Represent Review: MTV MAMA’s in Jozi
Sadly, we won’t make it all the way to Abuja, but we definitely made up for it at the pre-party in Johannesburg, with our man Reuben “the Matrix” Malema rocking up the VIP suite while shedding copious tears of joy at one of the most successful live HipHop events in South Africa to date. He loved it, and shares his night with us below – click here for Reuben’s partner in crime, Nkateko Siweya’s photostory of the bash….
It’s drizzling and my expectations are under strict check. The last American Hip-Hop “star” whose show I attended sucked big time, the crowd turn out was unimpressive and the songs performed were to a large extent very alien to us. This of cause was Keith Murray, but tonight I will be seeing The Game.
Some Background
The Game is as typical an American gangster as anybody can ever be: Fast cars, gold chains, a myriad of tattoos scattered all over the body, serial alcoholic, filthy rich negro and very generous philanthropist to the general public; a full on model Al Capone to the bitter end. As the story goes, it all started when Game was 12 years old; a poor Afro-American living in the notorious city of Compton on the west coast of the United States. On his way from school, Game and a couple of buddies came into contact with the godfather of the ogg-Pound, Snoop Dogg, riding around in a hydraulic jacked low ride American muscle vehicle with gin and weed clasped in both hands. The Dogg encourages Game to hold on to his dream of wanting to be a Hip-Hop super star and as they say…all else is history.
The Event – All Roads lead to Jozi
Upon approaching Ponte City it became apparent that The Game is indeed a much-loved Hip-Hop artist here in Jozi. The roads leading into the Standard Bank Arena were chocker blocked with scenes reminiscent of the motorway chaos in the movie Independence Day! We proceeded at a snail`s pace to the vip parking lot. The tempo rapidly rising, rain pouring down and our hearts violently beating against our rib cages; We have arrived. This one is the MAMA of all Hip-Hop gigs…
The Who’s Who of Mzansi’s Hip-Hop scene came out in support of this inaugural concert leading to the first ever MTV Africa Music Awards (sponsored by ZAIN Telecom) to be held in Abuja Nigeria this November. South African nominees HHP, Cassette, The Parlotones and Jozi were the curtain raisers with Y-fm dj’s like Mc-G helping to pump up the mood with their house tunes.
With no doubt my favourite performer HHP started off the performance line up with his soft and easy to hop along songs. Harambe got me moving! Cassette and the Parlotones gave superstardom performances which reminded me why I like rock groups Nickle-back and Bon Jovi so much!
Our VIP suite was way too crowded, the bar served only J&B, Vodka, Heineken and water. I was so annoyed! I bumped into the humble visionary Mr. Alex Okosi – Vice President of MTV-Africa. We spoke about the successful hosting of this event in Jozi and the upcoming awards ceremony in Nigeria and as always Okosi sounded very upbeat and still excited about Mtv`s growing presence and dominance in Africa. I congratulated him and proceeded to the pavilion because by this time Mzansi`s glory of the stages were about to perform…enter Jozi !!!!!!!
L.E.S and the boys from Ghetto Ruff gave us a well choreographed stage act with flexible dancers that kept us at “What the Hell?!!” exclamation points all the time. Respect!
Special effects gun shorts fired! Lights dimmed, a loud African-American accent on the mic…The time is now, The Game is here!! We get on our feet as groupie after groupie works us up to near fever pitch levels as we await the eventual advent of the man of the moment. Ladies and gentlemen, everybody get up on your (“MF” word left out on purpose) feet and give it up for The Game!!!! He strides onto the platform like a grizzly bear marking its territory, imposingly greats all and a sudden uproar erupts (I feel like i’m in a state of euphoria, but by some miraculous effect I also find myself uncontrollably screaming my lungs out, this one will go down in history as the moment when Keith Murray’s infamy was shattered by a true Hip-Hop superstar!!)
Song after song (My Life, One Blood, Money…ect) we sang along affirming the fact that this man is blindly adored by multitudes of avid Hip-Hop fans. Tears abounded in the arena (including Big Vic’s own) when The Game called a kid to the stage to rap his songs to the crowd supported by the same original beats and to all our surprise, the kid (probably 11 or 12…so prophetic) spat out all the words in perfect sequence, We (including The Game) were totally speechless and moved. The Kid (now known as Game-Boy) was there-and-then signed to Black Wall Street Records. He was given a lot of bling and even got The Game to shed a couple of tears. South Africa has just added a new face to the world entertainment stage! Aluta Continua…
Be sure to catch the MTV Africa Music Awards with ZAIN Telecom live on MTV Base this month. Need I say anymore?
Story by Reuben-the Matrix-Malema and Photo Story by Nkateko-Agent Katz-Siweya
