Friday, October 24, 2008

The Cipha - Intro

1 comments
What's the deal people??! Still staying alive I hope, and keeping positive vibes flowing. Today's post concerns a film project me and Fairo worked on towards the tail-end of 2007. It's a documentary details the gwaans in the Lesotho hip-hop circles, especially the cipha scene.

The Cipha

For them who don't know, in hip-hop terms, a cipha happens when emcees form a circle and start rapping - simple as that. It's a big thing all over the globe, and we as Corporate Nemesis wanted to get a Lesotho-based emcee's perspective on the cipha scene; how it influences/inspires them, what they get from it, etc.

We've uploaded a number of clips from the documentary on youtube (check out: www.youtube.com/nemesisRepublik), and I'll be uploading the links here on the blog and giving inside information on how the particular clip was put together.

NadaPimpin'

First up is the introduction. The beat on the clip is done by a fairly unknown Lesotho-based producer who goes under the moniker Profane Hermit. For those who don't know, the quote "Time for s**** y'all n**** ain't heard yet/ cuz the radio is repetitive bull****", is taken from a Lootpack song off of the Antidote album. Madlib recites that particular line.



Check it out; love it, hate it, and please, give some feedback. Peace!!!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Poltergeist

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Hey y'all, princes and poets across the universal sphere, what's really good? Another day, another opportunity for us to discover more about artists in our beloved land, Lesotho. Today's post is on the emcee Poltergeist, a part of the Lesotho Rhyme Force crew who is now based out in New York City.

Poltergeist_01


He's been on the scene for quite a minute now, and, through the extensive amount of work he's done with Corporate Nemesis, I've come to respect him as a well-rounded artist, fully worthy of a record label's money. Trust me, he is that good! We did some stuff with him over these past June holidays when he was at home. Didn't get a chance to edit all the tracks, but peep the link below for this one banger that he left.

Poltergeist_02

Currently, dude is down with a label called Invent Horizons (check em out on myspace, a Ney York City-based independent label founded by Jonathan Tanners about three years ago. Big things are currently in the pipeline, so keep an eye out. The following extract is taken off of Po's myspace page:

About Po

Poletrgeist as an emcee emerged from frlorida streets in Maseru, Lesotho in 2002. I started rhymin after meetin up wit my boys poison foul, kislev, spit ferrocious, and Fairo to mention a few. These catz were all emcees and i loved and still love what they do lyrically so i started spittin as well. the crew, then Cutz on Rapz, was where i grew as an emcee under the wing of Fairo and the Catz mentioned above and alot more actually... Basically that's about it...if u wanna hear more just holla at yo boy. One.

So he's on the grind, and has recently started a hip-hop society at Columbia University, the place where he's stationed. I've decided to post a good number of goodies, so check em out and leave comments in the comment box. Respect!!!

Fresh joint:

Untitled Track (Biz-ark's mix) - approx. 4MB

An interview I did with him (he comments on important issues related to emceeing, air play, and the authenticity of certain elements in hip-hop):

Poltergiest interview - approx. 8MB (10 mins.)

P.S. If you want me to post up part two of the interview, leave a comment in the box.

Oh, wait up...more goodies. Check out this video of a performance he did!!!



Now, please say thank you! Happy weekend ;-)

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Empty Tin Can event

1 comments
Word! Check out the flyer pertaining to this event.

EmptyTin

ONE!!!

Re: Nemesis Republik

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Peace to all! In case you don't know already, my man Fairo is hard on the design front, and we've got a whole clothing label concept that's taking quite a while to get off the ground. But, once that's done, it'll be HOTTT. You can join the facebook group for more updates. This is the message that's been sent out to all members of the group:

NemesisRepublik

A brand formerly know as strange fruit a.k.a. Nemesis Re:publik is dropping a limited number of "i ma fresh" units [10], on the 25th October 2008 to coincide with "DURBAN FRESH DESINGERS" exhibition hosted by [loopin' events] at KZNSA Art Galley.
Since this is the first release, an item of clothing will be going for R250.00 without shipping. The second time around the price will increased by 50% in order to discourage influx of the same material streets.
"fairo"


Peace!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Internal Affairs EP

1 comments
Quick one...what' good everyone??!! The Internal Affairs is a free, downloadable EP released by Childakapoet, under his Wes-Creations imprint based in Bloemfontein. It features production from the likes of Blacksperm, Phil the Kritik, J-one, and others. Featured emcees include Rob One (England), Isosceles (Lesotho), and Childakapoet (Bloemfontein). Here's the tracklist:

Internal_Affairs

01-intro-produced by stainless
02-food fight-rob one-produced by shoxxen
03-internal audit-childakapoet-produced by 4824
04-get pissed-isosceles-produced by phil the kritik
05-balance the scales- relevence-produced by madnotes
06-lost plane ticket-produced by stainless
07-tequiller shots-rob one and the I.O.C produced by Shaister Master/ relevence and shoxxen
08-out the gates-childakapoet-produced by blakksperm
09-rider music-l dub-produced by blakksperm
10-child raps (remix)-childakapoet-produced by J one
11-hot 16-the I.O.C feat rob one-produced by 4824
12-not okay-the I.O.C produced by 4824

And there goes the link:

Internal Affairs (approx. 39MB)

Download and enjoy. Have a blissful weekend.

P.S. Check out the cool gadget we've added on the sidebar panel. Planning to do more of those. Peace!!!


Thursday, October 9, 2008

Phil the Kritik

3 comments
Other

Peace be to all of you and yours, ladies, gentlemen, lads and lasses. Hope all are staying up, positive, and recharged to make an impact upon the world.

I've decided to do a write-up on one of Core Wreckah's favourite people to work with, the Uganda-born produer Phil the Kritik. And I would say the single most favourite, but that would just be undermining the man's [Core's] underpinning philosophy: "be cool with everyone as long as they are cool with me."

Phil's musical achievements, according to me at least, are nothing short of staggering. In a period of about two years, he has managed to go from a regular bloke to a very respected producer, held in high regard by his peers and other beings in and out of Lesotho's hip-hop circles. His profile states that he has done work with, among others, Codi Cox, MOX(one half on rap group One Clip), and Poltergeist. He is part of the Mic Vandalist crew, but also does a lot of work outside of that camp. I reckon that refusal to conform is what forms the basis for his success. Apart from that, his humility just elevates him a step higher above a good couple of producers.

Sleeve

Recently, The Kritik released a promo, Loud and Out EP, as a prelude to his forthcoming LP/compilation which goes by the same name. To be honest, I have no clue why he chose 'Loud and Out' as an album title, but it sounds cool nonetheless. Featured on the EP are an array of artists from within the Mountain Kingdom right through to North America. Now tell me, isn't that dope?!!

Before I leave, these are direct quotes from The Kritik's profile:

On Loud and Out, the profile has this to say: "Although it has been a difficult and challenging experience since it was my first music release the project helped me gain a positive attitude and increased my abilities in the production field. The mixtape features various artist from Lesotho and South-Africa."

And another quote follows...

As part of networking with other people in the production field, I have with Dj Macs on a street cred mixtape which featured a lot of Local artist from Lesotho. With the success of the street cred mixtape we are currently working on the second installment.

Kritique

Peace people, thank you for visiting. Oh, and some goodies for you to download and enjoy:

Loud and Out Vol.1 EP

And check The Kritik out on his space:

The Kritik's myspace page

N.B.You can also become friends with him on facebook. Just search for Phil Lionel.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

...the loudest nise...

0 comments
EmptyTinCanFoundation

Yo, what's good people??!! I usually stay far away from posting about stuff that I get up to, preferring, rather, to use this magnificent platform to share, expose, and perhaps liberate heard and unheard voices. But, like everyting else in life, I experience tangential moments - maybe because the event influences me in a very strong way - and decide to share what it is I get up to. Note that this by no means meant as a statement downplay nor demote some of the other things I get involved in. For this post and the next one, I shall be sharing what it is I get up to.

The person who sent me the mail I have quoted below is a strong, beautiful Venda woman who goes by the name Masana Mulaudzi. Apart from studying, she is a noteworthy poet/performer/writer (amongst many things), who believes very firmly in her work, and in the power and ability of a Higher Being to provide for whatever it is humankind may want, given that the very same humankind asks humbly. Read through it, get schooled, hate, deliberate...it is all up to you really. Pace!

This is a personal invite to each and every one of you to be a part of our Empty Tin Can Arts Showcase and Fundraiser next week Saturday, 18 October.

I have met all of you personally and find you to be amazing performers, writers, artists, actors, story tellers, photographers, musicians, poets... The list of your infinite God-given talent is humbling. You have leadership skills, are initiative takers and vision makers and this is a call to you:

Empty Tin Can, founded June 2006, is an organisation committed to reconciling artists to a need in the community. It is based on the saying "the empty tin can makes the loudest noise" and is a social commentary on artists with so much things to say and too little of a platform to do anything. And here is the opportunity to fill the empty tin can by helping us reconcile the Cape Town community with skills, hope and arts.

To date we have been working under Young In Prison, with Sent, for a few months with awaiting trial young women, bringing in artists every friday to have a skills exchange. This has proved fruitful and inspiring - the depth and magnitude which arts reaches is beyond what any Life Orientation book can teach. However, it is not enough that we as artists stop there, there is a whole world of people with creative juices flowing within them and hopeless circumstances in need of you, as skilled performers to show them how to put hope, vision and initiative into what they do using arts.

For too long, art has been the "poor man's" life, with little or no pay and indeed money pays the world to spin on its axis... But we hope that by merging life skills and career options (in partnership with an organisation called Sent) that we would not just teach people how to use arts but to make arts work for them.

At the same time, this organisation is committed to growing and expanding the vision of you as artists and what you can do for those around you. Not just painting visual images that might fade with time, or speaking words that will drift beyond the ears of men, but rather for you to make use of the canvas of young people's lives and help make an everlasting artwork.

I hope I have you all interested!

Grafitti

The Arts Showcase is going to be on 18 October 2008 and will serve as a fundraiser for our expansion next year: still working under Young in Prison, we hope to work in the juvenile male awaiting trial and sentenced section and the female juvenile awaiting trial section. We will also be working in two homes, one for boys and one for girls. And we need to raise money and on top of this we need volunteers to work with our participants and share in their lives as role models.

We need artists to perform at the showcase, who will also be interested in helping Empty Tin Can as a family reach into those communities, to perform and help us raise funds.

We also need a team of comitted leaders to take ownership of Empty Tin Can and be a part of its leadership, held accountible to the participants, the performers, the community and God. The posts available are Chair, Deputy Chair, Treasury/Finance, Logistics, HR, Curricula, Public Relations and Fundraising. These are volunteer posts and need application in the form of a CV and letter of motivation. However, volunteers are not judged by what they have already achieved but by what they aim to achieve.

If you are interested and would like to hear more please reply to this email, drop me an sms or a call back or ANYTHING (smoke signals maybe?) and I will get back to you.

Also, I know all of you, so on top of that, I will probably follow you around begging and pleading for you to help us help others...

Finally, there will be a meeting this week Thursday between 2pm and 3pm as a debrief and a QnA session on Upper Campus UCT. More information will be sent tomorrow as a confirmation.

I look forward to hearing from ALL of you... otherwise, please expect my phone call.

Be blessed,

Countless Regards,

Masana Mulaudzi

Founder, Empty Tin Can

For more information regarding the activities:

mldmas002@uct.ac.za
empty.tincan@gmail.com


Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Some good music

2 comments
Yo, wassup party people??? I'm good y'all, mic check one two.

KOLProDux

First up, shout out to KOL Productions for another perfectly-executed video in the form of Dunamis' "Time has come" (with Glory). I'll try to figure out how to embed the video on this blog (if there's a way). But yo, it's really dope!

I_AM
Shout to Fairo for the design

Next up, a certain guy called Laurentstumbled upon this blog, and mailed me requesting some Lesotho hip-hop joints (check his website out here). So I uploaded some joints featuring a number of artists, some of whom I've included in the list below. If you just want one particular track, holla at me and I'll upload it for you.

- Hymphatic Thabs: Who said (2007)
Produced by Kanife
Published by Iapetus

- Skebza: Errah (2005)
Produced by Maphoza
Published by

- Papa Zee: Mokhotsi (2006)
Produced by Papa Zee
Published by Struggle Ent./EMI music (?)

- Pasco & Anonymous: Ha Peete (2005/6)
Produced by Anonymous
Publisher unknown

- Metal Jacket & Dunamis: High stakes (2008)
Produced by Metal Jacket
Published by KOL Productions (?)

- Core Wreckah: Dooinit (2007/8)
Produced by Phil the Kritik
Published by Uhuru Underground/Corporate Nemesis

- One Clip: One Clip (2006)
Produced by Third World
Publisher unknown

- Mighty Records: Praise chants (2008)
Produced by Benni B
Published by Media Graphics

And here's the link: Lesotho Hip-hop (approx. 60MB)

(DISCLAMIER: Corporate Nemesis is only filling in an empty place in Lesotho hip-hop, which is putting music that is inaccessible from anywhere else. In case you think we are contravening any Copyright laws, mail us, we can sort it out)