Written by: Boitumelo Molamu, Images: courtesy of MAMAKASHAKA

Feature image: courtesy of @gee_msft 

Feel Good Series and Pantone Sundays, events curated by the company MAMAKASHAKA, have become staples on the Joburg party scene. And now they are expanding to Cape Town. Feel Good Series launched in Joburg in 2017 as a live performance event with the ideology of shining the light on up-and-coming and alternative musicians. Feel Good Series has hosted artists such as MoneyBadoo (Left), Muzi and Ricky Tyler (Middle).

A year later, MAMAKASHAKA introduced another in-house event called Pantone Sundays, a colour-themed fashion event. Intending to celebrate contemporary African fashion and style, Pantone Sundays has not only hosted some of the most stylish people in the country but has also opened events where local brands can pop in and also occasionally collaborate with them.

We caught up with Nandi Dlepu, the founder of MAMAKASHAKA, to chat about these events and the business she’s grown over the past six years.

“I LOVE MUSIC MORE THAN JUST THE CONSUMPTION OF IT, AND I WANTED A WAY TO CONTRIBUTE TO IT”

How would you introduce yourself to someone who has never met you?

First, hiii! (laughs). I’m Nandi, I’m an entrepreneur and a mother, the business owner of MAMAKASHAKA. I usually just introduce myself using those two nouns, simply because a lot of my life’s energy is split between those two, trying to be the best parent and the best in my business.

MAMAKASHAKA is responsible for some of the best events in Joburg. Tell us how MAMAKASHAKA came about and what exactly it is.

Funnily enough, MAMAKASHAKA, started as a nickname I got in high school, I was going through a Black Consciousness phase at the time, and my friends would tease me and call me ‘Mama ka Shaka’ (Shaka’s mother).Before starting the business, I used to run an event called The Weekend Social with five other women, while we all had our nine-to-fives. Ever since we curated the first one, I was bitten by the eventing bug. I always felt fulfilled by the events we’d host, and although I loved my job at the time, the fulfilment was not the same. I then started MAKASHAKA.

For the last six years, we’ve operated as a studio that runs in two parts, one being our brands such as Feel Good Series, Pantone Sundays and Bloom, and the other being our agency, which is more client service.

The events you just mentioned – Feel Good Series, Pantone Sundays and Bloom – are some of the best out there. How did they all come about?

When I was deciding the “why” of the business, I wanted to inspire, empower and entertain. I was also very specific about “where”, which was arts, culture and lifestyle. They are our brands, so they are all based on personal interests and passions.

For starters, I love fashion, and I’m very passionate about the fashion industry and seeing it grow – that’s where Pantone Sundays started. It’s a colour-themed fashion event, and as much as it is fun to dress in all the colour themes, it’s also a space where we celebrate and showcase local brands; we even collaborate and have them pop up at the events, furthermore introducing them to our community.

Then we have the Feel Good Series; you need to understand, I love music more than just the consumption of it, and I wanted a way to contribute to it. I thought long and hard about it and figured all over the world there are always platforms for the big artists but not enough for those coming up. I wanted to create that platform for the up-and-coming, and I also wanted it to force me to search for those artists. Lastly, you have Bloom, which is our oldest platform. This is our platform, created by creative women for creative women, and the intention is to empower and nurture one another. It was a platform that was meant to feed and  celebrate a creative woman.

I think it’s safe to say that your brands have contributed immensely to attracting some of your clients, such as Archive, Shelflife and Nike. Besides your work speaking for itself, how have you also been able to build and nurture relationships with those clients?

We’ve built the business by believing in ourselves and the work we put out. Our work does speak for itself because we’ve had clients say, “Could you do something similar to Pantone Sundays?” Clients usually do reference from our events, and how we usually keep those relationships is by putting out what they expect and beyond; trust also makes those relationships, and this also applies to the brands we work with for our brands.

I’ve had the pleasure of attending one of your events, and I can distinctly remember the feeling of creativity, safety, fun and care evident throughout the event. Is that intentional?

Very much! What people usually don’t pay attention to or perhaps miss is everyone and everything else involved, from the security to the well-staffed bar to the project manager. I never want the success of the event to be based on whether people see me or not, because there is a whole team behind this.

With about six years of you doing events, from pre- COVID days, during and post-COVID, what have you learnt so far, and what do you think might be the next era of events?

I learnt that you’ve got to start with “why” in marketing, and it might sound clichéd, but because all our properties have a strong why, when COVID started, we didn’t pack it up but asked ourselves how we could communicate our why beyond gathering in person.

Then, if we are going to talk about the future, I think we are going to be more innovative. We are going to have to consider the relationships between different things, to create more integrated and immersive experiences; just having someone perform is going to get vanilla at some point. We need to look at the things available and see how we can make it work.

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The legendary group TKZee will be performing on stage.  Riky Rick and Shane Eagle will also be performing. Twin duo DJ outfit Major League together with new school Sliqe, popular radio hosts Loyd, Ms Cosmo and JNR da Rocka to manage the DJ front. Other DJ’s include Joey Drumz, Chucktailored, VJ Jonno, and Funky Soul.

This event will be taking place on Saturday, 3^rd December 2016 at Taboo in Sandton, Stay Fresh Saturday promises the ultimate summer celebration for all those in attendance. It starts at 3pm and ends at 2am. Tickets are available at Computicket.

The post Stay Fresh Saturday appeared first on HYPE Magazine.

The artists who performed really went in hard, they vibed with the crowd and had so much energy, all of them gave the audience 100% artistry. Kwesta performed with Mdu and he took us back to the years when we would sing out loud to his songs.

Although the weather started getting bad and it rained so hard, that didn’t stop the people from partying. People were dancing in the rain and singing out loud”I got the keys, keys’ keys” and “Cut it, cut it”. The rain did not stop the vibe.

The crowd went wild when K.O performed the track ‘Son of a Gun’ and everybody couldn’t stop cheering him on and when Riky Rick performed ‘Sidlukotini’, man oh man, people starting getting turnt!

Maftown Heights 2016 was a memorable experience and a vibe that turned people into party animals in the rain, dawg!

Written by @sasamotale

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On April 3rd, Kool Out Concepts will be hosting the Canadian band BadBadNotGood. The band consists of a trio (Matthew,Chester and Alex) who are known for their interpretations of hip hop tracks and their collaborations with hip hop acts such as Tyler, The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt,Danny Brown, Frank Ocean, and RZA among many.

The band released their first successful EP BBNG in June 2011 and later hit a landmark with their compositions on BBNG2 in 2012. BBNG is known for infusing jazz, hip hop, punk, and dance music into their live performances. They have performed around the world from Coachella to Glastonbury and after releasing their debut studio album III in 2014, the band the collaborated with Ghostface Killah on ‘Sour Soul’.

Peep below for more info on the event:

Venue: The Good Luck Bar
The Sheds, 1 Fox Street, Marshalltown
Date: Sunday, April 3rd 2pm – 10pm

Ticket Prices:

Early Bird (First 100) – R100

Pre-sold – R150

Door – R200

Facebook Event Page: Koolin In The City Presents: BadBadNotGood

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Pioneers in unconventional parties and experiential endeavours, and out-of-the-box marketing, this year they have upped the anti with a look book, photographed by former adidas collaborator Anthonoy Bila, as well at a spirited promo video that you can watch below.

This year’s line-up includes Khuli Chana, Da L.e.s, Milkshake, Speedsta, Julian Gomez, Euphonic and more. Tickets are currently available at webtickets.

The post Watch the #GenesisAllBlack 2016 Promo – The Impossible Dream appeared first on HYPE Magazine.

The biggest hip hop gathering in Africa is back again celebrating its 10th year in the game. A movement that began with the aim of celebrating hip hop under a mutual respect for the culture has now been pushing the boundaries of hip hop love for a decade. On Wednesday the 27th of April Newtown will commemorate Freedom Day with thousands of youth celebrating hip hop culture in the form of dance, DJing, graffiti, emceeing, beatboxing and skateboarding.

This year three surprise international hip hop acts are set to grace the BackToTheCity stage.And of course this being its 10th year in the game, the theme this year is 10th Year Celebration – Family Reunion.

Tickets are now available for R150 Standard and R350 Presidential at all Nutickets outlets nationwide, click here to buy yours now!

Head over to www.backtothecityfestival.com for more info.

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SA hip hop definitely took the spotlight this weekend at the 15 Metro FM Music Awards, when Emtee and Fifi Copper each bagged the most awards of the night. Emtee won awards for Best Remix (Roll Up Re-Up),Best Hip Hop Album (Avery,) Best Music Video (Roll Up) and the Listener’s Choice Award. That meant that the ‘Roll Up’ hit-maker walked away with about 400k for the night, while Fifi scooped an impressive 300k for her 3 awards (Best Newcomer, Best Produced Album and Best Female Album).

Cassper took Best Male Album for Refiloe and AKA took home that Best Hit Single for ‘The Baddest’, as well as Best Collaboration.

Peep the rest of the winners below:

SONG OF THE YEAR

Nathi – Nomvula

BEST MALE ALBUM

Cassper Nyovest – Refiloe

BEST AFRICAN POP ALBUM

Nathi – Buyelekhaya

BEST COMPILATION ALBUM

999 music – Summer Ya Di Summer

BEST DANCE ALBUM

Prince Kaybee – Better Days

BEST FEMALE ALBUM

Fifi Cooper – 20FIFI

BEST DUO OR GROUP ALBUM

DBN Nyts – Believe

BEST HIT SINGLE

AKA ft Burnaboy, Khuli Chana, Yanga – Baddest

BEST MUSIC VIDEO

Emtee – Roll Up

BEST HIP HOP ALBUM

Emtee – Avery

BEST URBAN JAZZ ALBUM

Nomfundo Xaluva – From now on

BEST KWAITO ALBUM

DJ Bongz – Game Changer

BEST NEW ARTIST

Fifi Cooper – 20FiFi

BEST R&B SINGLE

Cici – Runaway

BEST REMIX

Emtee – Roll Up Re-Up

BEST URBAN GOSPEL ALBUM

Worship House – True Worship 2015 (Live)

BEST COLLABORATION

AKA ft Burna Boy, Khuli Chana & Yanga – Baddest

BEST PRODUCED ALBUM

Fifi Cooper – 20FiFi

BEST STYLED ALBUM

Cici – Runaway

LISTENER’S CHOICE AWARD

Emtee

ONE AFRICA AWARD

Burna Boy

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Arthur Mafokate

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Nicki Minaj is set to bring her Pinkprint tour to her South African fans, with three unmissable shows in Johannesburg (Ticketpro Dome) on Thursday 17 March, Durban (Moses Mabhida Stadium) on Sunday 20 March and Cape Town (Grand Arena, Grand West) on Tuesday 22 March. Although she was due to perform in SA in 2014 at the Tribe One Festival along with J Cole, Kind Ink & Macklemore, but the event got cancelled. Tickets are said to go on sale from 9am tomorrow at www.ticketpro.co.za and selected Edgars retail stores nationally with prices ranging from R490.

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On the 29th of January GALXBOY Records will be hosting their 2nd Freestyle Fridays showcase. An event that allows upcoming rappers to grab the mic and freestyle. The event will be taking place at the GALXBOY store in Hatfield CapCity and you can send your submission videos (15s instagram/30 sec Facebook) for selection and tag @GALXBOY_SA or @QUEZPERU (Dumisani Mahlangu) to take part, as the best contestants will then be selected to feature on the 2nd edition of the GALXBOY Freestyle Fridays.

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Yannick Ilunga, aka Petite Noir is set to play his very first South African Show on the 6th of Feb in Cape Town at the upcoming CTEMF (Cape Town Electronic Music Festival) event. Petite Noir is amongst many on the line-up which includes the likes of Okmalumkoolkat, Sibot & Toyota, Driemanskap and many more. The singer-songwriter is one of SA’s best export and if you ask us, this performance is long over do. Checkout the full line up below:

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Javas Skolo and Kitso kick-start the new year by tackling down everything hip hop culture in SA. HYPE editor Fred Kayembe makes 2016’s first guest appearance on the show. The Podcast is back & contains intriguing discussions on the current standings of SA hip hop culture. Listen to the Podcast right below.

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If you haven’t already caught on, Reason and Kwesta are shutting down Huntersfield Stadium this Christmas eve. The kings of K1 are set on throwing an insane xmas eve party in their home town of Katlehong. This event could easily be one for the history books as the line up itself is turn’t, with a heavyweight line-up of DJs and artists. Check it out for yourself below.

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