Is This The Big FKN Funeral We’ve Been Waiting For?
by Tseliso Monaheng
It's one of the great mysteries of my time why Big FKN Gun aren't the biggest thing there is on earth. They deserve it all breh -- the big-name festivals, big endorsement deals, expensive drugs with hard-to-contact dollar billionaires...you know, the whole LOT! But it isn't the case. Instead, you've the best emcee combo there is in South Africa -- Keith and Bra Sol doubtless rap circles around your top 10-listed rappers -- and the best producer around bar-for-bar, loop-for-loop and what-have-you, in the form of Soulfaktor -- you've this talented lot (including a fourth member Vulane Mthembu) being overlooked.
Like, crickets. Nothing. Silence.
This is so surreal for me!! We are officially NUMBER 1 on the @Yfm #BombChart w/ #GoldTeeth&Carvelas thank u so much to all who supported 🙏🏽
— BIG FKN GUN (@Bra_Sol) January 2, 2016
But could it be that we are missing the whole picture? Their single "Carvelas and Gold Teeth" charted on Joburg-based Gauteng regional radio station YFM's #TheBombChart in January this year. That surely counts for something, no?! As Bra Sol exclaimed, it was a surreal moment when the then-10 month-old single occupied the number 1 position on an influential youth platform. The nod served as an indicator that while the BFG machine might be taking time to get to the forte, it is towering ever so near.
About a week ago, BFG's Facebook account released the tentative artwork for Funeral, the much-delayed sophomore to their Pop Models debut EP. I immediately thought of ScHoolboy Q when I saw it posted on-line! When the US-based rapper released his take on the Michael Jordan meme, many not only thought it was going to be the cover for his Blankface LP, they were as impressed as I was at how he stroke at the underbelly of the meme age -- a photograph of a basketball legend, captured during his 2009 Basketball Hall of Fame induction speech -- owned it, and dragged it down to Donald Trump’s level and back up when he realised the extent to which instant gratification had made us on-line crawlers gullible (he never did say that was the cover).
Featured on the artwork Bra Sol posted are mother and son, Lillian and Desmond Dube. The two well-renowned South African television and theatre performers are also the ambassadors for a funeral services provider. They regularly appear as anchors on the provider’s advertorials which get broadcast on primetime South African television. Adapting the figures into the pop culture mold, and for an EP named Funeral, is indicative of the collective marketing genius I feel the crew should be tapping more into.
Whether the cover will make the cut is yet to be seen. For now, we wait.