Literary bent to hip-hop’s D
Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh’s dual release of a politically charged record and book was influenced by his father
South Africa is about to see its first ever dual release of a book and hip-hop album when student activist Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh launches Democracy and Delusion at the end of this month.
The 28-year-old set out to make “struggle music 2.0”, which forms a body of work that is “relevant and revolutionary at the same time,’’ he says. “If I had one goal, it would be to make struggle songs 2.0. This album is about our time, in our language and our sound, which is hip-hop.”
Son of advocate Dali Mpofu and a Rhodes Must Fall leader at Oxford University, Mpofu-Walsh’s solo literary and musical debut follows the 2005 release of Royal School of Hip-hop with his crew Entity, which included the SuperMega AKA and Greyhound.
So why an album and a book?
The book is to make people want to listen to the album, and the album is to drive people to the book, he explains. “My dream is: there’s a household where the kid tells the parent ‘you’ve got to listen to this album’ and the parent says you should really read this book.”
With the release of the book on August 28 through publishers Tafelberg and the album on September 6 by Native Rhythms records, the project is a bid to appeal to both the youth and conscious young adults by synchronising the country’s re-emerging social activism with hip-hop culture. “I’m using different methods to get my messages across. It’s well and good to write an article or a book but if you’re not getting it across to the people who you want to receive the message, then what’s the point?” Mpofu-Walsh asks.
The idea of a dual release came after watching a play that consisted entirely of rapping. “Nas is probably my biggest rap influence but the breakthrough for me came with the Hamilton cast mixtape. It’s a play which tells the story of the founding of the USA — and it’s all told through the medium of rap. The guy won a Pulitzer prize and when I heard that, I said I don’t have to conform and try to be the conscious Cassper [Nyovest]. I can be an academic,” he explained.
The book consists of 10 chapters in which Mpofu-Walsh debunks 10 myths in South African politics such as that the ANC liberated South Africa, state participation in the economy is dangerous and South Africa has reckoned with Marikana.
He takes a critical look at the myth that the country is slowly moving towards justice and compensation for the victims and families of the Marikana massacre in 2012. He also offers personal insight into how the unfolding commission of inquiry, in which his father represented the families of the victims and the victims themselves, changed the way he viewed the ANC. He then moves on to debunk allegations that his father was using the commission to enrich himself.
“It was difficult. I saw the sacrifice he was making and it took a huge toll on him. That was like a two-year project. He actually spent his own money. Buying food, making sure the families could travel. Where do people think the money came from before the government started paying? The Marikana massacre and commission of inquiry was the fundamental moment in the family. To see my dad’s trajectory and disillusionment with the