Yolophonik & Phume the Artist

In this issue... Editor’s INTERVIEWS note by Sindi Ndaba COVER STORY pg. 19 EIC & Founder Yolophonik & Phume The Artist: When Pioneers Collaborate & Grow My problem is that I have big ideas. Often. pg. 3 Dougi Dräco: Firmly Planted The Interview Issue. This is it. It is always and Reaching for Greatness wild to come up with an idea and actually turn it into something that lives. I cannot map out how or when this idea came to me, I Like It, O’Shea pg. 6 but I ran with it. Why? I am actually still not sure. pg. 12 KVRVBO: The Answer in Sometimes I think it’s because we’re over- Deep House whelmed by the amount of talented people out there; we want to speak to everyone. A Minute With: Wolffisdeadpg. 15 Other times I think it’s because I just like to do strange and random things like having 12 articles and have 9 be interviews. But, pg. 25 The Genre Fluid Dato Seiko does the why? matter? I don’t think so. NELE: TO THE WORLD pg. 30 What matters is that we’ve created something, an addition to the archive we’re building. This something, this issue, is perhaps pg. 34 An interview with the tran- the most alive issue we’ve had thus far. In scendent energies of Rosey Jones it lives portions of some very talented people’s stories; the team has come together to put people into these pages. It’s not just Reviews words, no. Thicker Than Water Review pg. 10 So, I have to thank all the people who allowed us to do that. The people who have pg. 28 Snoh Aalegra and Balance given us the right to tell their story, even if it’s just a small part of it. This issue would GoldLink’s HARAM!: Everything A have been nothing without them, and you, the reader. Thank you! Once & Nothing At All pg. 36 Dougi Dräco Firmly Planted & Reaching for Greatness by sam_SON I feel like we all know or knew a guy back in high school who said the was going to become a rapper. The next big thing. The guy who talked the talk and tried to walk the walk, and ultimately had nothing to show for it. I cannot say the same for 21-year-old Shaun Doug- las, aka Dougi Dräco. Dougi and I go way back, to our own schoolyard days; the familiarity of histo- ry allowed an illuminating conversation to take place. Dougi isn’t someone who I can lump together with the dream- er-non-achievers. He has a sound engineering qualification to his name, a registered entertainment company with a bold vision, and a debut EP that’s out in the world – Unlimited Roots. Before he became Dougi Dräco, how- ever, he was just a kid named Shaun. He has an eleven-year background in music, having been a pianist since grade 6. That relationship with the piano ex- panded into a formal musical education when he began attending the National School of the Arts. Dougi relayed to me just how crucial that grounding was. His experience gave him a foundation that made him no stranger to music and became a potent advantage in his tertiary studies at the Academy of Sound Images by Luyanda Nonkwelo Images by Luyanda Nonkwelo Engineering. Pure talent met a presti- Having learned how to rap, make music, gious education and a highly technical produce his own beats, and create his skill set. own visual content, Dougi declared that what he does and who he is goes be- Shining credentials mean nothing for yond just being a rapper: in his words, a rapper without a passion for writ- he’s an “artist”, a multi-disciplinarian. ing, and Dougi has that in spades. We This is what sets him apart, and he spoke of what inspired him to pick up intends to use his myriad of talents to the pen, which was the feeling hip-hop make a big mark in the industry. gave him, that outlet of expression. He began to write poetry as teen for that Our chat moved towards his debut EP, reason – to express himself, articulate 2021’s ¬Unlimited Roots. Dougi re- what he was going through – and grad- vealed to me that this body of work was uated to rap because of the culture of actually three years in the making, and expression that came with the genre. roughly four shelved iterations existed prior. Constant tweaking and a desire Dougi grew up in the Northern Sub- for a self-satisfaction kept him from re- urbs of Joburg, an upbringing that leasing until about last year – when the shaped his worldview and the kind of pandemic hit. stories he wants to tell. A big part of his dream is to be a representative of his Lockdown forced Dougi inside, both city in the same way your A-Reece’s and literally and creatively; with nowhere to Nasty C’s rep theirs. But his ultimate go but within, Dougi took the opportu- vision goes much deeper. nity to push through and create a record that he would be pleased with. It was a process that seriously tested him, as he was the near-sole writer, producer, and engineer. Yet out of that season came a batch of songs that represented a greater concept: one that inspired the EP’s title. “Conceptually, [it] was to plant a seed in my foundation as an artist”, he ex- plained to me. “This is like a first offering from me to whoever is willing to listen, y’know.” Having realised that he couldn’t hold onto the songs forever, Dougi let them go, seeing them as the roots that would allow a tree to grow – the tree of his credibility, his career, the beginning of everything to come. If he didn’t release, he would never know if he was on the right track. I called it a step of faith, a sen- timent he resonated with. That idea of growth ties into the future he sees for the music industry in SA, as well as what motivates him and his business, EyeConnect Entertainment. A venture that began in college, Dougi described it as a mother company for various ven- tures: music production and distribution, visual media, content creation, and the business of building up the infrastructure of the music industry. Dougi’s dream with EyeConnect is invest- ment, both in hip-hop and the SA music scene as a whole. He sees huge potential in the country, potential that he believes himself equipped to maximise. “The potential to be great is undeniable” he ex- claimed, and what EyeConnect is here to do is take that to its greatest heights.” Images by Luyanda Nonkwelo Part of that process comes from col- We laughed, but there was an iron cer- laboration, a notion we both agreed was tainty in his tone that he would secure crucial to the future of the industry. that feature. And you know what? I be- With collabs, Dougi said, “we’re im- lieve in him. Dougi Dräco is a newcom- proving each other and sharpening each er like no other, and he is gearing up other’s swords.” An environment of to truly take over. He’s an artist whose learning and abundance are just a few journey is long and storied, and his words he used to describe the benefits future is fully in his grasp. Indeed, the of collaboration; there’s plenty of space only way is up when you have unlimited for everyone, and by helping each other roots. creatives make each other better. Listen to Dougi Dräco’s latest music Dougi’s face lit up when I asked about a Connect with Dougi Dräco (@dougi. dream local collab. “I need a track with draco) and Eyeconnect Entertainment Blxckie! That man is too much!”. (@eyeconnectent) on Instagram. I Like It, O’Shea by Tedd Images sourced from artist There may be many musicians out there like the living incarnation of smooth. The today, but not everyone was born to make two of us sat down and Kino provided me music. Kino Osheanic is one such person; I with some insight into his life, his music, and can’t speak about him without talking about how they’re essentially the same thing. his music. He’s also a man who gives off the smoothest energy: from the 360 Waves he Kino told me of the humble beginnings of sports to his dancefloor beats, the name Os- his career when he still went by the name DJ heanic and even the way he talks, Kino feels K1NO and was signed to Soul Candi Candi Records. His tales of skipping school to make beats conveyed to me that Kino really has had his eyes set on the future from the beginning. The tag that introduc- es his presence on tracks was made during those early times, with the help of his talented friends. “Young and Ambitious”: Kino managed to secure a tag that captures his music perfectly – smooth house beats that immediately grip you. The house beats that Kino found himself making at the start of his journey were inspired by that formative time: 2012’s house scene was unavoidable, and the Ultimix@6 was a large motivating factor for his career. Kino cites DJ Kent as one of his biggest inspirations, as he sat in his early stages and made his own extended mixes.

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