DJ Ready D opens up about his music being banned in SA at Hip Hop anniversary

DJ Ready D, real name Deon Daniels, was bestowed a plaque to recognise his contribution to South African Hip Hop on Friday.

“I was not aware of what was actually going to happen at this event today. When they called me up they were extremely vague, I thought I was coming up here just to jam because it’s the 50^th anniversary of Hip Hop, and they’re booking me just to do my scratching” DJ Reddy D told The Citizen.

The legendary DJ and activist was honoured by Hennessey at the official South African celebration of Hip Hop’s 50^th anniversary in Newtown, Johannesburg.

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Hosted at the South African Hip Hop Museum, the event attracted a slew of Mzansi celebrities who love the genre. From Shaka iLembe’s Lemogang Tsipa, Kaya FM’s Thomas ‘Bad Boy T’ Msengana, Stogie T and Da L.E.S were all in attendance.

“I think Hip Hop celebrating 50 years is amazing, it has stood the test of time and seeing it being celebrated all over the world, in different languages, by different people is truly amazing,” said Nomuzi ‘Moozlie’ Mabena who was one of the night’s performers.

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Grateful

“When they handed over the plaque I was shaking, I didn’t expect that. It’s really humbling. We’ve been doing this for so many years; I did not expect anything out of it because you are doing it out of passion,” said DJ Ready D.

Ready D is famously known as the DJ for Hip Hop group Prophets of Da City (POC). He toured Europe extensively with POC and BVK for more than a decade, performing alongside the likes of The Fugees, Will Smith and the Black Eyed Peas.

“I got my calling at a very early age. I knew it was not going to be a hobby, but at the time of getting involved, I didn’t know where the journey was going to take me because growing up in the Cape flats in Mitchells Plain with all the odds stacked up against us, especially as young men from a political and an economic standpoint. Hip Hop was a way for us to survive and to make it within society,” explained the DJ.

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Making history

POC was the only Hip Hop act to perform at the inauguration of Nelson Mandela in 1994. But the DJ says it was a bittersweet experience for the group.

“Leading up to the inauguration we had met him (Mandela) in Khayelitsha in Cape Town city and he started doing his tours. Word got out about our third album, Age of Truth. We were practically starting to be gaged and we were starting to be banned.”

Age of Truth was an album packed with political content that didn’t sit well with the apartheid regime. “Our manager Lance Stehr had to fight tooth and nail to get us to perform.”

“We ended up performing, but they wouldn’t let us perform with decks, they wouldn’t let us perform using backtracks. But they didn’t know we had a guy who could make music with his mouth, he was a beatboxer. That was quite historic and defining. The ultimate irony is we were officially, and I think we are still, banned in South Africa. We ended up performing at Thabo Mbeki’s inauguration as well.”

“Shout out to DJ Reddy D, POC and Black Noise. We salute them because they built futures for other people. He’s birthed so many artists, including myself as a DJ and as a Breaker. He’s birthed so many people, we are heirs of Reddy D,” said DJ Switch.

Hip Hop’s growth

 “I love how it’s evolved, it’s moved, it wasn’t stagnant and that’s what’s kept it alive,” said Kaya FM’s Thomas Msengana.

“I’m watching it now and seeing people building homes, not just having deals with brands, but endorsements where brands believe in them.”

“They did the old school Hip Hop and I saw how much we all missed each other. Stogie came on and we’re like; ‘you moved it forward for us’. Now A-Reece is on and I’m here with my son. I said; ‘it’s your turn, call me when you’re done’. So I love that journey”

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