Selfish Politics - Reason

The Local Government Elections (LGE) are just around the corner for us South Africans - voting happens on the 18th May. You'd literally have to be living under a rock to not be aware of this. We were recently listening to a music on shuffle mode and happened across a song by Reason titled 'Selfish Politics'.  During the build up to the National Elections which were held in April 2009, Reason wrote a song titled 'Selfish Politics'. In this song Reason expresses his thoughts on politicians and the government in a no-holds-barred manner, encouraging the listener to consider what 17 years of democracy has translated into for the citizens. Taking the LGE's into consideration, we got a hold of Reason to find out what lead him to write the song, and whether his feelings have changed since then. Take a listen to the song and check out what he had to say. The lyrics to the song are also below.

CM: When you wrote this, it was around the national elections in 2009. What was your frame of mind then and what made you write the song?

Reason: Honestly... I was hurt. I had personally amped myself two years before, to actually participate in the elections. I wanted to vote. I didn't at first, but my pops made me understand the significance of a vote. It’s about making the right choices to change things. To my demise... I had no choice. Voting had become a head count event. Votes are given to "whoever came first to fixes my tap/toilet/streets/ issues first" these days. Not, "who’s fighting for my rights or understanding the relevance of making my environment a decent place to live in like you promised". They're even throwing parties for votes. I mean common!! 

CM: We are now counting down to the local government elections, has anything changed regarding the way you see elections, campaigning and the government?

Reason: It's getting worse. Now they've gone from "beating" each other by "buying" the peoples favour, to pointing fingers. "You didn't do a good job here", "Well YOU did a kak job yourself there". Like kids arguing about "Who Started"... "You did", "No YOU did". The reality is... THINGS AREN'T GETTING DONE. It shouldn't matter who had to do it. If it’s not done and you know it, why should we praise you for getting it done? The government you BOTH serve said it would get it done.

CM: What is your feel on the youth and their stance when it comes to politics? Are we apathetic? Are we involved enough? 

Reason: I think we're as involved in politics, as it is with us. The reality is, the government doesn't have anything to offer us. We don't want basics. We not even planning to stay in the hood that long. We want money. WE NEED MONEY. So they won’t holler at us until they find something to get us involved. Right now, history is running politics, not change. What they’re doing in the meanwhile though is give you a good time. Throw the youth big ass parties in their name and let us have the fun FOR THEIR NUMBERS. That’s our current relationship with the government... Entertainment.

CM: As far as I'm aware you won't be voting in the LGE (based on comments on twitter). What is your reason for this?

Reason: I have nobody to vote for. If any of these candidates win, I’m unhappy either way! If anything... chances are, the guy that’s gonna win, is the guy I was gonna vote for anyway. Not because I want to, but because the rest are worse. 

CM: You performed this song acapella at Back To The City and received a raving response. How important is it to you as a hip hop artist to discuss real life issues in your music?

Reason: It reminded me that, above the idea that we (artists and fans) are separated, we're actually not. Cause we all have the same issues. It is unfortunate that we would be at a freedom festival & only a handful of artist would try and be responsible with their time and make relevance to "Freedom" through their music. Especially when you're addressing +/-10 000 young people at the same time. On another scale... I also got to remember who I am, what i do and to never be afraid to say what’s on my mind cause chances are... there’s +/-10 000 people out there who feel the same way.

CM: Last words?

Reason: If you have a choice and you believe in it... Vote! But if you don't... then have yourself a great holiday. Peace!

Lyrics

“Selfish Politics” (Slumvillage  - “Selfish”) Remix

Written: Reason

Album: “WenzTheAlbumCuminOut?Mixtape” (2009)

They said: Vote for me, vote for us

Vote for a better life and for the party you trust

Vote for jobs, health care and poverty cuts

But 5 years from now, we’ll still be voting for such

They promise people alotta relevant things

Stressin that things - will be better if veterans win

But then in the end, the government’ll battle again

Coz they plannina win your votes with celebrity spins

(Ha!) -and that ‘s what breaks my heart now

pops fought for a freedom he ain’t felt since he got out

Raising us now, seems harder coz he got out

To see cats he ran with, snatch water from dry mouths 

-But wait! Let’s take some time out

And give props to everything the governments piled out

Child support grants, power cuts and how bout’

Fake ass condoms and some 45 houses

-Ok! Maybe 45 thousand

In 4 to 5 towns, you can afford with 5 000

the force of 5000 shouting!

Fuck the Gautrain we got falling down, falsified house

-And then u tell me vote for ya!

Vote Zille, vote Lektota, vote Zuma

Vote coz it’s what we fought for and “vote coz ahhh…

…If you vote for me, I’ll rob and not kill ‘em”

So I say - Fuck the government!

Fuck whoever’s the cause informal settlements

The devil is runnin this city metro police

And all we gotta show for it, is ink on thumb on ya shit

-Thinking I’m dumb and shit!

After 2010 we might be where Zimbabwe is

And you’ll also be laughing in ‘em garden chairs

Sippin on them cheers, drowning in ya selfish

Hook x4

Politician’s is selfish/

Ya wannit to ya’self you can’t help it/

SAN & Phil The Kritik present Classic Dirt

On this project San the Instru-Monumentalist  (Lesotho) and Phil the Kritik  (Uganda) hooked up to produce this mixtape, Classic Dirt. Featuring the likes of MSU, Core Wreckah and Pitso Ramakhula on the Sotho-Hop side and a couple artists from elsewhere as well, we think its definately worth a download so click HERE, after all 'dirt is good' so said OMO

All the Same - Audiophiles ft Mothipa

Ras Rayz and Al da 3rd are Audiophiles, a name that Ras got while paging through a magazine and one which Al did not oppose. The duo is soon to drop their album and they just droped a track that they did with Mothipa, hop over to HERE for the track and while you there listen to Brighter Day.

When hip hop was born

When I was born hip hop had already fathered millions and left them all to fend for
themselves using his methods of living. When hip hop was born the gods stared at the world,
pitying its ignorance because when hip hop was born it spoke and they didn’t listen. When
hip hop grew up, it shouted and screamed and mellowed them, gleamed and they stood in
the shadows laughing at how he sagged his pants low and spoke to himself in low co motive
rhythms, kicking writtens and scripting on desktops.

Hip hop danced the night away and eventually wanted to know '5 o’clock in the morning
where you gonna be, and I said in my mother’s womb listening. Hip hop swayed the crowd
with enthusiasm and made them read more, hip hop made them rich but stayed poor and in
the name of love, hip hop continuously taught us how to keep on keeping up with the times
and not spacing out behind enemy lines if we don’t wanna handle their livestock and guess
who brought their own beef?

When hip hop was born it was the last emperor who held him in 36 chambers teaching him
immortal techniques and how to survive doom in vast aire. Mastered the ace and continued
growing till he got his wordsworth in a punchline and the cage got loose for eons under his
feet. He danced and cripped and became a game to these players who just wanted to xzibit
their ludacris ish for 50cents. They tried. But they still couldn’t hear his screams when they
took over his heart and made him a cheap flick in entertainment. He didn’t mind though. He
fed, he clothed, he cleansed and they said he was dead, but oh. Hip hop is living. Breathing
in my lungs and kicking in my shins if the sun Tzu can write the art of war, hip hop can
translate it and u damn right, I can live it.

By Oko Fine Otarel
pic taken from Otarel's fb page

All Out with Fratpack

It’s only a matter of time before Fratpack is one of the first groups that come to mind when you think of
good hip hop. That’s if they already aren’t. We hooked up with the brothers from the Vaal, Mr Calibre
and Me, who both just happened to be rocking the same pair of Nike Air Max 1’s on the day. They
hooked us up with their mixtape, Not In The Mixtape, needless to say we had to find
out more about them so read on.

CM: Not in the mixtape, that’s a very interesting name for a mixtape, care to elaborate?
Mr Calibre: We started off calling it ‘Leak Season’ because we just leaking songs every Wednesday,
which we still do. We were putting out so many songs, not random all with a nice train of thought. We
still gonna call it Leak Season but a more known artist starting putting out songs on a Saturday so we
couldn’t use the leak name anymore. Then we didn’t really have a title for it, we looked at our situation,
we’re not super established and we’re also not bedroom rappers. We are not in the in-crowd, we not
the guys at Rand Lords sipping on Patron. We are just us, we put a title that was on a play on ‘not in the
crowd’ so we are not in the mix, so we are not in the mixtape.
Me: We not the guys buying Loius Vitton at Carlton Centre

CM: The intro to be interesting, and it could be an eye opener to many people.
ME: It should be an eye opener, I hope people listen to it and pay attention to it. The voice on there is
dropping a lot of science as far as the music business the way we have it right now. The voice there is
Young Guru, Jay-Z’s engineer.

CM: How do you plan on promoting the album and do you have a distribution strategy?
Mr Calibre: Distribution is our main focus right now. We think we have the artistry done; we’ve got
the hang of it. The machine we are trying to work at now is the promotion machine, the distribution
machine. We gonna be looking at independent stores such as Ritual, Munks Concept Stores and you can
also get it from us as well. We also looking at the net
Me: Unfortunately the net is not as big in South Africa as it is overseas which is wack, because on the
net we could give it out for free. Now we have to print copies so we have to charge a fee, it’s R30. We want people to listen to the music, if we could we could get people to give us disks and
we could put the music on there for them but it’s too much admin. Plus we could make it look better if we
printed it ourselves.

CM: You could push your sound cloud page further.
Me: Yeah, I was gonna push that but we also working on a Bandcamp page which we will only talk about
when it’s done and looks good. Sound Cloud is cool because I can put waves on Facebook and you can
just play it, you don’t have to go somewhere. Check it out at www.soundcloud.com/fratpack.

CM: There is a lot of hate with regards to hip hop currently, what do y’all love about it?

Mr Calibre: For me it’s the most expressive art form in music, literally. With all the words that you say
that you putting out in your verses, you can say so much. You can put your whole life in your music.
There is a line by a rapper that I love m Joe Button, “in few bars 25 years get packed in” so in a few bars
you can narrate your whole life though hip hop and Kwaito is not very lyrical.

ME: I’m not gonna hate on Kwaito because it has artists like Tokollo from Tkzee, Brown Dash was very
dope when he came out; Bricks was very dope when he came out. Sweety my Baby is still my ish right
now. And and im not hating Kwaito because hip hop right now, we can complain about the same thing
with Kwaito, its very repetitive. It’s like 16 bars of saying the same thing, an album saying the same
thing. With hip hop you can do anything, and that’s whats wrong with hip hop now, people don’t feel
like they can do anything, people feel like there is a ‘how to’ manual to hip hop.

CM: What exactly is a Blue Chip Cool Kid?

Mr Calibre: That’s me, that’s what explains me. A blue Chip Cool Kid is a person that takes care of
themselves physically and doesn’t have that rugged look and when you tap into their mental they’ve got
a lot to say and they are in tune with what’s around them. What wrong with the new generation is that
sadly the majority of them talk about being fresh. What I’m trying to say is that there is nothing wrong
with being fresh, just be smart and have some substance while being fresh. That’s exactly what a Blue
Chip Cool kid is, a fly person with substance.

CM: What was the best hip hop album of 2010, locally and internationally?

Mr Calibre: Im just gonna say Whole Worlds because that’s what I was bumping in 2010. Also the Ill
Skills project was not bad, the 24hrs project. Internationally, ill call it an album because I don’t think it’s
a mixtape – Mood Music 4 by Joe Budden, that was it for me. Tacklebox was also quiet dope, by The
Cool Kid.

ME: Whole Worlds for me, Tumi held it down proper. Lyrically Mood Music 4 was it for me lyrically but
I’m not sure beats wise. For me a cross between beats and vibe, Kid Cudi, Man on the Moon. But I’m
sticking with Mood Music 4.

To get in touch with Fratpack, search for Fratpack All Out on FB, and on twitter @MrCalibre and
@Fratpackmusic. Look out for the Frwednesday releases on soundcloud/fratpack and also visit