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SOUTH AFRICAN HIP HOP HITS THE STRATFORD REX |
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Send us your review:
Describe the atmosphere and live music at a local pub, restaurant, festival, church or temple, club night.... inspire other people to check it out!
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Venue: The Stratford Rex
Music: Kwaito/South African
Location: 361-373 High Street, Stratford, London E15
Tel: 020 8215 6003
Reviewer: Jon Lusk
 听听Listen to a track by M'Du called Makhamisa from the album Kwaito - South African Hip Hop - Various Artists (Stern's/Earthworks)
Sometimes a community comes together week after week, same time, same place,
usually right in the part of London you might expect - maybe a Lagos style
nite spot in Dalston or an Afghani restaurant in Southall. At other times it magics itself out of thin air, far from any real neighbourhood. Suddenly there's a virtual barrio queuing on a sidewalk, buzzing with old friends reacquainting, and plenty of familiar looking
faces who all seem to speak the same language(s). They stand outside in the
probably drizzling rain, waiting expectantly, some less patient than others with being barked at by a security guard and his dog.
Such was the case at The Stratford Rex this March when two major playas on South Africa's kwaito scene hit town. Aside from South Africans, there were plenty of people from London's growing community of Zimbabweans as well as fans from Malawi and Zambia, united by their common passion for kwaito. About the only people of European origin present were the staff.
'Mandoza' vs M'du' announced the posters just inside the doors where punters lined up
to be frisked and relieved of anything considered potentially harmful to the
1,500 excited fans inside. It doesn't stop one of them getting up onstage and waving what looks from the overpriced bar convincingly like a large handgun, though no-one seems bothered by this piece of theatre at the front. He's only one of many creative stage invaders dressed in ghetto fabulous gear and eyed by a succession of DJs. They seem unconcerned with pacing or any need to keep the crowd 'up' or expectant. Perhaps they know nobody expects any real live action till the small hours. They spin bubblegum, mbaqanga, and the music we've come to hear, which sounds often sounds like slowed down house set to chanted Zulu lyrics and peppered with wholesale steals from sundry other styles. It's a uniquely South African sonic patchwork quilt.
When Mandoza and his two sidekicks (collectively known as Chiskop) do finally appear in their sportswear it's half past one. But they have all the moves they need to attract instant attention. Mandoza himself has a hoarse macho vocal style that vaguely recalls Buju Banton. He's clearly a fan of Cypress Hill as well as Jamaican ragga too. His backing singers double as
acrobats worthy of any circus, break dancing, body popping, karate chopping and throwing flick flacks and somersaults like they never heard of back injury. It's choreography of the highest order, but not as we know it. They even stand rapping on speaker stacks high above the crowd and somehow get down unscathed.
But it's when the three of them dance together as one, each with different but totally synchronised moves that the stomping similarity to traditional Zulu war dance really comes through. On a different sound channel, in another wardrobe, this could almost be Ladysmith Black Mambazo raising their legs and lunging back down to pound the stage.
By three a.m. I'm flagging and there's no sign of the opposition. Time for
one more boogie on a dance floor unafraid to bump, and welcoming to all.
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Your reviews:
 'Jummy plays like a Lagos joint...'
  'not even the organiser, knows what's on the programme'
 'This is where you'll drink your post-demo pints...'
 '...break dancing, body popping, karate chopping...'
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