DPLANET (Beatmaker | SA)
Born in London, Damian Stephens runs through the pirate radios, mixtapes and underground club‘s culture during the 80’s. In 1987, he enters into a new wave, the acide house and techno universe, and produces 2 maxis which one will release on the Dutch Djax Up Beats label. In 1996, he moves in South Africa and discovers an incredible musical potential. He creates the Pioneer Unit label in 2007, and produces for artists such as Lyricist Lounge All Star, Wordsworth, Pro Kid, Ben Sharpa, Trusenz, Driemanskap, Konfab, and more recently for the 4DLS collaborative project.
BIG SPACE (Beatmaker | SA)
Big Space is a DJ and producer from Johannesburg who composes an anti-gravitational house music, superimposing samples on crazy progressive beats ! He produced many tracks for famous artists in Europe such as Scratcha DVA, Spoek Mathambo and Schlacthofbronx, and collaborated with Soudsystem 7FT and Saut Retour Splash in South Africa.
BEN SHARPA (MC)
Ben Sharpa dedicated his life to his art, following a musical and personnal way really epic. Born during the apartheid in the Soweto ghetto, he moves in Chicago where he discovers the Hip-hop culture. Back to his country in 1993, he becomes an unavoidable of the local underground stage, before to share the most prestigious scenes with the most famous bodies : Roots Manuva, Talib Kweli, Method Man, Raekwon, Immortal Technique, Dope D.O.D., Lord Finesse, Foreign Beggars, Black Thought (The Roots), J-Live, or Sollilaquists of Sounds.
LED PIPERZ (Beatmaker | FR)
Nicolas Thiry is video maker for the High Tone band and producer, under the pseudo Led Piperz, of abstract hip-hop in the inspiration of Def Jux/Anticon. Great buff of underground english trend, he is conscious by the discovery of Techno Animal, Vex’d and the Tempa label’s productions, Hotflush or Planet mu. He co-founds in the end of 2008 the Airflex labs label, dedicated to the new bass music tones oriented dancefloor, and participates to the Dub Invaders adventure with his High Tone’s partners.
JAAK (MC)
The segregationist laws created a real caste : browns and colored. They are the descendants of the illegitimate children of the whith colonists. In Cape Town, this community is majority when it stays a minority in the rest of the country. Jaak is the brown’son, confined by whites and rejected by blacks. Jaak rappes in Afrikaan, the old colonists language, as many brown. He expresses the pain, the unfair and the strange and difficult place that this community takes up in the South African society.
KONFAB (MC)
15 years have gone since the Konfab’s beginnings, 15 rebellion and provation years, far away from the established norms. His trip through Hip-hop begins in the 90’s, in the small town Maresu, when this new art starts to become famous. 10 years later, when he comes back, he opens himself up as MC, first in the tube, and then during opening scenes , to set up gradually in the hip-hop Cap scene, with Writers Block, or with Hymphatic Thabs, Archetypes, King Daniel or Mpisi the Monolith.
EL NINO (MC)
Militant artist, El Nino still perceived music as a vocation rather a simple talent. Author, composer and producer, he creates the hip-hop Driemanskap band in 2000 and collaborates with famous people from the South African scene. The one who designs music as a tool to debate, criticize the power and give a little hope to his poor fellow citizens, organises working groups, charitable concerts in townships, prevention against sida, drug or crime and meetings in prisons.
TEBZ (Singer / violonist)
Violonist, flautists and contemporary singer with many academic distinctions to her hit list, Tebz works with a large range of artists. She claims this flexibility, as she shared the scene with famous jazz or classic artists in the world – such as Bernarda Fink or John Eliott Gardiner – as well as Hip-hop or Kwaito (local house) artists, as Mandla Mofokeng or Zem Viv. She participated to 9 European and American tours, to BBC Proms and to the opening of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.
SPOOKY (VJ)
Born in Belgium, Anne Sophie Leens moves in Great Britain to study graphic art, before to go in 2001 in South Africa. In 2007, she co-founded with Damian Stephens the Pionner Unit label. She makes clips, covers and photos for many South African hip-hop artists. Her photo work was so published in many magazines as One Small Seed and Hype while her videos are regularly broad-casted on MTV Base, Channel O OR SABC1. Otherwise, she has been recently choosed to make the Nike IAM1 publicity campaign.
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