You can now watch filmmaker Weaam Williams’ 2007 documentary about hip hop in Cape Town, Hip Hop Revolution, online courtesy of Black Public Media (see here).
The film, which uses an ‘experimental narrative style,’ covers the period roughly from the 1980s through about 2005 (when I assume the film was finished). Interviews with artists and performers associated with the genre, whether the old skool (including Prophets of da City members Shaheen, Ramone, and DJ Ready D, and others like Shamiel X, DJ Supafly, DJ Kato, Caramel, and Rozzano, among others) or the new (Ben Sharpa, Driemanskap, Garlic Brown, Evesdrop, Mr Devious before he was murdered, Godessa, First Case, Mak 1, D-Feat and Mustafa Maluka), make up the bulk of the film. But the talking heads share screentime with archival footage (including video clip of hip hop pioneers Prophets of da City’s ‘Boomstyle’), live performances (I wanted to see more of that like Parliament‘s ‘Wie is die bende nou’).
As for the title: Near the end, now ‘retired’ POC member Ramone speaks the truth (over images of Cape Town’s townships and squatter areas juxtaposed with its rich city center): ‘… there is still apartheid.’
And Shaheen Ariefdien, probably the most articulate personality featured in the film, notes that the movement against apartheid inadvertently postponed a class struggle. He points to new social movements that have emerged in formal apartheid’s wake suggesting: ‘There hasn’t been a revolution yet.’
* I took the image of Godessa in Athlone, Cape Town in April or May 2002.
I just saw it and I loved it – especially the Afrikaans rap! Most of the people seemed to be Coloureds, am I wrong? Maar dit was baie goed, het ek gedag.