HONOURS NIGHT – 2nd Night in the USA

So its my second Day in DC. I’ve just woken up to finish up on the blog about the previous night. Man it was long. After showering and getting ready to start the day, I headed on out around the corner (literally) to BloomBars.

BloomBars is a romantic space. It’s narrow and probably big enough to fit, the most, a hundred people. Even with the mean cold weather outside, the place is forever warm because of the body heat resonating from the audience. The walls are riddled with subliminal positive messages like “If I bloom, you bloom.” “Support independent artists” and “No Profane Language – to foster a welcoming environment for all”. This not-so-big, narrow spaced out joint just oozes with a healing ENERGY. But I wasn’t performing there…yet. I was rehearsing and meeting my band for the first time.

Well, I had met my band the day before but totally different people had shown up for the rehearsal…well except Brother Jabari and Brother Terence. I met biscuit THE drummer. This brother is not from this TIME. Whatever TIME he’s from, it must be a perfect world; because this brother keeps perfect TIME. Omar THEE o-marvelous. This brother…(eish…I’ll tell you more about him on the next blog), but this brother was playing guitar for us. A mean guitarist. Mind you, he’s a mean drummer as well. Then we were introduced to brother Regan, whom I later named Hugh (for obvious reasons). This brother plays the Sax effortlessly and makes the instrument cry. And, I later found out the brother had been playing the saxophone for 4months or so. If that’s not genius, I don’t know what is. Tebogo my bass player was leading the rehearsal with the help of Sbudha my keyboardist who’s helping with the keys and scoring. Jabari is our jembe mdlwembe°. Jabari makes playing the jembe look so easy. I could play a show with just him and we could still rock.

Man, and how can I forget Carolyn. Beautiful Carolyn Malachi. Her surname is pronounced Melekhae…not MALATJI. In sepedi, one of the 11 languages in South Africa, Malatji means “days”. Could these be the “days” of my life?” ☺ Let me further tell you about her extra-ordinary talent. Carolyn is a poet, singer, EMCEE, and business woman. She’s doin it, doin it and doin it well. I especially love the fact that Washington introduces her as an emcee, not a female emcee. We’re not called male emcees either.

The hardest thing was what song to start rehearsing first. Just to give you a brief background, about two months ago, I gave my management back home a CD of the music I’d like rehearsed when I come to the US and 3 weeks before we flew out I found out they hadn’t received it. We fedexed it as they’d say out here. So, we compiled another CD but this time, Suede had the bright idea of digitizing the music and emailing it. We did just that and today we’re arriving at band rehearsal and we find out THEY DIDN’T GET THE MUSIC?!?!!?!?!!? You can imagine what was running through my mind. something along the lines of NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

But because of my composed, and I’d like to think – professional nature, I just thought of a contingency plan. “Morning guys, we are going to start with HARAMBE.”

We did a pretty good job playing the song. In fact, I think a somewhat better job than how I usually have it played with my original band structure. All because of God Ol’ Biscuit. Man, the pockets that he delivers (honestly, I don’t know what pockets are but you got to keep nodding when you hear it being said. Otherwise you wont look cool)

We rehearsed the song Omang, Waiting is over, Tswaka and See. We’re now about to rehearse a song we always perform when I’m invited to jazz festivals or when i’m playing cooperate gigs. The track is called FUTUBOLO. I heard it from a great artist in Lesotho once and I forgot his name and haven’t heard the song on a CD or radio ever since I heard it. The chorus says “BaNana ba Kajeno ba bapala Futubolo” which literally means “Girls today are playing football”.

I had to also explain that I understand that there’s American football, but in South Africa and everywhere else in the world, soccer is known as football. So the song has those Lesotho Krostinas (arcodian) in the background which get played by Sbudha and that Maskhandi sounding bass by Tebogo. Another distinctly South African element which would round off this sound would be maskhandi S’ghingci (excuse my spelling…the word means guitar in isiZulu). Now the challenge is teaching Omar how to get that guitar going. Already he’s familiar with the progression as he’s comparing it to a song he’s heard before by De la Soul or was it Tribe Called Quest..? I don’t remember. But that made it easier now.

Now it was about trying to pull off the Ihashi eli Mhlophe sound. Tebogo my bass player explained to him “with the zulu traditional sound, it is usually played around the end of the neck of the guitar. That’s where all the high notes are. And mostly you use arpeggios and your fourths (I know, to the non muso this is just Jargon) to achieve that sound. At the end, you’re aiming for that crying sound”. After giving him that schooling I sang, as best as I can, the melody for him and we started jamming. Man, I promise you, it sounded like the legendary Ray Phiri was in the building. The song was banging. Also, with brother Biscuit, we had to explain to him that the Maskhandi drum groove for this track specifically is a continuous kick and the rim played at the same time. He got it being the genius that he is. As we were about to finish rehearsing I got interrupted by Suede to go get ready for the BET Honors. I still had to go iron my shirt…which I really forgot how to. That’s what happens when you get a good woman…*wink*

To cut a long story short, I put on my charcoal Caducci ‘pin-stripe’ tux styled suit with a black shirt, Red & Black stripped tie, cuff lings, earring my Marc Echo diamond studded watch, my South African Flag beaded pin on my blazer and my ultimate accessory…mogatla wa phiri (literally, the fox’s tale) – but I think its actually the horses hair from the tail taped on the end of a handling stick. It’s a traditional piece usually used by chiefs or traditional healers or sangomas to flick flies away from their faces but also just a sign of power. That look was inspired by my good friend Tay Grin, the Nyao King from Malawi (he’s just called the Nyao King incase I offend anyone…he’s a local rapper that side).

We get to the event by standing a long line on the red carpet. I keep hearing remarks from other people on the line about my accessory. Comments like “What the hell is that?!”, “Is that an anaconda?” & “What kind of animal is that”…lol

So eventually we make it into the venue. I looked pretty hot. People could mistake me for a movie actor or something (at least that’s how I felt). Later we got joined by Hezues our camera man and my band members. The venue where the event was happening looks similar to the Lyric Theater in Gold Reef. Very similar. They had us seated on the front seats of the balcony. Wow, what a view. From were we were sitting, I could see all the stars, starting from the extreme left with Mary J Blige, Jasmine Sullivan, Sean Combs, Mrs. Simmons, Whitney Houston, Queen Latifah, Dr Keith Black and a whole lot more people I recognized but didn’t know their names. All the people I mentioned, except Mary J and Jasmine, were being honored at the BET awards for their awesome achievements in their respective fields. It was a night filled with surprise artists and performances like Stevie Wonder with Take 6, Neyo, Kimberel with Jennifer Hudson, Maxwell, India Arie(aaaaaaaargh…), Patti Label and many more I forgot. Another awesome feature about the whole night were the waiters that kept coming up to us to ask what we were drinking.

Wow, by the time the night was at the end, I was on an all time high, having just seen Maxwell and everything. Me, Tebza and Sbu sat in that auditorium until everybody cleared out just absorbing what we just witnessed. We decide to rush quickly downstairs to take pictures of the stage, Suede reckons we walk straight up to the stage and take a picture. I’m like “Dude, I don’t want to get manhandled all the way out here”. He’s like “look, we’re going to that stage”.

Guess what, nobody stopped us. We got on that stage, looked at everybody packing up and I took 3 or so pictures relaxed. I must have looked really good for them not to bug me. We left the venue to go to the after party were I later met my inspiration, a gospel singer who just performed on the Night called Kimberel. I had her song “If I never” as my alarm clock the whole year last year and her song with Byron Cage just blesses me every time I hear it. Man, now I see how people can say to me that a song I sing has changed their lives…I was such a groupie.

After that, we went downstairs to go party. This was an A list party with people like Neyo, President of Uptown Records Mr. Andre Harrell and plenty more good people. The DJ was killing it. Playing both modern music and the good ol’ classics. I decided to break away from the pack and maybe go and try score a dance with a lovely somebody.

As I’m moving through the crowd I stopped somewhere by the smoking lounge’s doors to look at everyone around me. I thought to myself “WOW, I’m in America. Rubbing shoulders with the elite. Not only that, I was unknown. That felt so GREEEEEEAT!” Most of the time, going out for me is a nightmare because I cant just be ME. I’ll be approached at least 60times during the entire night to take pictures or sign autographs (which really my people I don’t mind). But sometimes, you just want to dance and have fun.

Three hours into the party I connect again with the guys and we head out to BloomBars for the MoonBloom sessions in honour of the Moonflower. The moon flower is a special flower that only blooms when the moon is out. Its very beautiful and angelic looking. By morning, the flower withers away and dies. So, the concept of the shows is that the precious flower artists come out to share in the beauty of their work and by morning we all wither away and go our respective directions.

That for me was my virgin show in DC. We had about 15 people there but the warmest of crowds. You cant help but feel at home here. It reminds me of the days I used to perform at the Horror Café with my own band. We just free styled three songs with the four-piece band and had a jam with everybody. As I got off stage, I had this one brother walk up to me with a CD of mine he had just purchased and I was all chuffed as you can imagine and just as I was about to give him an autograph I asked him his name and with the drums from Jabari’s Jembe still playing in the background, he says “Mlungisi”. I’m like “What?!” And he casually repeats “My name’s Mlungisi”.

Wow, I was thinking to myself, there are Americans named Mlungisi…maybe it’s not spellled the same way. Maybe it means something else. So I asked him, where he’s from and he said his Folks are from South Africa and he was born in the US and has been staying here ever since. I asked him if he knew what his name meant and with a smile on his face he says “He who makes it all better…”. I was like “Yeah, it means the fixer”. It was an HONOUR meeting you my brother.

JABBA – 16-01-10

° (It’s a Zulu vernacular slang term made famous by our very own King of philanthropy ZOLA.) You can goggle him and check him out. It basically, I think, means the same as a top dog…of sorts…*raised eyebrow*

Article Source: http://www.ontaponline.com/view_article.php?article_id=11754

Article Source: http://www.ontaponline.com/view_article.php?article_id=11767

Article on AllHipHip.com : http://allhiphop.com/stories/breedingground/archive/2010/01/21/22103006.aspx

Panel discussions on the power of Hip Hop to affect social change and HIV/AIDS will follow the performance

Artist in Bloom Resident Fellow, Gabriel “Asher” Benn released a supplemental reading workbook today featuring the lyrics of a collaboration between Jabba and Hip-Hop icon Nas, who appears on Jabba’s latest album, “Dumela”, released in October this year. The workbook is one of a series developed by Asheru that use Hip-Hop lyrics to help students of all ages improve reading and critical analysis and teachers improve literacy instruction. Since 2005, Asheru’s Hip-Hop Education Literacy Program (HELP) has partnered with dozens of recording artists, including Common, Jay-Z, Kanye West, KRS-1, Nas, and Rakim. In 2008, HELP received a letter of endorsement from then Senator Barack Obama. Today, HELP can be found in classrooms across the country. Asheru and Jabba will use the workbooks in their meetings with students.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Come see Hip Hop Pantsula along with Artist-in-Bloom Resident Fellow, Carolyn Malachi.

WASHINGTON DC (Did C..!) – First day in the US of A.

First thing when I landed off the plane in Washington I thought, this place looks like Cape Town International Airport. There’s nothing that distinctly says “America”…except the security. Man, there’s two places I’ve been around the world that have security that absolutely terrifies me…Botswana and the US. Mind you, this is my first trip to the USA, but I watch the crime channel and I see what goes on…lol.

Just when I thought I had seen it all I saw the pilled up SNOW. Wow…snow?!?!?! Heeh…! Motlholo (it means AMAZING in Setswana) I remember saying to Tebogo my Bass player and Sbudha my keyboardist. Also, playing the role of the manager on the trip is brother Suede.

We walked out after collecting our bags and were greeted by the piercing camera lens from brother Hezeus. Next to him was brother John…John the Planter. After warm greetings and hugs like long lost college mates, we headed out the airport into the crisp chilly air of Washington DC. Ice everywhere…amazed. That’s when my groupie moment began.

“I’M IN AMERICA!!!”

Mind boggling! A few minutes on our way from the airport I start going off “Yellow School Bus”, “Yellow Cab”, “Washington Monument”, “Squirrels”!!! Every iconic thing I had seen in American movies like Independence Day, Over the Hedge, 2012 and many others where now right in front of me. I started feeling like I’m living a movie. Never mind the fact that there’s a camera on me twenty four seven. I mean we were going on about how we want to eat grits and candy yams and corn bread, lol. It’s so funny when I think about it. Even seeing an ambulance that looks like those from ER was mindblowing.

So we get to John’s house and he shows us our rooms and gives us towels  to take showers. Just then I offer him a gift which I brought him from South Africa of a wooden elephant. I’ll explain the story of the elephant with the coming blogs…stay tuned!

So anyway, he says “Yo, give me your new CD I want to play it. I haven’t heard it. I slap him with a copy and he’s like, “How do you pronounce this “doomela?!” What does it mean”?” So I casually explain to him “Well, it’s a known Setswana greeting in South Africa which means Hello. In the same breath, it literally means BELIEVE.” So I explain how fascinating it is for people to say to each other when they meet. Believe in what?! Ourselves?! So I carry on to say even the Zulu people, when they greet each other, they say “SAWUBONA” which literally means “We see you”. So John flips out and says “Have you seen Avatar”. “No” obviously being my answer, he starts going on about the movie and how when they greet each other they say “I see you…” Wow, I am a man of omens and I don’t BELIEVE in coincidences. Other great things happened like when I met Jabari Exum the master djembe player, Terrence Cunningham, the mean Rhodes player (and singer), Gary the genius guitarist, Asheru the DON…I’ll give you  a full picture on him as we read on. This man is Deeper than lake Malawi…oh and Lauren…our chef.

So my day starts with a bang. We head out to a function hosted by BET (Black Entertainment Television) and the First Lady South Africa (She couldn’t make it).  The event was to support a an organization called EXTRA-ORDINARY LIFE.  They sending 15 youths living in foster care to the Soccer World Cup in Mzantsi (South Africa). We get there and first thing I see is YELLOW ZAKUMI, the world cup mascot. Personally I don’t know why we chose him as a mascot. I cant relate to him. But believe it or not, I felt a sense of comfort when I saw him. Like that gaping whole of missing home has been sewn up. I appreciated Zakumi. Now we get along just fineJ.

So I’m there dressed inappropriately with my Jabba HARAMBE T-Shirt with the SA Flag on my face; with jeans and fresh new addidas from Cross Trainers back home. The next thing, this gentleman in a suit shouts from across the room…Double HP…im thinking hey, fello South African. Next thing, “Hi, I’m from BET International. Yes, this guy was American. So I’m there thinking, so this guy knows me?! John comes in and assures me, people are waiting for you. I get called to do an interview on BET news and I was being asked things I knew nothing bout, but made sense to answer them anyway. I cant even remember one question they asked me. After that we are led to our seats to start the dinner. A moving show indeed. I learne something about children staying in foster care that I never knew before. That the love they get from a stranger, Genuine LOVE, makes their world and situations 50x better. It beats the most expensive clothes or gifts anyday.

Also, I learnt how much we take our homes for granted. Imagine living your life from a suitcase because your could be moved to another foster family. That is no way to live. Sometimes we need to find it in ourselves to take on a child that is in need of God Parents who have a large heart to share. Starts with the man in the mirror.

Just then, Suede my in the background manager whispers in my ears “Yo, come outside and meet the president of BET, give her your cd and a vuvuzela. I was like, WHAT?! She’ll throw it in the back of her trunk, as its called in the US; and never listen to it. He’s like “My dude, you just sign it and go give it to her”. He pulls her to the side and says “Maam, I’d like you to meet South Africa’s Hip Hop star Double HP and present you with his CD and vuvuzela. So I come in there and again thank her for allowing us the platform to appear on such a great historical station like BET. She took it and thanked me dearly.

Two hours down the line I realize its 20h00 South African time. What?! I haven’t spoken to my son Leano. Eish, now im bugging. I can’t not speak to him on his second day of grade0. So I’m constantly trying to gesture to John that I need a phone and must call my little man and parents to let them know I’ve landed safely. He keeps saying not yet, they’re about to honor you. So the MC of the function apologizes for the absence of Mama Zuma, the first lady of our Country and sends her warmest regards. Then they had the ambassador for South Africa to come and address the Top Executives sitting on the $120 a head tables about the initiative to send the 15 girls to South Africa. Then walked on the president of BET. She starts by thanking the guest of honor and the CEO of the organization itself and then out of the blue she thanks, and I quote “The South African Hip Hop star who gave me his CD to play and even more fascinating is this horn (vuvuzela) he gave me saying millions of people will be blowing them at the stadiums in South Africa and I’m the first one to have it…” (yeah I know, little white lie.)

She wasn’t the first to have it, but hey…she loved it). That was a milestone for me. I was like, I’m in Washington DC. As I step out of the elevator, in walks Whitney Houston…AAAAAARGH! Ok, easy Jabba…then I walked out of the hotel and who steps out of the car INDIA ARIE…AAAAAAARGH! Groupie moment all over again. Guess what she does, she’s like to Suede “Hey, how are you..? Long time” I’m like, Suede you know India ARIE?!?!?!? He just gave that shrug smile and acted all Don-like. So we take a picture with her and head on back to our hectic schedule.

Time to relax before heading out to the dinner scheduled with the South African Chief of Mission Jonny Motolo and his family with a few key delegates. That experience was amazing. First thing I did was meet his kids, Karabo, Tebo and Malebo as they were huge fans…well, expect Malebo Ledwaba…I’m her fan instead;)

So we sit down to have lunch and they are all sharing stories of how they know me from strictly come dancing which is a show equivalent to DANCE WITH THE STARS here in the US; and how they enjoyed watching the show. Then I was formally introduced to the entire party by Brother John again to give them an idea of what my role was in Washington and what they were planning to achieve with our exchange programme. A very heart felt speech I will add. You’ll have to watch the documentary to hear it.

And so afterwards, Suede walks up to me to ask me to do a little freestyle for the Chief of Mission and his children. You can imagine, I was like WHA?! But after a few quite words from Suede, I found myself in the toilet preparing a piece from my YBA2NW album called C! “C, the things that life is showing you, let your pride grow slow inside of you; later you’ll TOUCH, the things that God promised you; He don’t wanna hurt you worse punish you, he wants you to TASTE. A piece of the good pie. Depending how you eat it you’ll be known as a good guy. Utlwa (HEAR), molaetsa wa pina (the message of the song) o tla M’feela (You’ll feel me), and ese kgale otlo I psjina (before long you’ll be having fun), you’ll C!”

After I did that I could only hear the sighing of Rre Ledwaba; The camera flashes of Mr. Moloto and the “Jan eh…” continuously said by Madam Deputy Chief…(I hope that’s really her title). After a warm applause we made our way up the stairs and continued my serious debate with Rre Ledwaba about the statistics of 230,000 children in matric failing and the pass mark being reduced to 33%.

(my day was so long, I’m not even half way through what happened during the day…I’m yet to discuss the Wilsons Resturant, Rendevous club for the ADC (African Diaspora for Change) party and the interview at WPFW radio…It was crazy. Let me carry on in the morning…)

—-WHEW! 7 hours later after a great sleep, and im back to finish my story—

So anyway, I had a long chat with Rre Ledwaba and he was reminding me of his days when he used to listen to Bob Marley and how he perceived him as an Entertainer who used elements of teaching. He felt that the rendition I just did for his children is one such as that. Except he feels like with MOTSWAKO, we are educating with elements of entertainment . That meant a great deal. Kea leboga ( I thank you) again for those powerful words.

So after we left the Majestic House, we headed out for an interview at WPFW-FM, for an interview on ‘Soul Conversations’ with Derrek Brown and family. The time is now 23h15. Mind you I’ve been up from the plane at 6am and never slept the whole day. We were still operating South African time. So we park next to the station and took what seemed to be a couple minutes walk around the neighborhood Adam’s Morgan. Man it was buzzing. People were out. Lights were flashing. Music was blazing. I was hypnotized by the waves of fly woman that walked passed me and amazed at how people look like us out here.

Usually when in Nigeria, you can immediately tell you’re not from there. When in Somalia you immediately know you are not from there. Same as in Ethiopia. But here, people look exactly like we do. You see someone who looks like they could say Dumela or Thobela. Some look like they could say Sawubona. Some look like they could be Nigerian or Khoi. Even a lot of the white people look like they could say Hoe gaan dit?!

One even looked like my good friend from High School Sean Ashton; but, they’re all American. That’s dope. This street we are walking on is like a mix between Melville’s 7^th street, Cape Town’s long street and Yeoville’s rocky street. And so we walk into this small narrow building that has a flight of stairs we have to conquer when entering. The name of the place is RENDEVOUZ. In there I hear the music of Fela filling the air and everybody having a good time. Out of nowhere I get confronted by a man who says these simple words to me “Wena?!” (which simply means YOU?! in Setswana) Yo, I jumped up in excitement. Im like “Wena?!!?! Monna, wa buwa?” He introduces himself as Mr Morosi Mokoena the revolutionary…He tells me how they’ve been waiting for us since 21h00. We later apologize for being held up at the dinner and  he turns the mic on and begins to introduce me…his words were heavy, warm and heartfelt. He mentioned how when Haiti was hit by the Hurricane, he remembers the people singing instead of crying showing how there’s power in chanting. Power in music.

-Haiti we’re with you…know that-

After giving me a heartfelt introduction, he gives me the mic and I was possessed by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The spirit of Mbiya le Mokgatle, my Ancestors. The spirit of Africa. I opened up with explaining what I mean when I say PULA. Pula in Setswana means Rain. Rain is something that’s important to my people. Rain is the element important in growth. In speaking about Rain also, I am also referring to Reign. To REIGN. To Rule. This is not the time for the African Renaissance. But a time for the African REIGNING SONS. I taught the people Harambe and did a verse for them. After such a momentous performance we took photos and headed out for WPFW for an interview. Twas like stepping into a mixture of Alex fm and Yfm. Great space. I was being interviewed with the Legend of Asheru. My brother and host. A man behind a great President Obama endorsed initiative called HELP (Hip Hop Education Literacy Program). I immediately connected with the DJ and listeners as they gave me a warm welcome into their country. I even got a call from a listener in North Carolina giving me props and love for great music.

I thought that was awesome. Even more awesome was the amazement from everybody in the station because NC was in another state and they weren’t sure how that listener got on.

During the interview, we touched back on the whole similarity of words and Asheru, a student of Anthropology, was talking about the similarity in languages that exists, like for instance in the Yoruba language, the word for digging means the same as the word for understanding/thinking. Same way dumela means hello and believe. He then made a reference saying how when they talk in their Ebonics, they end of with the phrase “You dig?!” – “You understand?!” This all can’t be a coincidence…I had a fab time at the station.

Whew, final destination. Home. Man we were tired. We got ready for bed and scrambled up some blankets together. Then I took a turn by the kitchen(as I usually do) and I ran into brother John and Asheru. We began talking and summing up what went down tonight. I remember saying to them “Man, tonight was jam packed. Ya’ll have a lot up your sleeves. If this is how it went down on the first day, I don’t even want to know what’s going to happen in the next 13 more days.” John just ended it off by saying “Yo we have to take you to watch the AVATAR. You’ll love it. You’ll love the concept of I SEE YOU”. Well John, I love that concept too. I see you. I guess Washington ‘D’id ‘C’ me today…

Jabba (15-01-10)