Four SA Underground Mixtapes To Look Forward To In 2015

1. High $chool Dreams - Ill Scripts
Mack Records 

They've been active in the West Coast underground scene since 2012, and after diss songs, a hiatus, chart-toppers, winning second place in their high school talent show, South African remakes, street-cred, and whatever else goes with the ISOE brand, a coined term which stands for: 'Ill Scripts Over Everything', the Saldanha-Bay based rap crew promises that their anticipated debut mixtape, 'High $chool Dreams' is nearing completion.

Let's hope that this year, will be the year it releases.


2. The Fresh Prince of Kimberley - Big Twist
Star Media Communications | Twistyle Muzik 

Following his debut 'Twistyle Mixtape' in 2012, Big Twist returns to the scene with his sophomore LP, 'The Fresh Prince of Kimberley'. An obvious play on words from the popular TV-show 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' which stared the young Will Smith, Twist sees himself reaching his hometown and reflecting it in it's very best in both the West Coast underground and Kimberley underground scenes.

The mixtape is scheduled for release March 2, 2015, through Star Media Communications, Twist's latest distributor, and is released under the artists' own recording label, Twistyle Muzik.

3. #ShalomaFuture - Shaloma Muzik
Independent | Shaloma Muzik Recordings

After a year long hiatus from the music scene, Shaloma Muzik aims to reach broader audiences and new markets with it's upcoming mixtape '#ShalomaFuture'.

While this would be the forth mixtape project from the label following it's two 'Shaloma Friday' and '#Shalomatober' series in 2013, and '50/50: The Vision', the debut mixtape by it's founder Tha Real U - #ShalomaFuture promises be unlike anything heard before from the label.

It claims to be the future of Hip-Hop and is taking on the massive Cape Town underground Hip-Hop scene with this release. Already in partnership with various local brands, namely Music Generation Apparel, a growing Cape Town's street wear brand - this mixtape is something not to be overlooked by the revolutionary label.

4. SWGCTY.tk Presents We Are The Underground - SWGCTY
Cape Vinyal Beats Mixtapes

The leaders in West Coast Hip-Hop music, SWGCTY (formerly Swag City) plans to take to the mixtape market as well by further promoting local content with the launch of it's new website, brand and interface.

With their former tagline, "We Support Local Music" - the website now seeks to uplift new and undiscovered artists, whilst providing quality free, underground downloads from across South Africa all on it's website, hence it's new slogan "We The Underground."

The line is more than just a slogan now, as it gives birth to the first self-compilation mixtape the West Coast has seen. It promises to deliver familiar favorites with the addition of new artists and sounds - blending the West Coast with a lot of the other music scenes left unheard.

While all songs are featured on the website as  "SwagCityXclusives" - this mixtape is surely iconic and every-way and a first to promtoting the underground in a unified way.

Twistyle Muzik: Back Out Of The Shell

Recently, Vredenburg-based underground label, Twistyle Muzik released three solid kasi-flava heatseekers. With Lazy Catz, an enthusiastic duo consisting of Young Fl!p and General, their song Kasi Lam, became the second of Twistyle's three new singles. In addition to this, new voices such as Sai and Thando were featured in the listening experience, probing one to think how much more will Twistyle bring to the scene in 2014?

This lead to the follow up Ezphambeneyo, produced by label founder, Big Twist. One would think another Lazy Cat release is in store, but no, this track sees solely General taking the scene. With 124 downloads so far on DataFileHost, this song succeeds Kasi Lam which stands on 53 downloads.

But downloads are just numbers right? What really matters is the music and the reason for it.
According to Twistyle Muzik "Ezphambeneyo was just a track [for] fun, we got more of those coming up."

While the label's artists aim to reach their own level of recognition, the first track of the latest trilogy saw Big Twist make a return with Jacob Zuma. Released on May 7th, the 2014 IEC South African National Election Day, Twist expresses his views of what it must feel like being the president. Currently the song has been downloaded 163 times, a follow up from his previous release Somewhere In The World released in October last year.

He intends to release new music every Saturday, a first for Twistyle Muzik. This is said to take place in July and could be a worthy cause for increasing the label's support.


In addition to this, he mentions an upcoming mixtape in mind, to drop next year. Twist extends this thought with the mention of a new distribution deal with a Kimberly-based scheme entitled, Superstar Media Communications.

The label is cleverly planning ahead in excelling in more than just one music scene. The West Coast underground Hip-Hop community has seen various works from this label and one notable name is it's unique conscious and visionary artist, EM-K.

The label assures that what it has in store from EM-K will be promising. Recently, Twist rejoined Twitter under the handle "BigTwist_KBY". We trust that releases will be announced as this is another step to the label increasing its Social Networking usage.

• Follow Big Twist on Twitter (@BigTwist_KBY)

Cape Town Students Killer At Hip-Hop Theme Song

The city of Cape Town, one of South Africa's biggest music scenes, with a growing number of popular Hip-Hop acts, a continual flow of EDM and a vibrant night-life, has seen some of the nation's top acts start from the bottom and work their way, stage by stage to the top.



As remarkable as this is, a recent fresh sound was discovered on the 10th of May 2014 at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology Open Day, an exhibition event introducing prospective students to the various courses on offer for their academic future.



Held at Bellville campus, one of these courses on display had a distinctive vibe around it, a sort of ambiance which seemed to excite those who passed by it. Known as Public Relations Management, a catchy brand name "InstaPR" was displayed instead in respect to their sleek theme and this accompanied a Hip-Hop song by three of the Cape's youngest artists. 

The track entitled as '#InstaPR2014 (Insta PR Song)' was downloaded more than 150 times on the very same day of premier. Louie B from Question Mark Movement, a rap group which made it's first big debut on the South Africa reality TV-show 'SA's Got Talent', collaborated with Tha Real U, a South-African-West-Coast based underground rapper from Shaloma Muzik. Additional vocals were provided by the Nambian-raised songstress Taffy Mwaza.

Their efforts in creating a song which could attract more-and-more future university students to study the course, proved to be useful. Their understanding of the course, the Public Relations field and university life, has made this record not only a popular hit with the students but is even said to be enjoyed by the dean of the course. 

So far the track has received mixed feedback, mainly positive, and is available on The SA Mark Hip-Hop music site, SwagCity and WapTrick.

Additional Links: 

• View Lyrics (RapGenius)
• Download 
• Facebook
• Twitter: @InstaPR2014
• Instagram