When Noisey Came To South Africa: The Problem When Outsiders Tell Our Stories
by Phil Chard
Last week Noisey released a documentary said to chronicle and document the growing Hip Hop scene in South Africa titled Born Free: Hip Hop in Johannesburg.
The 16 minute documentary chronicled the rise of the Hip Hop scene in South Africa as it focused on Cassper Nyovest and Riky Rick as its main subjects. (With cameos from Family Tree artists- Nadia Nakai & Gemini Major and the Major League Twins).
Though it was great to see the culture of South African and African Hip Hop at large portrayed on a platform as large as Noisey I did walk away with some gripes of how the culture was portrayed. Before I continue I think it's important that I mention that I am massive fan of Noisey and their parent Company Vice. It would be a massive omission on my part if I didn't share that I have always looked at what Vice has done as the template to running a successful culture and music blog enterprise. Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi have been two individuals that I look up to and one hope to replicate their path to success.
Now that that's out the way, this doccie, as well intentioned as it may have been had some gaping holes in its narrative. Holes big enough for Cassper to drive his tour bus through that lead me to question the level of research that went into making such an offering
The documentary sets out to document South Africa's growing Hip Hop scene amongst "born free" artists using their new found freedom to express themselves and speak to youth of the nation from the perspective of Cassper Nyovest and Ricky Rick. In doing so however it fails to address several issues. Mainly because they look to tackle an incredibly complex and layered issue that has been influenced by multitude of people, yet the documentary chooses to use a very limited scope of focus.
In the film Fillippa Von Stackelberg (no relation) conducts her interviews at the following locations,
Cassper Nyovests home
The home of Cassper's parents
A few locations in Tembisa
Major League Gardens.
For a documentary set to document the growth of South African Hip Hop these are very restrictive locations that will only give you a very focused and limited experience of the movement as a whole.
In the documentary Cassper notes the massive influence Kwaito and the Pantsula sub culture had on his music. However the doccie completely ignores the massive role Kwaito played in shaping the sound and style and South African pop culture and chooses to focus on the Pantsula dance movement instead. While doing so it focuses on the sights of the culture at expense of the sound. It also never fully explains the connection that Hip Hop has to Pantsula.
The documentary also completely ignores the generation of rappers of rappers who came before Cassper and Riky Rick that helped create the fertile culture that has allowed the current crop of artists to reap from it.
Even with its laser focus on Cassper the documentary still leaves holes. While speaking to Cassper it briefly discusses his influences, before speaking to his father and grandmother about his decision to make music and then speaking to him again at the culmination of the documentary after his performance at Major League Gardens, which, it paints as a massive achievement in his career. At no point does the documentary even broach the bigger landmark achievement of when Cassper successfully filled up the Dome. Nor does it even explore the incredible effect Doc Shebeleza had on the continent. Though Cassper's performance at Major League Gardens could be seen as another sign of the incredible growth of the culture it was in fact a bigger achievement for the Major League Twins.
The Mbere twins achieved something incredible that night. With an all-South African line up consisting mainly of Hip Hop acts they managed to cram close to 15,000 kids into Nasrec arena for an event that they promoted themselves. An incredible achievement that left me in awe that was clearly ignored by those unfamiliar with the struggles Hip Hop acts on this continent endure. A few years ago Hip Hop generating such numbers was a rare and lauded achievement. Instead the twins were reduced to extras in the documentary only appearing beside Riky Rick while he is interviewed. The events at Major League Gardens and Back To the City coupled with the new 90% local content mandate at the SABC point to a massive cultural shift occurring in South Africa, one that will change the face of the SA music scene for years to come, yet not a peep about this was mentioned.
Secondary to the massive achievement that was Major League Gardens was the crowd it assembled. Consisting mainly of young adults and teenagers, the energy was electric and the fans showed their rabid support for south African Hip Hop in a big way. That same energy and love almost reduced Kwesta tears on stage. I witnessed a crowd sing Zola lyrics word for word from songs older than a decade, with a passion and verve so strong it was like those songs were radio hits on high rotation today. That was a noteworthy achievement that marked the growth and influence of South African Hip Hop and Kwaito on the youth that was also missed in this documentary.
A big clue as to what motivated the narrative of this story is in the end credits and the three words "Sponsored By BMW". It is after seeing this that I understood why the film made the very lose connection between Cassper's first big hit, Pantsula culture and spinning. It's hard to tell if the film is an ad wrapped in Hip hop culture to promote a brand or a documentary that was forced to short tweak its story in order to suit the requirements of a sponsor. In any event when you peel below the surface this is nothing more than an advertorial piece with native advertising that uses the culture we love as the hook.
Noisey created these lofty expectations with their misleading title and preamble only to disappoint. Had they marketed this as a piece on a week in Cassper Nyovest's life (which is what it essentially is) with the growing culture of SA Hip Hop and Cassper's influences taking a secondary role in the story I would have stood and applauded. But you cannot claim to be documenting the Hip Hop movement among "born frees" in Johannesburg and not venture into the vibrant Hip Hop scenes in Braamfontein, Newtown, Maboneng, Soweto and even Sandton. You cannot claim to speak on a movement and ignore all the those that influenced it. You cannot claim to be documenting the growth and ignore the massive achievements that were taking place in front of your very eyes that you somehow missed due to a limited understanding of the cultural movements and their significance at large.
While it is important to celebrate the growth of Hip Hop and make sure the world sees out story, we must also guard how these stories are shared very carefully.
I was at Major League Gardens that night. I witnessed Fillippa conduct a great deal of interviews backstage. I'm surprised that this is the end result. You can't begin to document a movement as diverse as the one in this documentary and compress it into a 16 minute offering.
Therein lies the problem. When we as fans, supporters, and reporters of this culture fail to document cultural movements and let outsiders tell the story for us, they will portray the narrative through their limited view lenses. This particular case, though it may have been well intentioned displays the dangers of allowing outside voices in that don't fully comprehend the scope of work that resulted in us reaching this point.
While it is important to celebrate the growth of Hip Hop and make sure the world sees out story, we must also guard how these stories are shared very carefully.