THE ARTISTS

Streetball features the work of significant up and coming–as well as established–musicians and street artists from South Africa.  Each artist donated their poetry, music and images to the film and to From Us With Love, giving Streetball a vibrant backdrop in telling the stories of South Africa’s post-apartheid generation.

Araminta de Clermont

Photo by Araminta de Clermont

Araminta de Clermont is a British born photographer who is now based out of Cape Town. Her work explores “rites of passage, and the visual currencies of group identification and formation.” Before Life her second solo show, follows Life After, which was exhibited at Joao Ferreira Gallery, and at ArtSpace, Berlin. Her work features in the  UNISA collection, in The Trustman collection,  and has been showcased throughout the US and Europe as well as in South Africa.

ETC Crew

ETC CREW is the “Cape Town-based, multi-racial, cross-dimensional Hip Hop rap outfit you might’ve already heard of.”  Fueled by their own fresh yet energetic, jazzy, head-nodding Hip Hop sound, they are on a mission to fill a cultural and musical gap in the South African music industry. Not content to be followers in the game, they would rather do it differently, making changes on their own terms, armed with the kind of quality beats that speak to your feet and a highly comedic lyrical flow that is completely contagious. ETC Crew is here to re-adjust any kind of attitude that says Hip Hop and rap are strictly for gang bangers.

Faith47

Faith47 is a Cape Town based graffiti artist and has been adorning the streets of South Africa for over fifteen years.  Her work explores the divisions that still exist within South Africa’s communities and seeks to draw attention to the places and people that are often over looked.  Her artwork has appeared in galleries across Europe, North and South America as well as throughout Africa.

Jitsvinger

Jitsvinger (Quintin Goliath) is one of South Africa’s fastest rising Afrikaans vernacular Hip Hop artists.  He plays acoustic and electric guitar and successfully launched his debut album, Skeletsleutel, in 2006. He has traveled the country and world, performing at various outdoor and indoor festivals, theaters, clubs, living rooms and even cordoned off streets.

In 2005, Jitsvinger was invited to facilitate a creative writing program at Robben Island.  He has performed with poet and author Antjie Krog, and poets Kgafela oa Magododi and Comrade Fatso. He traveled and collaborated with Khoisan praise poet, Jethro Louw, performing traditional cultural music in the Taiwanese cities of Tainan and Taipei. In mid-2008, he traveled to Switzerland as part of the inter-continental Rogue State of Mind project where he performed and recorded with fellow artists from Switzerland and South Africa.  Jitsvinger has been working on his follow-up album due for release in 2009.

Kgafela

Kgafela oa Magogodi is a Spoken Word Poet, Spoken Word Theater director and film scholar. He has taught at the University of the Witwatersrand School of the Arts as a lecturer in African Cinema, Oral Performance and Rap/Dub Poetry Studies and has also been a guest lecturer at New York University.  He directs and produces original Spoken Word Theater and his productions have included “Itchy City,” “Warsoil,” “Bread,” and “Blood.”

Kgafela has written several screenplays and produced his feature length film, I Mic What I Like, in 2006.  He has performed worldwide and was the first recipient of the Steve Biko Fellowship. His work explores the social roles and media representation of Black intellectuals, as well as the significance of maintaining cultural practices to uphold a vibrant civil society.

Rudimentals

The Rudimentals are an eight-piece ska/reggae band that have been described as a “South African Institution.” The band released its first CD, “More Fire,” in October, 2003 and the hit song “Noh TV” won a National Bronze Stone award for best music video. In 2004, the band was voted “Best Reggae and Ska Band” in South Africa, by nationally popular Blunt Magazine.

In 2006, the band released their second CD entitled, “Set It Proper.” The CD fuses Ska, Reggae, Dub, Dancehall, Rock, African Mbaquanga and Jazz into what is now known as Afro-Ska. Sponsors include Cape Audio College, Township Guitars, Moskow Clothing and Critik Shoes.  In 2007, the Band was signed for their first CD, “More Fire”, with Moonskaworld UK.

UjU

Gwen Ansell of Business Day claimed, “(UjU’s) compositions are memorable and the playing rather better than it needs to be. Whatever this new kind of popular music ends up being called, UjU does it exceedingly well.”

Today’s incarnation of the band was crystallized at a twelve-hour jam session in early March, 2004. Led by spiritual leader of the band, Ntuthu Ndlovu (poet and vocals), UjU has a sound that is distinctly their own, mixing strong Mbaqanga rhythms with modern Jazz and Hip Hop.  UjU – Zulu for Honey – writes with a heightened consciousness, informed by critical social, economic and political issues.  They aim to bring about the entirely new and distinctly South African sound that represents their generation.  As they say, “Nothing cheesy here but always self-referential and ironic.”