Mawe2 – Dreamworld

The last brilliant hip hop/rap song I heard that eloquently elaborated on the uncouth relationship between rap and the media was "Labels" by GZA from his seminal album Liquid Swords.

The veteran American pimp MC Too Short recently admitted in an interview that "There Is An Industry-Wide Plot To Shut Down Conscious Hip Hop".

I cannot help but wonder if our local hip hop scene isn't under same duress due to media reservations, considering the debacle behind the release of Mawe2’s Dreamworld.

Hip Hop is not just a genre of music, nor is it strictly the derogatory things that the media portrays it to be, of course; recalling Chuck D’s famed remark that “Rap is CNN for Black people”’

I don't claim to be a true "head", but my love for the genre spans decades and I'm really over the "dirty" approach to appreciating the genre, because I still can't rhyme nor remember lyrics by heart.

Hip Hop for me is a consciousness; it's not my kind of hip hop unless it's about resistance and protest. It's not hip-hop to me unless it's about the liberation of all oppressed peoples.

What I consider hip hop doesn't perpetuate demeaning stereotypes, and neither fosters nor revels in misogyny or internalized racism.

Maybe there was never that kind of hip hop I am nostalgic about and the hip hop I remember is a figment of my imagination.

But that cannot be because there is Tumi with his volumes of intelligent discourse, there is Thabz’ furious poetics, Optical Illusion, Robo The Technician and hell Basemental Platform is still grooming new sonic offspring for the masses.

Fortunately, that's the kind of hip hop that resonates from Mawe2 within this vast empire of hip-hop, and he is rapidly becoming one of the pivotal musicians in the genre.

Since his “A Fool’s Hope” debut, Mawe2 went to pen and co-produce Dreamworld in 2011 under ROOFTOP Records stable.

The album featured artists like Tuks, Rasekgantsho (from ntjapedi) Zubz, Lilly Million (Gloria Interlude) and many others, but was sadly never released commercially due to contractual complication with the distributing record company.

Most of the songs from this project have been released as singles on radio and two music videos from the project are receiving a great from social network platforms and broadcast forum like YouTube.

From conveying messages about the trials and tribulations of an impoverished people; highlighting political, social, and economic conditions of our society, Mawe2’s acumen is far from transmitting sexually promiscuous messages that focus on attaining wealth and power.

And with “Dreamworld”, his epistles have become the basic instructions bestowed the youth of SA, not just another rap culture commodity created by our society’s consumerism; that has de-evolved from counterculture and gone completely mainstream.

When American rappers, who are seemingly so influential on the local scene, are not the only proponents of misogyny but perpetuator of the culture of mistrust for black womanhood, a new breed of rappers understand and bear some responsibility.

“Loving deeper when broken”, as Mawe2 says in his Something is Wrong is the new masculine passion that exudes respect for queens.

Their aim is to challenge the status quo and move away for the reproduction and reinforcement of the historical degradation of black womanhood.

After a decade-plus on the Hip Hop scene, Mawe2 has earned his rap dues card.

I came across the album via The Herbalist, another Vaal based MC whose music is yet to take centre stage.

Dreamworld has set the stage for his soon to be released EP "GIG" (God Is Great).

His textured flow, accompanied by dramatic atmospherics of heavy beats, instead of proclaiming a gospel of sodden lyrical deliverances, his second sophomoric album is becoming an ecclesiastical blueprint for local Hip Hop.

As expected it is riddled with tranquilizing musical interludes that spring something conversational after the jabs of lyrical provocations of tracks like Do They Hear Me Though and Green Rush.

These skits are perfect Go-Betweens that somehow make his underground purism palatable to the layman.

This MC is bound to Live Forever with a clean conscience even beyond This Time.

GIG will be released for free download on his website www.mawe2.co.za and other web-based platforms.