Bubblegum Club

Tag: ET

  • Taxan – About That ‘Kite Life’

    Taxan – About That ‘Kite Life’

    Hip Hop is often seen as a music of aggression and raw materialism, but the culture has always had a more abstract, psychedelic side. When I was a teenager, artists like Kool Keith, MF Doom or even Outkast transported their fans to other realms of consciousness. And in the last decade the music has only become more surreal, with the rise of icons like Young Thug and the wild experimentation being conducted on the internet. Just look at a recent hit like Trippie Redd’s ‘Dark Knight Dummo‘, a lysergic sprawl of weird beats and the chorus “I don’t know what planet I’m on”.

    Other planets are a key interest of Joburg based rapper Taxan Greezy, whose nom de plume speaks to his fascination with celestial beings. The cover art for his new single ‘Kite Life’, even features an iconic little green man. The track (produced by deKiller’Clown) features the rapper, who also records under the name ET, dropping excited wordplay over fragmented beats. ‘Kite Life’ is a song which appears to hover on the verge of chaos, but soon reveals its internal logic. For Taxan “everything is placed randomly but comes together perfectly”. And the collaboration with deKiller’Clown is another chance to spotlight the work of their collective, Indiegoat Clan.

    Taxan’s main focus is on pushing this experimental moment in hip hop forward, promising to “never stick to one subgenre or make music for current trends” while “trying to send a good message and switch it up”. The song tells a story of self-realisation: “we should always follow our hearts, don’t let anyone clip your wings and when they do remind them you are still high like a kite! Don’t follow any structures or systems created by society. Create your own ideology of what’s perfect for you. Lastly, don’t do anything for the hype or the likes. ‘Cause it’s momentary but kite life is a frequency that lasts forever. Basically it means stops letting fear of society hold you back, flourish”.

    Taxan also has a music video for the song in the works, with an upcoming solo tape named Chronicles of Xannith to follow. With their free thinking approach, both he and the Indiegoat Clan are poised to fly to the highest reaches of SA rap.

  • Face-to-face with deKiller’Clown

    Hailing from Johannesburg, rapper, producer and all-round artist deKiller’Clown’s music draws inspiration from the sounds around him and the situations he finds himself in. With an older sister who studied sound engineering and introduced him to a lot of music including hip hop he started making music from a young age. “I started making music at 8 or 9 years old just because I looked up to my sister that much. I just got into music from the inspiration that I drew from my sister,” deKiller’Clown remembers, “At the time she was listening to a lot of The Roots, Erykah Badu, J Dilla, a lot of that old school hip hop. I was introduced to hip hop and fell in love with J Dilla.”

    Although he tried his hand at production around the age of 11, it wasn’t until a few years later that he took producing seriously. “Later on in life around 17/18 I met up with some friends who then inspired me to get into producing and that’s when my producing started.”

    While he doesn’t favour any particular emcees or producers, “I pretty much have favourite songs throughout different artists”, deKiller’Clown is inspired by what he is listening to in the moment as well as artists such as Nekro, Jedi Mind Tricks, Kanye West, Travis Scott. “Kid Cudi was a huuuge influence,” he emphasizes.

    A member and producer for Indigoat Clan,the crew was started by his high school friend ET and him as a way to create music for themselves and their friends. ”We made music for a long time before we put a name on it. At first it was just making music just for our friends to chill with. Listening to music, listening to ourselves. I think we were making for 2 or 3 years before we came up with the name.”

    His debut solo mixtape ‘I Changed The Name’ is a reference to the ongoing struggle he’s faced in naming the project over the almost 2 years he’s spent working on it. “I couldn’t really pinpoint what I was trying to do with the tape until I realised it’s me basically exploring all the different elements that I can explore with myself musically. Because I was inspired by so many genres like grime, trap or boom bap it was so evident in my music and it’s something I only noticed when I put together the EP that I’ve actually got a shitload of different sounds on this,” says deKiller’Clown

    Releasing the project towards the end of September the lead single ‘Vodka’ is currently getting the video treatment. With an eye for cinematography deKiller’Clown is hoping this will be the first of many to accompany the release. “I wanna do as many videos as I can for the tape because I have different ideas for how I want to display the songs visually,” deKiller’Clown muses.

    Drawing inspirations from across the hip hop spectrum and beyond deKiller’Clown hopes his music inspires others to not feel restricted in their self-expression. “Hopefully I can inspire other people to make music too. I just wanted people to not really feel like as a rapper you need to stick to rap, you need to stick to boom bap or you need to stick to trap. I just felt like music is an art that needs to be explored.”