12 Established 1961 Lifestyle Features Wednesday, July 14, 2021

ow is the time for Africa to Kgaogelo Moagi, has been ranked by changed for his chosen singer, Nomcebo shine, to present our culture to Forbes Africa as being among the 30 Zikode. When he contacted her to lend “Nthe world.” Master KG, the most influential personalities aged under her voice to “Jerusalema”, she was think- South African DJ-producer behind global 30 on the continent. And he has just ing of giving up music. Instead, she has hit “Jerusalema”, sees bright prospects for released a new track, “Shine Your Light,” just released an album. Master KG also Afro-pop. Even at 25, he knows what he with two star DJs, the Frenchman David has a recording studio near is talking about. He made the whole plan- Guetta and the Senegalese-American Johannesburg, which is an unexpected et dance with a song in a Zulu dialect Akon (on the Elektra/Warner label). success for one who describes himself as which he composed while his compatriot a “village kid”, born in Calais, a small town Nomcebo Zikode laid down the yearning Life-changer in the northeast of South Africa. He is lyrics, a plea for unity and the coming of “Yes, ‘Jerusalema’ changed my life,” amazed when he is told that a French the New Jerusalem. The day AFP met Master KG told AFP. “I am here in Paris town has the same name. Master KG in Paris on one of his trips to talking to you! I would not travel the world Master KG lived with his mother, a Europe, the musician is wearing a yellow- like I am now without this song.” The hit hotel employee (his father is a teacher), and-blue jacket emblazoned with the has racked up more than 210 million and got into music when an uncle gave words “Wake up Afrika”. plays on Spotify and more than 415 mil- him his first computer in 2013. He has “We’re just getting started. We’re get- lion views on Youtube. Stars like Cristiano already released two albums, which he ting on the right path ... with Afro-beat and Ronaldo and Janet Jackson have praised considers more like a cluster of singles. Afro-pop, we will hear more and more him on social networks. “When I look at The third, which he hopes to present at African artists around the planet-there is the statistics, the numbers, it always sur- Master KG (right), the South African DJ behind the global pop hit ‘Jerusalema’, performs at the the end of 2021, will be more “construct- room for everyone,” enthuses the young prises me, no one could have predicted Sand Festival held on the beaches of Lake Malawi, in Salima on November 1, 2020. — AFP ed, prepared”. “For the title of the album, man, still a little shy, his bespectacled face this,” he comments. For eight weeks the fans must help me, help me find a tucked inside his hoodie. Indeed, the term towards the end of 2020, “Jerusalema” video then spread across networks, from ‘Jerusalema’, unrelated of course, but title, it will be an album from South Africa “Afro-pop” often comes up in the mouths was the most frequently searched track nursing assistants in France to monks in then everything becomes more comfort- to the world, rich in the encounters I have of prominent DJs such as America’s on Shazam, a software program that iden- Italy. “I would never have thought that the able. The song is gonna generate income had,” he says. When told that he risks Diplo, the powerhouse of the Major Lazer tifies a song that is playing. police would be able to dance to my for the rest of my life,” he said frankly. receiving a colossal number of proposals, electronic-dancehall hit machine. Artists The success story is well known. music,” laughs the musician, who shows he laughs. “There’s bound to be one that like Burna Boy from Nigeria or Fally Ipupa Released at the end of 2019, the single no signs of developing a big head, despite ‘Village kid’ will stick”.—AFP from the Democratic Republic of Congo got a new lease of life when it went viral the luxury cars exhibited on his social net- In South Africa, Master KG has bought are building reputations far beyond Africa. on TikTok, garnering seven billion hits. work channels. a house for his mother and built one for Master KG, whose real name is The choreographic dance challenge in the “I already had success before his grandmother. And life has also

‘Hire people who know’ “When you make casting choices and you hire actors of color in something, you have to hire people who know how to do their make-up, who know how to do their hair, who know how to light them proper- ly,” she said. Turner-Smith, 34, who is making “White Noise” at the moment with “Marriage Story” director Noah Baumbach, said film and television had a ollywood star Jodie Turner-Smith way to catch up on theatre in the way they US rapper Freddie Gibbs smiles as he arrives said the film industry must go used black actors. She won plaudits for for the screening of the film “Tre Piani” Hbeyond having token black faces on playing the fated English queen Anne (Three Floors) at the 74th edition of the screen and have people of color at every Boleyn, who was white, in the series for Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern level of the business. The British actress- Britain’s Channel 5. “I definitely anticipat- France. — AFP who played Henry VIII’s wife Anne Boleyn ed that there were going to be people that in a new television series of the same felt a certain way about it,” she said. People exercise at a gym in Seoul, as South Korea announced implementation of level 4 social name-said she had been struck by how “We’ve seen for years and years that in distancing measures amid concerns of a fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic. — AFP few people of color work behind the theatre characters being played by people scenes. of all different ethnicities, but in TV or film set on three consecutive days recently. Hollywood should stop trying to tell it’s something we see much less.” The That has alarmed authorities in a country black people’s stories without hiring peo- actress fell victim to cat burglars while at No Psy but BTS where the vaccine rollout has been slow ple of color, she told a “Women in Motion” Cannes, with police investigating a theft of and convoluted, hampered by a failure to talk at the Cannes film festival-where her jewelry from her hotel room. Turner-Smith obtain supplies. latest sci-fi movie “After Yang” was pre- wore eye-catching gold and diamond jew- play on as And while the restriction allows busi- miered. “You have to hire producers who elry loaned by Gucci to the red carpet pre- nesses to remain open, gym owners and understand what kinds of stories we’re try- miere of “After Yang” on Thursday. It is rammy-nominated hip hop artist users alike poured scorn on the measure. ing to tell and how to honor those stories unclear if the missing jewelry was Gucci’s Freddie Gibbs has made his movie Seoul bans fast “Now I have to worry about the bpm of the so that you don’t end up with things that or the actress’s own. Her mother’s wed- Gdebut at the Cannes film festival song I’m playing,” wrote a user in an online feel like tokenism or strange stereotyping,” ding ring is reported to among the haul. “I playing a rapper who finds more meaning club of gym owners. “I guess the virus the “Queen & Slim” star said. “So many didn’t think I would be spending 2.5 hours in country living than in music fame. “Down gym music spreads faster depending on the tempo of times, it’s like (producers say), ‘We are in the police station on my final day in with the King” stars the 39-year-old the music,” another added. And 35-year- going to tell a story that involves black Cannes, but here we are,” the actress American as “Money Merc”, a rapper who old gym-goer Kim Hyun-joon questioned people’, but there are no black people in tweeted late Sunday. — AFP goes to rural Massachusetts to produce a outh Korean mega-hit “Gangnam the rule’s effectiveness. “I’m grateful that I the writers’ room, and there are no women new album, but instead befriends a local Style” may be taken off gym playlists can still work out at a gym,” he said, in the writers’ room.” She said that some farmer who teaches him how to skin pigs Sin the greater Seoul region-but K- adding: “Wouldn’t most people listen to basics were also sometimes lacking. and herd cattle. Written and directed by pop giants BTS can stay-under new rules their own music on their airpods any- Frenchman Diego Ongaro, the film and its aimed at stemming a rising tide of coron- ways?” The new rules also put a maximum improbable plot allowed Gibbs to avoid the avirus infections. The regulations, aimed 6 kilometers an hour (3.7 mph) speed limit cliche rags-to-riches role of an urban rapper at stopping gym-goers breathing too hard on treadmills. “Are we going to get speed- who makes it big. or splashing sweat on others, ban gyms ing tickets?” wrote an online user. “I didn’t want to do that shit, because from playing music with a faster tempo Another user added: “Maybe they’ll people typecast you,” Gibbs told AFP in than 120 beats per minute during group start placing limits on how fast we walk or an interview. “I never wanted to play a exercises like zumba and spinning. They run outside.” South Korea had previously rapper in a movie, but this was far more come as tighter social distancing rules- been held up as a model of how to combat significant than just a rapper movie.” such as smaller gatherings and shorter the pandemic, with the public largely fol- Gibbs and his character are alike in many store hours-begin to bite this week. lowing social distancing and other rules, ways, he said, but “Money Merc is an The musical diktat has prompted but adherence has waned over time. The emotional kind of guy. He kind of wears it ridicule and fury, and a list of “safe” K-pop country reported 1,100 new infections yes- on his sleeve a little bit more than I do,” songs is circulating online, which includes terday, most of them in the capital and its he said. Director Ongaro, who lives in the latest hits from BTS including surrounding areas, which are home to western Massachusetts, told AFP that “I “Dynamite” (114 bpm) and “Butter” (110 around half the South Korean population. wanted to make a film with an outsider bpm). But Psy’s “Gangnam Style”, at 132 The resurgence prompted President Moon coming to this place. And I thought it could bpm, will have to stay off the workout Jae-in to apologize to the public on be a rapper, if possible a real one.” Gibbs playlist for now. South Korean infection Monday for the tightened rules. — AFP accepted the role although he acknowl- rates remain low by global standards at lit- British actress Jodie Turner-Smith poses during a photocall for the film ìAfter Yangî as part of the edged that rappers and the countryside “don’t match at all” and that he wasn’t tle more than 1,000 a day, but are at their Un Certain Regard selection at the 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, southern France. — AFP highest of the pandemic, with new records sure the plot would work, but Ongaro “made it happen”, he said. looks pretty bad,” Bao Mingwei, director of a nature reserve. Scientists are still baf- the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue fled by what prompted the elephants to He doesn’t do modesty Center, told CCTV, adding that with a leave their home at the Xishuangbanna “I was doing the thing on the farm and I longer period of care it should be able to National Nature Reserve, on the border went, ‘OK this shit is real.’ And as we went fully recover. “It’s possible that something with Laos. along it just became more real,” Gibbs said. like rattan spines pricked it and the But their mammoth trek has helped “Diego laid this shit out on a platter for me, injuries slowly became infected.” highlight habitat loss and conservation and all I had to do was bring some rap ele- State media footage showed around a challenges in one of the few places in the ments to this character.” The film’s music is critically endangered Sumatran dozen rescuers and police surrounding world where wild elephant numbers are by Gibbs, most improvised during shooting heavily injured baby elephant left elephant has been found decapi- the animal in a rainforest clearing, as they on the rise. China’s wild elephant popula- over soul-inspired samples and loops. behind by a migrating wild herd in tated with its tusks missing in tied its thrashing limbs with rope and tion has doubled to over 300 in the past A Gibbs said rapping had always helped him Asouthwest China has been res- Indonesia, the conservation agency said deal with a checkered past-which includes loaded it into a van. The elephant was three decades-but their habitats have cued, state media reported yesterday, the Monday, as it opened a poaching investi- brushes with the law for theft and drug then driven 100 kilometers to a rescue shrunk by nearly two-thirds over the same latest twist in a chaotic odyssey. The herd gation. The rotting carcass was discov- offences-and “Down with the King” turned center. Last week, a 10-year-old male ele- period. — AFP of Asian elephants has spent months ered Sunday at a palm oil plantation in out to be yet another outlet. “This film was phant who broke away from the herd a roaming across Yunnan province, travel- Sumatra’s Aceh region and a subsequent definitely therapeutic for me.” month ago was captured and returned to ling more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) autopsy found that the animal had also Director Ongaro agreed. “He brought from their home nature reserve in one of been poisoned. “The remains of the wild things from his own experience to the table, the longest ever animal migrations of its elephant were found in a tragic condition his upbringing, his past as a dealer, and kind in China. Since setting off last year, with its head gone,” said Rosa Rika that all strengthens the authenticity.” Next the meandering mammals have stolen vil- Wahyuni, a doctor at the Aceh conserva- the rapper, who is releasing a new album in lagers’ food and trampled crops worth tion agency. “We found poison in its the autumn (“probably my best”), plans to over $1 million, with thousands of resi- digestive system,” she added. play a gangster in a television show. “I can dents evacuated from their path. It was not clear how long the male ele- slide into that role kind of easily,” he Locals sighted the baby elephant- phant, estimated to be about 12 years old, laughed. But he could also see himself as a weighing 180 kilograms and born on the had been dead. Rampant deforestation banker, “or a cop or a lawyer. I can do it all.” lumbering trek-alone on a tea plantation has reduced the elephants’ natural habitat In the meantime Gibbs said he was not Saturday morning, struggling with an and brought them into increasing conflict only “the freshest motherfucker on the red infected injury on its leg. The elephant’s with humans, while their tusks are prized carpet” at Cannes, but also the leading rap- wound could have been life-threatening if in the illegal wildlife trade. There have per in town. “I’m the only good rapper in authorities hadn’t arrived and given treat- been several elephant poisoning cases in Cannes. If there’s a rapper here he ain’t as ment, state broadcaster CCTV reported. recent years, including one in 2019 when good as me,” he said. “Down with the “We gave it anti-bacterial and anti-inflam- This handout photo shows a part of a herd elephants which had wandered 500 kilometers north a Sumatran elephant was found decapi- King” premiered at the festival’s ACID side- matory drugs, because its wound still from their natural habitat, walking near Yuxi city in China’s southwest Yunnan province. — AFP tated with its tusks ripped off. —AFP bar event. — AFP