Digital Crates: Stop Playing Vol. 1 – The Mixtape

Nov 26, 2012 |

For those of you who love 'old school' hip hop and came up in the early years, how often do you ask yourself, whatever happened to ....? A group whose music I enjoyed in the early nineties was Fu-Schickens, especially Chip Fu, who had a delivery/flow that was unique to him. I've always wondered where he was until early 2012 when I came across him on Twitter. It was a big deal for me when he tweeted me and I have kept up with what he's been up to since. Sometime over the last two years, he re-invented himself as Jungle Rock Jr and delved into reggae and ragga. You can imaging my delight in...

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Digital Crates: All Brooklyn Everything

Nov 19, 2012 |

I write every day. I have the kind of job that forces me to, in those moments when I don’t really want to. I have this blog. It also needs to be maintained. I play on social media on the daily, using it to engage, get ideas and share thoughts. I’m not always sure what it is all for … well, writing for Destiny Man, I am clear on purpose … it’s the blogs and social media and stuff that I lose my way with every now and then - often more now than then. Anyway, with the blog, the new strategy is to create consistency by blogging regularly under specific headings, such as the newly introduced...

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Midweek Music – B.O.B.

Nov 14, 2012 |

Morgan Freeman: As the war between light and darkness continues Heros and villans become harder to identify. Kindred spirits separated at birth fighting for their place in time to be solidified The clock ticks faster and faster while time runs the marathon in this Babylon But see the end is only the beginning, the beginning of the calm before the storm While Bobby Ray Simmons Jr, also known as hip hop artist B.O.B., has only just released his second studio album, Strange Clouds, he has built a strong following with a series of mixtapes starting with the 2007 The Future. B.O.B.: i use to...

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Midweek Music – Zakwe

Oct 31, 2012 |

While rapper Zakwe’s debut album Kubhodloka isfuba setsotsi was actually released about a year ago, for some reason, I only registered it about 2 months ago, randomly having put the CD on a drive to somewhere. The KwaMashu born and raised rapper has been able to carve a niche for himself in the mainstrean as not just a rapper in general but also as a rapper from KwaZulu-Natal. To date, it has been the Joburg and Cape Town rappers who have traditionally led the way with Durban dominating ‘new era kwaito’. He’s also benefited from the joint venture between Sipho Sithole’s Native Rhythms...

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Midweek Music – Delilah

Oct 24, 2012 |

British singer-songwriter Delilah's debut album From The Roots Up has very quickly become part of my regular music playing rotation. I got put onto her by a friend at Atlantic Records in London, when I was recently there. Born Paloma Ayana Stoecker, her influences range from Buena Vista Social Club and Nine Inch Nails to Chaka Khan, Portishead and Sade. Having started singing at an early age and signing with Atlantic at 17 (she is 22), she paid her dues working with drum & bass/dubstep duo Chase & Status as well as touring with one of my favourite artists right now, Maverick Sabre....

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Heineken Symphonic Rocks 2012

Oct 7, 2012 | ,

We spend too much time trying to delineate between things as opposed to finding the points of convergence. A question that is often asked of artists is what genre they consider their music to be in an attempt to both box and contextualise what it is they create. Reference points are great, as long as they aren’t used to divide or create a negative otherness. Being a fan of a diverse array of music, one of the things I enjoy are mashups of different genres because, when done right, one is taking the best from all sides and creating something else. Also, they tend to demonstrate the similarity...

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