Life’s a Bitch with rap star Nas
THOUSANDS of hip-hop fans braved the freezing cold Pretoria winter night for the Extra Cold music concert at SuperSport Park in Centurion, which went on late into the night.
International rappers Wiz Khalifa and Nas and music producer Timbaland headlined the show, which featured local music acts such as house music group Mi Casa, rapper Reason, DJ Black Coffee and musician Zakes Bantwini.
Wiz Khalifa, real name Cameron Jibril Thomaz, 26, was the first of the international acts to perform.
Timbaland performed hits he has produced over the years for artists such as rapper Jay Z, singer Nelly Furtado and Missy Elliott.
He proved less of a hit with geography, consistently referring to Pretoria’s Centurion as “Johannesburg” throughout his performance
They performed tracks from his 1994 debut platinum-selling Illmatic album, including hits such as Life’s a Bitch.
Cellist Sonja Bass, 45 — who is more at home performing Bach, Mozart and Beethoven — and fellow members of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra were invited to accompany the visiting rapper for the Centurion performance.
“This is different from what I normally listen to, but his harmonies have something nice that I think I can groove to,” said Bass, who usually teaches music to youngsters in Soweto.
“Playing for him has really exposed me to something different and, who knows, maybe I’ll be a hip-hop fan now.”
Nas, who was once married to singer Kelis, has sold more than 25 million records. He has released eight platinum and multi-platinum albums since 1994.
On a chilly Thursday night, Bass and the hand-picked orchestra members sent a rather unusual sound through the Linder auditorium at the University of the Witwatersrand as they tried to master a score of rap songs under the guidance of Nas’s mini orchestra, Jingle Punks Hipster.
After five hours of rehearsal, the room came alive when they effortlessly performed an early Nas hit, Hate Me Now.
Violinist Olga Maraba, from Diepkloof, Soweto, said it was her first “rap gig”. “I know Nas, know his music. To actually play with him is like a dream for me,” said Maraba.
Nas arrived in Johannesburg on Thursday. Performing with a live orchestra, he said, was his way of giving hip-hop fans “a different experience”.
Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra CEO Duncan Gibbon said: “The irony of this is that 20 years ago, when I was marketing director of Sony, I released Nas in South Africa through the record company Now here I am, heading the JPO and playing with the guy live.”