BackToTheCity #GaffdRepublic

An annual youth festival taking place outside Ritual Stores Newtown, Johannesburg. Featuring artists representing the pinnacle of artistic expression from South Africa, this unique youth event has grown into the largest public display of both commercial and underground hip hop in South Africa, presenting a day of live music, street art, break-dancing, art installation, skateboarding, film, street fashion, gaming, speakers and panel discussions.

The event is the one time that the inner city comes alive with true freedom of expression providing a destination for hip hop fans, artists and industry related individuals to converge and celebrate the experience of hip hop and youth culture.

Gaffd Republic will for the first time be showcasing their line of street fashion gear, which they have been putting together through lots of creativity; hard work and late nights. The brand has had their range in production for a very long while, reason being to bring out a good quality product without overstating prices. The Gaffd Republic family felt it was best to bring the brand to the culture, rather than expecting the culture to come to the brand and Back To The City is where its at.

In a nut shell... It's going to be a day to remember so bring your sense of style, a good mood and your wallets. Remeber to always stay BornToBe #GaffdRepublic.

BABATUNDE - SWAG!

Born in the depths of central Johannesburg in 2009, Babatunde has grown from a headwear experiment into a concept brand. From what began as a 5 hat and 5 cap experiment, the brand has moved into a space of creative optimism/freedom with new exciting products taking Babatunde to adolescence.
With the goal of being a global brand, Babatunde fuses African colours and prints with Western Shapes. The prints represent the uniqueness of each human being. The colours embody the future. And the shapes express the vision and structure of success and prosperity.
Babatunde stands for strong African Values and the progression of Africa through Afrocentrism. Each product is unique due to fabric cuts as well as limited prints. Check out www.babatunde.co.za or facebook - babatunde styles- for more info.

The word Babatunde is a Yoruba (Nigerian) name. Translated the word means "the father returns". Babatunde stands for all that is truly African and promoting strong family values. We at Babatunde urge the father-figures to return to Africa.
Respect yourself and those around you and make decisions that benefit Africa. It is up to us as Africans to lift the continent. All of the products are proudly handmade in South Africa from African fabrics. Proudly African!

source : www.babatundestyles.com

The Soil... Im inspired.

Meet 'The Soil', a 4-member acapella singing group whose music can be best described as ‘Kasi Soul’. The Soil strives to fuse their voices to deliver melodic and harmonious messages that are aimed at uplifting and healing souls all around the world.
The first member of the group exists in a spiritual form as The Creator of all. The other three members of the group take a physical form: Buhlebendalo Mda, Luphindo Ngxanga, and Ntsika Fana Ngxanga, who are occasionally also supported by two backing vocalists, Asanda and Tshwarelo.
The Soil claims they are simply channels of the songs that they believe come to them from a sacred place where they just serve as mediums that help carry the message through.
The Soil's self-titled album is surely going to take you back to the time when the Creator sculpted the skies and the land. The group’s music bears testimony to the fact that God created man using the very soil and thousands of years later He gave a voice to The Soil. It is through this belief that The Soil invites you to listen with your ear on the ground as you might hear the sound.
Defined as Kasi Soul, the group’s music features (in a contemporary township style), an eclectic mix of musical genres such as jazz, hip hop, Afro-pop and Afro-soul. The group’s musical style is evident in its rhythmic vocal bass line, with constant beat boxing - a distinct feature in the music - whilst the remaining voices contribute to the choral and polyphonic accompaniment. Equal and up to the challenge, each of the group members take turns in solo vocal performance to display their most beautiful rendition of the melodic verses embedded in each song.
The album is a reflection of the group’s aspiration for a world full of joy, hope, faith, goodwill and love - a message carried out with each performance and each song.
This album is a culmination of years of dedication, hard work and a passion for the art. Having paid their dues as a performing group in and around the country, The Soil is as comfortable at big music festivals and concerts as it is on theater stages. In the past 7 years The Soil has graced stages of the most renowned events such as the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz, Grahamstown Arts Festival, Jazz by the River, as well as theater stages of the Nelson Mandela Theater as well as the Catalyst Theatre in Cape Town.
It is through this journey that The Soil strives to be a household name and a global brand imprinted in the hearts and minds of those who aspire for a better world.
The Members:
Buhlebendalo Mda, aka Buhle, this Soweto-born and only female member of the group has always loved music and the attention that comes with it. For Buhle, The Soil completes her life puzzle: it’s her second home. Her life long dream has always been to work with the likes of the Late and Great Gogo Mirriam Makeba, Mama Busi Mhlongo. Thandiswa Mazwai, Simphiwe Dana, Ringo Madlingozi, Gloria Bosman, and Hlengiwe Mhlaba, just to name a few.
Buhle describe herself or her music as soulful or “Jazzy fizzle”, which is considered to be a mixture of all sorts of genres from which she has created her own soulful or “Jazzy fizzle”. To Buhle all genres do it for her, as they tend to match her every mood.
Ntsika Fana Ngxanga, aka Da FanArtistc, Also dreamt of being on stage as early as primary school years and used school desks as drums, turning every song into dance music. He also transformed the classical jazz songs that he grew up being exposed to into his own musical world. Ntsika got introduced to clap and tap music, “apostolic gospel music”, and learnt to sing from the heart and add emotion to the very voice one was blessed with. He also learnt how to connect with music in its totality and the art of backing.
The defining moment for Ntsika was when he started dreaming and receiving songs in his sleep which he coins “something very heavenly and humbling”, which he embraced as a Gift and God’s medium through which he was to pass messages of love, hope, courage, faith, joy, peace and happiness amongst many.
Luphindo Ngxanga, aka Master P, considers himself the friendliest and warmest member of the group. Contrary to his masculine beatbox prowess with which he meticulously kicks the bass drum and snare, accompanied by his harmonic basslines, Luphindo is a humanitarian in the group and loves to see the members happy all the time. Luphindo uses his fine arts academic training to think differently and seeing things in perspective, which he then applies in the construction of ideas in the songs The Soil finally puts together.
http://www.the-soil.com/soil-biography

If Life Was This Easy

Lovely piece by Gizmodo.

Color.Culture.Sound...

Photography... The Art Of Malick Sidibe.

Malick Sidibé is a Malian photographer noted for his black-and-white studies of popular culture in the 1960s. He was born in Soloba, Mali and completed his studies in design and jewelry in the École des Artisans Soudanais (now the Institut National des Arts) in Bamako. In 1955, he undertook an apprenticeship at Gérard Guillat-Guignard's Photo Service Boutique, also known as Gégé la pellicule.
In 1958, he opened his own studio (Studio Malick) in Bamako and specialized in documentary photography, focusing particularly on the youth culture of the Malian capital. In the 1970s, he turned towards the making of studio portraits.

Sidibé was able to increase his reputation through the first meetings on African photography in Mali in 1994. His work is now exhibited in Europe (Paris) , the United States and Japan. In 2003, Malick Sidibé received the Hasselblad Award for photography.

Sidibé was awarded the Venice Biennale's Golden Lion for lifetime achievement award in 2007. It was the first time it had been presented to a photographer.[1]

In 2006 Tigerlily Films made a documentary entitled "Dolce Vita Africana" about Malick, filming him at work in his studio in Bamako, having a reunion with many of his friends (and former photographic subjects) from his younger days and speaking to him about his work.

In 2008, Sidibé was awarded the ICP Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Source : www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malick_Sidib%C3%A9

Check out more of his peices on the following source link...

www.google.co.za/search?q=Malick+Sidibe&hl=en&prmd=imvnso&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Q6X_T9GxKIWc0AWv18TBBw&ved=0CFgQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=883

Authenticity and Race in Hip Hop

In a recent tribute in The Guardian of Adam Yauch, the Beastie Boy who sadly died at the age of 47, a quote from Public Enemy’s Chuck D succinctly touches upon the issues surrounding the contested and emotive issue of racial and personal authenticity in hip hop.

‘”In those days, hip-hop was truly from the streets, and everybody rapping was black. All of a sudden, these punk rock white kids crossed into hip-hop with the shock of Jackie Robinson in reverse,” Public Enemy’s Chuck D once said of the Beastie Boys.

And because they never pretended to be anything but “punk rock white kids”, they taught hip-hop fans who weren’t black, who weren’t from the street, that they shouldn’t play act at being anything other than who they were when listening to hip-hop. They weren’t revolutionary, as Chuck D said, they were evolutionary.’

www.globalnoise.wordpress.com/2012/05/13/authenticity-and-race-in-hip-hop/