Hip hop identity in a township reality. - Poppunt

The strategy of Emile YX? is the following: he says you need to entertain and
educate at the same time. The group always gets on stage with a lot of b-boys
(break dancers) so the public stays constantly focused. In the lyrics and in between
the songs the more serious matters are discussed.
“When you come on stage and you like all preaching and trying them / they
not gonna listen to anything / but if you get their attention / at least you got
them open to yeah / that is the agenda.”
The first thing that needs to be made clear according to Emile YX? is the fact that
people do not differ much from each other. There are differences of course, but
these do not have to be considered as significant. A person is a person, that is the
main point everybody has to keep in mind.
Since the government is not making much of an effort to push a sense of South
African pride with its people, Black Noise took on this task. Children need to feel
proud about where they come from and who they are. There is no need to imitate
some ‘cool rapper’ or to become a ‘gangster’, just be yourself. With this message,
Emile YX? also touches the drug issues a lot of (young) people have to deal with.
“Like the cause of a lot is drug problems on the Cape Flats / if you take any
form of substance it means that you’re lacking something / so if you take a
substance then obviously what are you lacking? / you lack pride you don’t feel
full as a person / there is something missing in who you are / so maybe it’s
the fact that you don’t feel proud of who you are.”
Emile YX? has the opinion that saying things without proving them is not enough.
Action is required to convince people. That is why the group set up several projects
where uplifting the community is one of the key objectives. One such project called
‘Heal the Hood’, and helps the poor areas by decreasing unemployment. Instead of
supporting capitalism and buying things from multinational companies, people
must be made conscious and persuaded to buy from their own community. Then
money goes back into the community, as the big stores do not invest a cent into the
people who buy their products.
“We’re trying going another route and trying to get people to go to a mentality
of starting to buy stuff that’s within the community supporting the community.”
“On the stage I explain that these big shopping chains that we buy from they
never put back to our community.”