The line outside the Bassline reaches further than the human eye can see in the dark. It is not even 8pm yet. A lot of early birds are taking no chances about getting into the venue. In every Newtown bar or restaurant hoodies in fresh sneakers are killing time, waiting for the most anticipated hip hop gig of the year to get started. The night Little Brother’s 9th Wonder and Phonte came to Jozi. read more…

I was adamant to experience it, that feeling when the free spirit in Dizzy’s “Night in Tunisia” had tea with Yusef Lateef’s “Prayer to the East”, picking Pharoahe Sanders up along the way and pondering casual relations with Sun Ra’s polyglot Arkestra somewhere in its wake. But for all its past influences, the glaringly obvious and the sublime, this night reeked of the familiar smell that spelt ‘home’. MC Nigel Vermaas did warn that there would be curveballs, but his exact phrasing (“expect the unexpected”) left one wishing that a different set of words were chosen. read more…