!!

R.I.P. Lucky Dube - One of South Africa brightest stars. A tragic loss.

Jah Bless!

Story here.

I got so excited about beginning production on the new video for Go and Ask (Hamb’ubuza) that I decided to do a remix.

I was talking to El Nino earlier about making some hard, dark club bangers for Driemanskap in order to give them a bit more crossover appeal. I’m not sure this remix is particularly radio-friendly, but it’s definitely a banger.

You can check it out on my Myspace page. It’s the first track in my player.

Check out Welfare State of Mind on Bush Radio 89.5fm on Saturday, just after 2pm. Mikko will be playing the track.

El Nino & Dla recording

That’s how we rrrrrroll!!

We’ve started working on the new video for Hamb’ubuza by South Africa’s hottest up and coming crew, Driemanskap. They are riding high at the moment with a well-deserved number 1 spot in Hype magazine’s Unsigned Hype chart.

As always, the video will be directed by Anne-Sophie Leens from Apartment Studios. We’re going bigger and better this time so we’re employing a director of photography to make sure that the final product is truly world-class. We’re also talking to potential sponsors to see what we can do.

Watch this space!…

That’s how we rrrrrrrrroll!!

Check out this Ben Sharpa & Kingpinn (R.I.P.) remix of 50 Cent’s I Get Money. After hearing I Get Gully by Papoose, I thought it would be a good idea to have a remix that represented a different paradigm - 50 and Pap got money and guntalk covered after all.

Before you get too excited, it’s a montage of photos, not a proper video.

That’s how we rrrrrrroll.

Check out some photos from a show Driemanskap did at Zula Bar on 14th September this year. They finished off their set with a huge performance of their street anthem, Go and Ask (Hamb’ubuza) from Planetary Assault.

Dla and El Nino

Dla AKA “Fullstop the Lastborn”

Dla feelin’ it

Driemanskap & Macho performing ‘Go and Ask’

El Nino, Dla & Planet Earth bringing the ruckus.

Ma-B in full effect

Check out the full set of photos at Flickr

The Unit was in full effect this weekend as Trusenz broadcast his show, ‘Ground Zero’, live from Cape Town. The show was broadcast on CKI FM, an SABC station that goes out across the Eastern Cape, on both Saturday and Sunday.

Tru was in town with his band BEE to do a couple of shows so he gave us the opportunity to talk to the people of the EC about what we’re up to in Cape Town.

I’ve only ever been to inside the SABC building in Seapoint to do interviews on GoodHope FM (as they share the building). It was interesting to go deeper into the building and see the somewhat old skool SABC studios.

On Saturday Rattex and I did an interview and we played through his tracks on Planetary Assault. Ratteezy also did a freestyle over the ‘Go and Ask’ beat.

On Sunday we did it all over again, this time with Driemanskap who killed it as usual. Those boys always bring the FIRE!

Big Tru with his copy of Planetary Assault

Tru interviewing Rattex

Ratteezy busting a freestyle

Tru at the controls - Sunday’s session

Tru interviewing me

Me and Amina

Pioneer Unit is featured in a nice double page spread in the October/ November edition of Hype magazine (page 34, right in front of the feature on 50 Cent). The feature is called ‘Planetary Assault - A New World - A New Era’.

Thanks to Mizi and Simone at Hype for the support. Also big up to my boys Driemanskap who are at number 1 in the Unsigned Hype chart (we’ll have to see what we can do about that ‘unsigned’ status!).

Support Your Local Product (S.Y.L.P.) and go buy the magazine. In fact, double up and get a spare - someone always steals my copy so I need to have two.

Poppin’ Champagne

Front cover of Hype magazine

That’s how we rrrrrrroll!!

There’s a nice feature on Planetary Assault in this month’s issue of One Small Seed magazine.

For those of you that don’t know, One Small Seed is South Africa’s hottest pop culture magazine. Big thanks to Dylan, Giuseppe and Tracey Lee for the support!

Front cover of One Small Seed

Battle formation!