[INTERVIEW] Rap Veteran Proverb Says "The onus is on everyone."

For a veteran to South African rap music, Proverb is quite the low-key dude. Quite recently I met Proverb at his The Read Tape launch in Cape Town. He gave an amazing performance emphasizing in every song the importance of true lyricism and respect to the art of rap, with it ending in him inviting all of rappers in the room to the stage for a cypher with the king himself. “That’s the Hip Hop that we came up on. You know what I’m saying? Where it didn’t matter who the act was - everyone who was an emcee was gonna get on!” accompanied by 10 minutes of pure raps from anyone who had it in them including CPT spitters Uno July and Camo grabbing the mic for a bit and causing havoc in the crowd. Earlier that day, we talked for a little bit and when I reminded the vet of the interview we had in Maboneng a while ago that got taken down, he got quite excited and he asked me to upload it again. SO, here it is. Proverb is one of the only rappers that’s on almost everyone’s top 10 list and it’s dope that he’s STILL at it...

PROVERB. Cool to meet you. We’ll be quick, so let’s get right into it with the basic: what is Hip Hop to you?
“Hip Hop to me is a lifestyle. It’s a medium of expression, it’s a mirror image of who you are as a person, it’s a platform that allows you interchange and exchange with fellow hip-hop headz.”

We’re nearing 30 years of the Hip Hop culture in South Africa, which is nuts. Often people have the wrong idea about what Hip Hop really is and either enter different aspects the culture for the wrong reasons or formulate incorrect opinions on Hip Hop as a whole – not just the music. What misconceptions have you noticed?
“Well, as far as misconceptions go; everyone draws their own. There isn’t a standard. Back in the day, it used to be that hip-hop was all about vulgarity and abuse and derogatory language. But nowadays, things have evolved so much that everyone is kind of drawing their own conceptions or misconceptions and its not necessarily up to us, the creatives, to try and change those but I think the onus is on everyone to draw their own learnings and do their own research about Hip Hop.”

You’ve been in the game for quite long now – 10 years deep this year. It seems that there was a period when people weren’t really buying music (globally) which then also affected the music we were getting. Since then, things have improved with so many platforms such as iTunes that allow people to buy music online. From your point of view though, what are your comments on the buying and selling of rap?
“Look. I think as hip-hop headz ourselves; we need to find more creative ways of making our material more available. I think the traditional way of trying to sell CDs out of stores is a redundant system that’s no longer working for anybody so now we need make better use of the digital space, the online space and the online platforms that we have.”

Peace, love and hip hop
KTTIB

Noname Gypsy: A Little Noname Is a Little More Love

A little bit of soul. A little bit of rap. A little bit of weed. A little bit of love. A little bit of rap about love for weed.

“First things first, I miss you
And your paper thin lips
The way I kiss you
The way you hit back – smack
Why you gotta love me so hard
Bae, I’m already faded
All dressed up in your smoke
Favourite vacant parking spot
I sparked the bark
And lit the tree
The aftermath in after dark
Was all the love of sympathy, you feel me?”
- Take You Back by Noname Gypsy

If lush extended metaphors, sarcasm and alliteration creating flows in the rarest forms were one track then Noname Gypsy is years deep into Hype Magazine’s music submission emails. Lyrically, calling this sista mediocre is an antithesis of the truth in the extreme. There is so much depth to this artist that one only wishes to come across. It’s her ability to captivate her listener and leave them wanting more that is day by day building a nation of loyal Noname Gypsy supporters (me included). You see, when you listen to either a Noname Gypsy song or feature, you know exactly what you’re getting: verses wrapped tight with lovely wordplay, a message and to top it off her sweet delivery on a slower, more soulful inspired beat style. Many rappers struggle getting a variety of views and themes across on one type of beat – resulting in redundancy in their approach to their songs. However, Noname’s prowess in this area is her saving grace and what places her in a lane of her own right now.

Collaborations on Fleek

So, this piece on Noname Gypsy has been in the drafts for a while now but for some reason has never been uploaded. Yesterday’s release of Israel is what I think prompted me to actually get to the tweaking and posting.  The extremely well received collaboration between Chano and Noname is one of the most beautiful examples of her ability to swiftly dip in and out of verses, connect with the person she’s collaborating with and deliver a dope verse.  On Israel, a track about “sparring” or fighting the things in one’s life and relating it to the Bible story of Jacob wrestling with God, Noname has two verses perfectly fit with Chance’s. Her highly conversational tone and flow in this track and many others including Samaritan makes her collaborations feel very natural. Although this might not work with most artists, we haven’t seen a failure or disappointment of a collabo. So, word up to Noname for the smart features.

You’re A Female Rapper, Don’t Rap about That Shit

“Everytime I smoked it looked like everyone was bald
I can see my insecurities depicted in the fog
Run run rabbit, don’t follow the clock
Tic-tac totally undermining your thoughts
I need more exes
I need more hoes
I need less pretend men
I need more clothes
Run run rampant, vapid, acid, candid
Smell too loud, my family couldn’t stand it
A little weed is a little more love”
- Mary Jane Love by Noname Gyspy

In the “female rap” scene there’s often a huge issue that I frequently come across, and that being lack in original content from the women, more specifically, the underground ones. In fact, in the underground scene in general there’s quite a bit of redundancy in the content we get. Mixtapes with a dream-centered theme and songs about no support are over spilling from our bucket of music. From Noname’s earliest days, she did not conform just as most successful artists in their respective fields have also done. Generally the most common theme in a lot of lady rapper’s entire career worth of tracks is the quite aggressively stanced “I am the illest female rapper because I’m a female rapper”. This is where the very skilled and active rappers including Noname Gypsy differ. Noname’s content has nothing of this. She acknowledges these stereotypes, challenges them and succeeds in her approach.  I remember first listening to Hold Me Up and Paradise and just loving the honesty that oozed with every line in both tracks. True comments on her surroundings and experiences providing a solid offering of relatable content with a blend of wit.

Read Between the Paradox

“Another brown boy down
Another mother crying ‘cause another brown boy found
And all you wanna do is smoke weed?
And write songs?
Bang bang sounds like violins
Poverty was made to doorframe all the violence
Knock knock and guess who’s not there
The police
And guess who don’t care
The people.”
- Sunday Morning by Noname Gypsy

Sunday Morning is probably Noname’s most paradoxical song – using the beauty of a Sunday morning to address and highlight the evils within the world. What really makes Noname special is her storytelling ability to rap about different things and present it in a very clear way without fully giving it away and letting the beauty of rap and the artistry behind it allow the listener’s mind to interpret it. This is a characteristic and technique within rap that isn’t paid too much attention to at the moment, that she successfully uses quite a lot, so it’s refreshing to say the least. 

Just from listening to a few tracks, one can easily tell that Noname Gypsy isn’t rapping for the millions of listens but rather for the love of rap itself and verbally expressing her feelings and thoughts. This is one artist that I personally wish to see grow even stronger and challenge herself lyrically even more. Her raps “whisper intelligence” and will hopefully keep leaving listeners inspired and more in love with the overlooked beauty in everyday life.

Peace, love and hip hop
KTTIB