SAKAZI’S REVIEW: QUIETUDE -‘the arrival’

Quietude’s debut album, “The Arrival” is a solid 15 track album (excluding interludes and the outro), blended with a perfect classical sound, jam-packed of idyllic clichés, “taking you back” with borrowed phrases, tempo style and Hip-hop finesse that made the 90’s Hip Hop legendary jazzy genre, with a fabulous piece of vocal narcissism – well done.

Quietude is a Rap fanatic duo of Sello Motsoko a.k.a “Bakdraft” and Pule Pelo “Domino” that has been scrapping, rap battles and enthusiast’s scenes around South Africa – honing their trade in Tembisa’s Hip Hop arena – “1632”.

The duo’s Jazzy, layback feel is a soothing mature melodic vogue that is truly a creative time machine. Although there are some areas that need to be refined which includes own sound originality and a bit of more lyrical consciousness – there’s a resonance of richness and growth in their style.

It is the way the album is structured and delivered with fine clever sampling, that takes a listener to another rhythmic dimension, a celebration of Hip Hop grooves and space. Making a stand on its own.

The featured vocal virtuousness and articulation of Nongoma Ndlovu and Gracia Bolha on “Blaze This Song” and “Things Ain’t The Same” respectively, capitulates this duo’s musical expression of ‘Kasie Hip Hop’ to another level.

My personal favourite, track number 12, “Home of Hip Hop” featuring the ever vernacular lyrically potent, Paragon, is a wordy oral praise of life, charity and hospitality of Tembisa - “iKasie lama Kasie”. With track 4 “Time Travel” summing up the ‘taking you back theme’ saluting the American Hip Hop influences that made Quietude what it is to date.

The Production team includes Cap-Stone, Trompie a.k.a Blcksperm, Mark Watson, Landmarq, Blknght, Nyambz, Lully and Phanatik One - Quietude co-producing some of the tracks.

The album lacks a bit of sound originality, but enough to make all Quietude fans and Hip Hop heads to brake heads and take a bracing flossing word. It is a personal winner and a future prospect to what Hip Hop should be in South Africa. The album is worth every Rand for Rap/Hip Hop lovers – a classic.

One thing for-sure, this Hip Hop duo has arrived and is going places. As they say “We ain’t Rap artists, we musicians...”, giving you enough stuff that grows on you, and leaves you wanting more.

WORD TO A QUIETUDE HIP HOP REVOLUTION

By Linda Sakazi Thwala

Contact Bakdraft @ 0794036613

Email : quietude1632@gmail.com

Websites
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Quietude/302159200068
http://soundcloud.com/quietude
www.twitter.com/quietude1632
www.twitter.com/iambakdraft

NEW AGE ANIMOSITY BETWEEN THE SEXES

A self-defeating subtle attrition between feminine and masculine forces that has hurled all societies of the globe into an imperceptible separating force; neither black nor white, but gender based - seeking  physical, emotional and mental parity from an age-long chauvinistic, misogynistic force that has untimely aimed to suppress and reign over women without reprimand.

There is an alarming disparaging number of women who are, incessantly leaning towards a misanthropic tendency, mainly due to the type of treatment that has been dish out to them by an equally emotionally negligent masculine force.  

The battle field for this archaic sexist war has changed over the years, however it is still as potent as ever behind closed doors. Autonomy for everyone, in our economic inequitable world, played a unbending role in creating an even more isolating emotive hegemony – feminine power.

“There is nothing more dangerous, than a woman scorned”, in this state, a generation of scorned women and its feminine posterity; an inequality that was paved by egotistical men, our forefathers who saw women as mere things that looked after them and its off-springs without rights. Hence, our modern-day gender prejudices are rooted so deeply that they are hard to eradicate.          

We are still inhabits in the world that has minimal gender equality, and none in some places of the world – however there are those who strive to create a balanced pendulum between the sexes with love and respect for all sexes.

In this new age, Amazonian feminist extremists are creating a new sphere of imbalance, that was influenced by male chauvinism. Moreover with the newly past-centurion acquired economic emancipation. Women have their own birthright voices to influence and shape the future course for their own communities and the human race as a whole.    

We can strive to reach an amicable equilibrium, but there will always be problems, especially when it comes to “class-gender segregation”.  Therefore, women who still hold animosities with the masculine sex, will hold their positions in every societal stance to manipulate and weaken the insidious attitudes of male chauvinism.    

The concern in this, is what is witness in the black community, these days - the black man does not feel appreciated anymore and that’s the general feel in our nation. Man, especially the ones that love their women, feel as subservience to women who hold important positions at work and come home only to act as man-of-the-house, which is a mental, emotional and physical castration.

As a result, we see more and more households that are initiated and managed by single mothers who see man as a justified sperm, a means to an eminent separable end. More and more men see women as sex objects, a cup to have for a couple of weeks and leave to find another – these animosities create a palpable gap that is growing rapidly, within our society. Where the woman is the ‘Mother and Father’, and the man is just a Daddy that inconveniently drops in unwelcome, unloved. Worst case scenario, total neglect.      

Migrant labour in the early 20^TH Century drove a hive of men into the city in order for them to provide for their households, in some cases a whole tribal community. Forcefully, children grew up without their fathers as role models but, as financial sustenance – other men went and were never heard from, living children and wives behind.

Latter-day influences - women own their own homes, thus they have the right to show insolence and disregard to a man that is trying his best to forge a loving life for her and their children. At times a vociferous vituperation of this man’s manhood.  

It is one thing to have a man that is indolent and  therefore chastised by his spouse for his indolence, however another to have a committed man, who is treated like dirt for trying his best to hold his family life together, because he earns less or nothing at all.  In some circumstances these women go as far as hiding food from their spouse – starving them.     

Autonomy has created a new role for women. A role that is abused by others and nurtured by those women who understand the meaning and power of financial influence in their homes, communities and nations.    

WORD TO A NEW SEX-GENDER INFLUENCE REVOLUTION

By Linda Sakazi Thwala 

http://www.facebook.com/SAKAZI

AN ORDINARY SOUTH AFRICAN, LIVING IN EXTRAORDINARY TIMES

In the face of this gregarious, communist-capitalist-social alliance, political dillydallying order, one wonders about the psychosomatic well-being of ordinary South Africans living in such challenging, uncomforting, extraordinary times – our streets amass by monthly dole queues; children grant queues; police brutality; road/freeway toll-fees; transportation hikes; disgruntled workers marching for a better percentage; global austerity measures, corrupt officials; demented religious-renegades; xenophobia and sick homophobias. Where are all these unnecessary scandalously filled activities taking us, as a nation?

If the African National Congress (ANC) as a ruling party gets its way – ordinary South Africans might wake up one of these days without the right to speak their minds on corruption, or reporting private and public maladministration.

The Secrecy  Bill or Protection of Information Bill ( to be renamed: Protection of State Information Bill), poses the biggest threat in our egalitarian state.  Can you imagine government officials guffawing in the faces of voters about the things they do unbeknown to the general public, to enrich themselves or incurring state assets to advance their own interests, without legal reprimand?  

The channelling of power in these extraordinary times, which aims to curtailing the right to classify information to the Defence Force, the Police and Intelligence Services, such as the Hawks, “with a provision for other departments to apply to classify information on the grounds of national security” – is surely a ploy for the ruling party to cease and suppress efforts of any opposition in its incumbency, therefore prolonging its governing hand indefinitely.  

An ordinary South African and voter will be duped, mainly due to the reason that  the Defence Force, the Police and Intelligence Services ( National Intelligence Agency, abbreviated as NIA), are all controlled and led by ANC appointed representatives. The information that will be selectively filtered through to the general public will be permeated to the purpose of manipulating, dictating, and blinding mother justice, and all its citizenry to what is really going on behind closed doors of bureaucratic offices.  Where is the transparency in all of this?     

A loop-hole was inconveniently discovered during Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma’s  tint debacle that the information put forward to the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) cannot be utilized as  the cellphone tapings cannot hold up in court as circumstantial evidence due the vagueness of legislation regarding “tapped information” and “cellphone number/owner identification”. New cards were dealt – RICA came into effect, but the perpetrators of the arms deal debacle still walk-tall in all government sectors.    

It is written in the cards that South Africa stands to become one of the greatest, powerful nations in the world, when power sharing squabbles, standards of our infrastructure in every municipality, cost of living and our education system are institutionalised properly.       

Surely, with the secrecy bill that’s threateningly looming if and when constitutionalised;  the ruling party will see it fit to eliminate any person or group that stands critically in opposition to its administrative structures, governing systems and implementation methods -  evading public interest.

Any patriotic South African will argue that National Security should be taken as the pinnacle defence mechanism of South African governing structures, and its Constitution, however with corruption running rampant amongst the ruling party’s leaders, subordinates and sub-sectors. Passing a bill that supports curtailing journalists, and members of the public from probing and perusing crucial documents that will eradicate corruption - condemning patriotic South Africans to imprisonment for protecting the rights of ordinary citizenry. Then what was the aim of fighting for our democracy?            

In these egalitarian times, as an ordinary South African living in extraordinary state of affairs; the youthful leader chanting political revolutionary nationalisation dogma, growth-path debates and disenfranchised corrupt politicians secretly dodging palatial correctional places.  One can clearly see the remnants of greedy public officials in the psychosomatic attitudes of ordinary citizens.

WORD TO A NEW EXTRA EXTRAORDINARY REVOLUTION

By Linda Sakazi Thwala

STRUTTING HABIT EN ROUTE TO PSYCHOSIS

Habitual societal stratification does determine the emotional route or mindset formulation that will create an individual’s persona – perspective upon other individuals, surroundings and society, in its entirety.  Habitual existence governs normal, and extraordinary obscene habits.    

It is said that human-beings are “habitual beings”. However, can some of our habits conscientiously debate the simplicity in our quest to self-annihilate, when our dominoes of being are uncompromisingly striated to tip pressingly against our ill-begotten aspirations.

Take a thief for instance: is a thief a thief because he/she decided to be a thief after having dreamt about being a thief; or is a thief a thief because he/she had a ‘calling’ to be a thief – a bad habit to have. No! Had thieving been a ‘calling’ no one would get caught doing the thieving thing anyway. It’s a calling! However in society there are people who have a certain calling for certain faculties in the strata of life that are caught thieving, therefore are regrettably pronounced “thieves”- kleptomaniacs.   

The process of being a criminal element or thief is rooted in the abnormal habitual habits, when an ordinary being is injected into unusual circumstances, at very uncompromising times, which gradually creates a monster inside them – psychopathic tendency.

A person that insistently do abnormal things to circumvent the ordinary, or counter the humanistic ethical part in their organic existence, making them think that they are invincible to everything and everyone in their ill-begotten quest. This leads to an individual falling into extraordinary obscene habits that will eventually be abstract to what their persona is. An ill-disposed persona that aims to convert everything and everyone in its paths to complement who they are, no matter what – psychopathic tendency.          

People are “habitual beings”, evidently it is normal for a constrained individual to break free from a person or system that tries to restrain their habitualness. It is human nature to unshackle the demoralising shackles of a bully - this is a realistic reoccurring fact. It is in light of this that an abusive hand in its mission to control its environment falls into a bad habit of violently commanding and gesticulating its preemptive power over the supposedly weak dim-witted hand.      

                

The crude part about falling into any habit, whether good or bad, is that when a habit takes over, the behaviour-ensnared individuals finds themselves on an eclectic addictive hypnotic self-observed, self-annihilation state. It is in this state that individuals lose themselves and their mental-fortitude in the mysterious dimness of a raging habit.

There is an inflexible hitching fecundity in individual’s ghastly habits that beckons their morbid psychosis, disjointing the life that they lead into the tumultuous confines of mental insanity. Inside these confines lays a psychopathic killer, strutting normality and uncontrollable obsession.       

WORD TO A NEW HABITUAL PERSONA REVOLUTION

By Linda Sakazi Thwala 

http://www.facebook.com/SAKAZI