Bubblegum Club

Tag: DJ Prie Nkosazana

  • South Africa, What’s Up? Residency at ANTiGEL Festival

    Over the last 8 years ANTiGEL Festival has grown to become one of the largest cultural events in Geneva. By bringing artistic experience to parts of the city that are detached from this kind of engagement, the festival aims to be a reminder of the importance of making spaces for arts and culture. Africa What’s Up is a residency that falls within the festival. Artists from South Africa and Egypt have been invited to put together an evening dedicated to cultural music and cultural production on their countries.

    Photography by Chris Saunders

    Throughout the week-long residency, South African and Egyptian artist have been interacting with cultural producers from Mali, Nigeria and Switzerland. It has also provided a moment of pause and refection. In addition to the time spent networking and teasing out performance plans, artists have been able to engage with one another and the residency organisers in daily roundtable discussions. This expands the purpose of the residency to that of a space for conversations that directly affect artists. These include conversations around womxn’s access to performance time and how this is connected to networks, resources and development. Discussions also included the larger question of access for artists in general with regards to visa applications and funding to sustain their practices.

    Photography by Viviane Sassen

    Even though the residency has a focus on music, it also embraces the importance of cross-disciplinary pollination. This can be seen by the performance element.

    South Africa’s CUSS Group and the Swiss cultural organisation Shap Shap co-curated the South Africa What’s Up lineup, which includes performances by FAKA, DJ Prie Nkosazana, Dirty Paraffin and DJ Lag. Choreographer Manthe Ribane and Swiss electro-soul duo Kami Awori will be presenting their collaborative effort. Having met in Johannesburg, they have combined music, choreography and a visual display to present a full sensory experience.

    Photography by Kent Andreasen

    What is particularly important about the residency is how it encourages cross-disciplinary pollination and has opened up discussion around what it necessary to facilitate easier access to gigs and spaces for African artists. It has also provided a space to draw out how these kinds of conversations need to be translated into pragmatic steps for action.

    Photography by Chris Saunders

  • DJ Prie Believes Anything is Possible with Gqom

    If you’re a night-owl and you listen to Ukhozi FM, there’s a good chance you’ve heard DJ Prie Nkosazana taking you through the graveyard shift from 1:30. I don’t listen to Ukhozi so I heard about her from those more knowledgeable than myself. Turns out I’ve been sleeping – which is fair considering the time slot – because the 21-year-old DJ, producer and #hustler from Morningside in Durban has steadily been gaining plays and stage time. I mean, her track ‘Washa Gqom’ has racked up over 30 00 plays on Youtube in just over 4 months, her latest single ‘Balesa Ba Kulu’ is sitting on over 6000 downloads in 2 weeks, and she told me she got to share a stage with DJ Khaled at Vain Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which is just dope and not something many South African artists can say. Plus she follows nobody on Instagram which is pretty baller.

    I couldn’t find much about the “Princess of Gqom” through Google so I bounced a few emails back and forth with her. Turns out she’s still new to the game, having only been producing for a year. Prie produces gqom because “Gqom is for young people, sometimes it doesn’t have a message that can inspire you, but the beat and bass can make you believe that anything is possible.” She’s multifaceted too, “My music stands apart because I’m creative, my beat changes, and I can produce commercial house as well.” The young DJ recently played the femme-focussed Pussy Party at Kitcheners in Jozi, and I heard she tore the place down. Her own experience was even better than she’d expected, “The reception was totally amazing, everybody was dancing to Gqom. Even the people I thought would never like Gqom. The crowd was welcoming and the lady who booked me (Colleen Balchin) made sure I was safe.”

    Considering DJ Prie is from Durban and plays Gqom, I asked how much influence the city has had on her. She’s not as sentimental as most Durbanites, “Growing up in Durban didn’t influence my music. I believe even if I was in Cape Town, I would have been doing what I’m doing now because I’ve got so many people I look up to.” People like Ukhozi FM’s BigKid, and DJ Cindo, “They are hardworking and warm. The way they carry themselves to me and to everyone is just mindblowing.” Being on radio, even at such a late time slot, has been nothing but a blessing for a young DJ eager to learn. “Ukhozi has made me grow in so many ways, my gigs improved, my fan-base increased and I got to meet my mentor Gugu Yengwa (BigKid). I enjoy the freedom of the slot because sometimes I don’t have to pitch at the studio so it gives me more time to focus on my music.”