Founder of the SA Hip Hop Museum Osmic Menoe with Minister Gayton McKenzie insid the museum. Picture: Shaun Holland
Like a politician in the middle of a campaign, Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie made promises to do right by the South African hip hop community.
“We can’t have one concert like Back to The City (BTC). We need like 12 a year,” he said to cheers inside the South African Hip Hop Museum.
McKenzie was doing a walkabout of the Hip Hop Museum, where he welcomed by the founder of the space, Osmic Menoe.
Menoe is also the founder of BTC festival, which will be taking place on Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown Johannesburg on October 12.
BTC is an annual one-day hip hop festival that takes place at Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown, Johannesburg. It has been hosted since 2007.
“I’m gonna make a promise right here, from our department. I do believe that we should have 12 concerts a year. There’s going to be 12 concerts, and we will pay for those concerts. There’s one condition, before we will make a million Rands a month available for the concerts.”
The minister said the local hip hop genre’s Achilles heel is that it’s fragmented.
“The main message is that there’s something we can all learn, but especially the hip hop guys in this country should learn. You never fight enough for your space; your space is being overtaken by different genres.”
McKenzie said with him at the helm of the Sports, Arts and Culture Department, things are about to change for the hip hop community.
“You have beef. You have to fight for your space; this is a very tough industry. I know there’s expectation; I know there’s people ignoring you… that’s about to change.”
“While we fight for you, you should fight for yourself. I don’t want to fight for people who don’t want to fight for themselves.”
“We want to see how many people are working and how much are they getting paid. We don’t want to fund exploitation, and we want you guys to share it among 12 of you. You guys need to get together and say, we will have January, this one will have February.”
The minister reemphasised his love for the genre, saying, “Imagine when I get reshuffled and then I’ve done nothing for hip hop. Before I get reshuffled, I must do something for hip hop.”
McKenzie, who recently was announced as one of the nominees for this year’s Feather Awards, said the South African government owned Menoe gratitude for the work he’s done on at the Hip Hop Museum.
“[What] I want to say to everybody in here is that, firstly, I think we owe you a great debt of gratitude. You literally out of your own pocket have done what we’re supposed to have done. You’ve kept the culture alive, and you’ve made sure we don’t forget the culture.”
The SA Hip Hop Museum is the first permanent hip hop museum in the world.
ALSO READ: Gayton McKenzie bags Feather Awards nominations for his ever-presence [VIDEO]
The minister said he’s a hip hop fan, sharing a story of how he built nightclub ZAR because he wanted to impress a woman he fancied. He said what led him to actually build the club was because the owner of Taboo had insulted him while he was trying to impress the lady.
“I left the club and said I was going to show you. I said I’m gonna build a club that has never been built, and that’s going to kill that club [Taboo]. That’s how ZAR came about.”
The minister said because ZAR was too “high class,” he roped in Menoe to decorate the club with graffiti to give the space a more street feel.
“There’s one cat down there in the city, very hard to get him out of the city, but he can do perfect graffiti,” said McKenzie. After first being reluctant, Menoe came and did the art work in the nightclub.
“When he came, he painted the best work I’ve ever seen.”
NOW READ: ‘Brasse Vannie Kaap’: Relive the ‘90s hip-hop revolution in new documentary
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
