THE INFLUENCE

Hip Hop & Street Culture. The Influence is everywhere

[waviest-of-hiphop]

TOKYO

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Chad Da Don live

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Exploring Amarafleur "Believe in what you're doing. It's taken me a while to do that, but I'm there now... My genre is niche. But somewhere, somehow I have an audience." Read our chat with the lovely Amarafleur 🌷 She talks unique sounds, self-confidence and musical independence: http://wp.me/p3pYBz-xs

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"When Hip Hop first came onto the scene, there were a lot of naysayers that said it wouldn't last." - DJ Ready D Hit the link to see what else other people had to say about rap culture when we spoke to them in all 5 parts of The Influence's documentary Rap Sixty: http://wp.me/p3pYBz-w6

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Meet Fiji Fantana, soon to be your favourite trap DJ. "Corporate brands just want to be in sync with the Black mind so much, but you can’t be in sync with us because we're like water - you can’t hold water, we’re always moving." In our interview with Fiji, he talks creativity, Black youth, and the growing trap scene in South Africa. Read the full article: http://wp.me/p3pYBz-wP 📷: Enter The Void event

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‘Rap Sixty’ is the name of the new The Influence docu-series.

In part 2, the collective known as Artlifers are introduced and members Thabo, Frypan and Jaxx immediately delve deep into the trends that they have noticed within the rap culture in South Africa, each giving unique, engaging analogies and opinions. 2015’s rapper of the year Riky Rick and Hip Hop events organiser Rashid Kay are also introduced to the series in part 2. While Rashid gives a more business-orientated perspective, both him and Riky Rick speak with their passion clearly coming through.

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLBR4pBVGF0)

 Rap Sixty is the name of the new The Influence series of conversations with some of the very prominent voices in the commercial, independent and emerging rap scenes in South Africa at the moment.

In part 1, we take a look at just a few of the people featured in this series. Cape Town’s very own Youngsta Cpt and one of Pretoria’s well-respected producers and rappers Riz Ventura both trace their introductions to the rap game, while Kitso and Mr Calibre from Fratpack speak about what Hip Hop is to them and how they are steadily gaining attention from MCs and rap fans alike throughout the country, starting with their core supporters in GP.

Watch the first part of the 5-part series and let us know your thoughts.

Full article here: https://theinfluences.wordpress.com/2016/12/12/the-rap-sixty-series-kicks-off-with-part-1/#more-1990

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SimmySimmyNya, Only Gaining Momentum Cape Town-based SimmySimmyNya's vibrant, animated delivery coupled with his understanding of music trends and sounds, make him hard to ignore. He’s described his music as an “elusive, wavy trap sound,” a description that his listeners and fans would definitely agree with. Read his full interview with The Influence here: http://wp.me/p3pYBz-vz Photograph by Neo Baepi

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Motswako Wins - Maftown Heights 2016

This past weekend, Maftown Heights took place at Mary Fitzgerald Square in JHB. The annual motswako celebration delivered a high quality production with electric energy despite the thunder showers in Joburg on the evening.  Peep more of the pictures here: http://wp.me/p3pYBz-vj

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“Please don’t wait for anyone. If you happen to be in a sketchy situation, don’t let that dim your light. Keep releasing music on whatever platform you can. Try to do things you’ve never done before, and be risky with it. Try different sounds that you’ve never tried. Luckily on SoundCloud, I ran into a guy named DJ Grumble. He had these cool, soulful, modern hip-hop beats, and I just found a way to make my lyrics more relatable to people my age and even people of all ages. I feel like I found the perfect marriage of soul and modern hip-hop and R&B. I would also say to keep writing even when you can’t write anymore. Keep going. That’s something that J. Cole told me. Even when there’s nothing, just keep placing something on the paper. Be tenacious and just never give up. I think this is proof that anything can happen because I definitely did not see this coming. Even when Omen hit me up to do a collaboration, I didn’t think that Dreamville would want to sign me. Things just started happening one after the other, and and it was all just a blessing. Basically, never give up.”~ Ari Lennox

Read more of our interview w. Ari Lennox on the site!

xx

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Hoop dreams

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Melo B Jones from the crowd

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A.1

By: @theinfluencedlife: @mashayabhuqe_za performing at Sneaker Exchange (part 1)

#hiphop #hiphopculture #lit #theinfluence #southafrica #digitalmaskandi #rap #johannesburg #liveperformance #dope #electric #sneakerexchange #sxc_za #streetculture #africa

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ByLwansta is back with his second official musical project, the Your Absolutely Right EP.

@normvlwansta

If you’re a first-time ByLwansta listener, this EP would be a great introduction. Your Absolutely Right lends itself as an EP that emphasizes the importance of self-belief and how the fickle opinions of others might just end up being the thing that keeps a person’s art in a vicious cycle of mimicry and stagnancy. “Just do you”, is essentially the message of the EP, and this comes across loud and clear with some catchy hooks, and enjoyable verses.

Read the full write-up http://wp.me/p3pYBz-tK

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Happy Women's Day 💜💛💚💙

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Today marks 5 years since Watch The Throne was released.

Cozy Bone wrote this special write-up for The Influence where he explains the significance of the album: http://wp.me/p3pYBz-tw