Greetings...this is the continuation of the time and words the Juice shared with OutSpoken, where he talked about his up-coming project, no love for the 'system' and how an individual can make the most of the culture...
We left off were OutSpoken said he realised he had nothing...
OS: Real talk, when I was in the first grade, I attended three lessons, and at that moment I didn't like school. Really. You know, when you question stuff and instead of answers all you get is questions.
I had a perception, if I say spell look and you say L-U-K-E. You are correct in a way because that's what you are thinking, and that actually happened to me in my childhood. Sometimes different perceptions
can cause conflicts. It happens in religion, you know? I even questioned religion, because I felt condemned by it. I'd get all the swear words out of my vocabulary so when I go to church I'm clean. And when
in church I'd see the fakeness. I felt like an outcast because of all the questions I had. I went through life thinking there's got to be something else better than what we call the system. I loved nature, I used to host
nature walks when I was a kid. If you want to talk about nature, I know nature. The same area raishandiswa nemapostori, that's the area I used to go to for nature walks with a bunch of my friends to look at birds,
snakes and everything you find in there. My first love was drawing, then I liked words. I wrote a poem once and my teacher didn't think I was capable of writing it. It was both an insult and a compliment. While in high school I met O.P. and we formed
a crew called the Conspirator Squad on a Roman tip. We'd spend time in O.P.'s home studio producing and spitting here and there, battling, having fun and being ignorant. My main agenda with hip-hop was getting money and
women, done. But in doing all of this I felt there was something missing, I thought there's got to be more to life than this.
What would you prefer, the mic or production?
OS: It would have to be production. Sometimes you want to just express yourself, but words aren't enough. Sound definitely helps, that's one of the reasons why I started a live band. Sometimes sound is the most effective
way and when you create sound you are like, let me see if I can communicate my feeling to someone playing an instrument so they can interpret that feeling back to me. So I don't see myself rhyming in eight years, I would be producing.
I find it hard to be rhyming on a scale of putting out projects regularly. I find it hard to understand artists who claim to be expressive and they keep releasing stuff that's similar to their last project, there's no progress. That's why
I give kudos to artists like Mos Def, you grow and have people grow with you. Not you having to dumb down your material so to stay relevant, kutamba mahumbwe kuti vana vakufarire. People don't grasp how they can fully utilise
the culture. I use hip-hop to teach, that's the most important job I get through hip-hop, workshops in which I teach kids how they can express themselves. And I would pick workshops over performing for the simple fact that I can
give you sixteen bars and an explanation, shedding light on the intent rather than the means.
The mistake I've been making is limiting individuals , you included, that they are just about the music, when in fact there are a lot of facets to the artist.
OS: Yes, because the music is but a vehicle to something bigger, it doesn't play a major role, there's a lot more to my life than just the music. It's because of hip-hop I realised the significance. Don't be on a tip
' I want to be the hottest artist in the streets ', you are not going to be hot for long. Instead, do something of worth, change someone's life or yours while you are at it. I feel the 'media' misses the point because they
focus on the competitive side of the culture, ' who's hot, who's on top and swag', I hate the term swag. The focus is no longer on what you are doing or saying, but rather on what you look like.
So you think our generation is focussed on physical appearance?
OS: More like artificial things, which sucks, you get pigeon-holed. I don't want to be known as your average hip-hop artist. The forthcoming album is not your average hip-hop, not to say it's better than your
average hip-hop. The tag that comes with that is baggy sagging, no, skiny sagging jeans and all kinds of luminous colours, man! I'm not into that.
There's quite a solid relationship amongst you, Upmost and Comrade Fatso?
OS: We've been friends since 1999. I was producing Up's material and enjoying his money. We used to spend his money, quote me on that. We formed a group called the Project Soldiers as a way to get around
Up paying for studio time, by doing group and solo work. A couple of studio sessions and computer crashes we became close friends. What further cemented our friendship was our performance at Ms Harare Jnr
pageant show. That was our worst performance ever, it was Up's first time on stage. This was when the urban grooves movement was at it's peak, and a lot of the prominent urban groovers right now were part of the crowd,
so we got on stage and we got no love from the crowd, they were stone-faced much to my surprise because I really thought the music we presented was great. Apart from questioning what we were doing, we became a tight
unit after going through the worst together, we've been cool ever since.
There was this one time, I'm at home and I check out Fatso on TV and he's talking about the Ghetto Projects and the work they were doing at the Book Cafe in 2005 and how they were the best...
I'm thinking to myself, 'No, these guys aren't the best', then I attended the poetry slams they had going on, I didn't win the first one, but won the ones after that. I was bullying participants on the poetry scene. That's how I met Fatso and
two years later we formed the organisation.
Your tours..,how have your experiences been and how have the people been responding to your sound?
OS: Learning, hustling and growing. Tours set you up for the bittersweet. People think, 'Oh man, fifteen thousand making up the crowd',it's not always like that, sometimes it's twenty, a hundred to a thousand. Feedback is always
cool, you can perform for two thousand people and can't connect with them, to me, you haven't done your job. If a person comes up to you after your performance commenting on what you just said, then you've done your job.
It comes down to the type of artist I am, it's not about accolades, just that aspect of connecting and building. In the end, it's really not about me, but about what I leave behind. I actually hate the fact that I was performing in Zimbabwe
and I went on tour to the U.S. and Europe and then suddenly it's like I drank some magic juice that bettered my rhyming skills. It's the same verses I've been spitting while here. It's that superficial love that I don't like. If you are going to
like my verses, like them irregardless of where they have taken me. I know a bunch of emcees that I look up to that are emcees' emcees, if these cats would be on tour, the world has no idea. It goes back to impact and content.
Let's say you've exhausted hip-hop as a medium, what would you turn to next to maintain your movement?
OS: The establishment of my youth centre. It's a wholistic approach, looking at mediums that are internalised by individuals. Ranging from health, food, literature and music. Creating an output of tangible products and skills like farming
writing, cooking and painting. It will be a hub of creativity and have products which can be marketed to create an industry.
What's the worst criticism you have ever received?
OS: None, not to say there heven't been any, but they weren't bad. When I write, I'm aware of what I am saying. Sometimes I feel like this may come across this way or that. If someone understands, I understand, and if you don't understand
completely, I still understand, I guess it's not for you. People's expectations of me mess it up for both me and them. I see you perform on stage and I'm like ' Seb, hey, mahwani!'.I can't then come to you on some 'I need an album from you
that sounds a certain way', that's not right, I think it's better I let you be yourself. Don't expect to see OutSpoken the emcee or the poet when you come to my live shows. Expext the unexpected. Cats expect me to be the vanguard of hip-hop
like ' yo respect the pillars...' No man, let me be me.
Don't you want the responsibiltiy?
OS: No...my responsibility is being real to the art and to myself. My understanding of the art through me not an institution. When I don't do buddy-buddy hook-ups with fellow artists, it's not hate. It's me on my hustle at the end of the
day. ' Yo, how can we make it in the industry?', I haven't made it in the industry yet, what industry, what are your goals? Those expectations kill how you can fully utilize an individual's self-worth. I can gain from you if I let you be you than
come to you looking for me in you.
What do you think this industry needs to better it? A friend of mine said it needs unity.
OS: No, we don't need anything.
We need contribution.
OS: Yes, do what you can to the best of your ability. Don't expect hand-outs. Dude, when we were kicking it back in the day, we didn't have all these social and music platforms to reach out to people and do collaborations. And yet,
you still find cats complaining. I used to walk from Mazowe to Upmost's house and not find him there because we didn't have cellphones. It's not like we had studio appointments, it was just to grind ideas. True story. People can't talk about
sacrificing when they don't know an individual's story. You weren't there when I was hungry. These youngsters are spoilt, you know, they have the world in their fingers. They don't have to go out there to achieve something, it's all on-line.
If you don't struggle as much, your victory or success might not be as sweet. Either you can be hot by constantly churning out mixtapes, or put out three tracks that are really tight. Look at Kingpinn and the effect he has on the industry.
His career and life were perfect, he had ups and downs which made him the blueprint for an emcee. I'm not saying be like him, his consistency and dedication should be an example to everyone interested in emceeing. Do that work.
Another thing, people always hit me up on facebook asking me to check their stuff out. Why should I listen to your stuff? Why should I play a factor in your career? No one ever listened to my music. I didn't have anything to give to people to listen to.
Check, we are having this interview but I do not have a project out as yet. I thank existence for giving me time to become myself. I thank Dilani for turning me and my brother down when we showed up at his studio, well because we were drunk. I thank the PCs that crashed
otherwise I would really have been a different artist. Honestly, I don't look for accolades or recognition, it's just me, my insecurities and paranoia.
What effect do you want your soon to be released projects to have on the listener?
OS: Question, think and don't be a yes or no-man. Make your decision after a thought process. Don't just accept stuff, because music gets played on radio or not it does not mean it's bad or good. I would also like artists to challenge
themselves. I want to go to a Winky D show and not hear the same song remixed eighteen times. I want to hear Stunner on a track were he is not bragging. No disrespect to these dudes, I want that growth, hopefully they can say the
same thing about me, not insult, but critically analyze. Buy my album, it's going to be a double CD with twenty five tracks. Get it, and shut-up after you get it. Critique, hate on it, while you do that, I've got time to grow and move on to something
else. It's titled Uncool and Overrated.
This is the first part in a two part series article about the musician that only a few do not recognize in Zim's Hip-hop scene.
OutSpoken takes time out to sit down with us and talk about where he is musically, his yet-to-drop projects,
establishing his identity and ironing out the misconceptions.
What beats are playing now? Who are you listening to?
OutSpoken: I got Shabazz - Palaces, it's crazy, the soundscape is crazy. I'm glad I found it after recording my album with the band.
I've been looking for that feel, a dirty atmosphere, but feel more than anything. Not looking for that clean easy to master
digital sound, but having a feel were a drum is drowning or suffocating, that feel, you know.
Is that the sound you experimented with for your project?
OS: The thing with me, it was a combination of the sound and exploring the voice as an extended instrument. Unoziva takakura kumaraini kwedu, kumaopen fields
kuine mapostori and the way they executed their vocals. You can't compare that to a Mariah Carey song. The feels are different, Mariah's got that clean,
synthetic and polished sound. But the level of passion that african chants holds is unique. You can't find that anywhere else, it can't be taught, It's an organic feel.
Engineers and critics might say it needs some re-arranging or mastering, but I think the chants are meant to sound that way.
I was discussing the same thing with a friend, that a lot of music coming out is a bit too dependant on studio aid and the vocals are revolving around vocal
processing softwares. When the time comes to perform the vocals live you can't pull them off as you did on the recorded material. A crystal-clear and digital
sound does not mean the music is quality.
OS: Back in the day when I was producing with O.P. and the team, I always liked that unmastered feel, that grimeyness, that's how life is. Life isn't crisp or clear-cut,
you'll find shady and sweaty areas. Picture this, most music videos do make-up, so you are not oily and you have 'an even skin tone', but when you are in the club,
that's not what you actually look like. In a way it's a lie when you take away the reality that can be captured by the art.
So would you agree that music imitates life and vice versa?
OS: Yes..., I think for me the project I was working on was my life in rhyme-form. The emotions, the confusion with in the emotions as well. The expressions you'll
find with in the music isn't always clear, because that's how I'm like in real life. It's not like I go to pen and paper and my therapy succeeds. Sometimes you put
it down and you look at it and it confuses you, but it's an outlet, you either dwell on it or move on. A lot of tracks on the album are like that, it's like if people
don't understand me they won't understand the music.
What if they want to understand you without the help of your music?
OS: It's hard to understand me, it's easier to understand the music because I was not the only factor in it. Mapenzi anga ari paproject anga akafanana, they were in tune.
( That's the band along with Mono.) When I say mapenzi, I mean people who were willing to experiment and do crazy stuff. I was allowed to express myself
one hundred percent OutSpoken and the Essence. That's why it took too long.
What topics are you exploring on the album? Can I expect some abstract?
OS: You know what this was? The project was both love and conflict and love in conflict, and a spiritual journey. More than anything, I was just trying to question
my identity. If you say zimbabwean, african, shona, ancestry or if you say Soko-Mrewa, what are you saying? The way we grew up and the way our
great-grand parents grew up is totally different. There's that gap in the knowledge, there was a shift from what was important when we were colonized and getting
other ideas put on us. And that's partly why I chose for the sound not to be clean even though I used modern instrumentation. It's still the same search for my essence
in a modern setting. Even if you listen to some of the tracks, it's not modern nor traditional, it's in-between. That was the idea. There aren't any abstract topics in
particular, though I do some abstract on other projects, so to keep you in a certain state. Just be in this realm, try and understand this feel.
Are there other projects apart from the one you are with the Essence?
OS: I did an EP with guys from Denmark, It's got a different vibe altogether. It's not heavy, it's more light-hearted, but it's still positive and uplifting because I wasn't
dealing with my demons. It is what I would say when I put my mic down. It's when you get branded and stereotyped and people think you live your life
a certain way. I don't drink, but I can have a good time in the club. I'm for beautiful women and all but keeping it clean and posistive, having fun.
Vanozokuwona urimo wonzwa.."Ko nhingi...what about keeping it real?" I am keeping it real, I speak on suffering and torment and a whole bunch of stuff,
people forget that whenever we cry out for help, its because we want to be happy. People have this misconception, "you represent this demograph, so you can
not be collecting sneakers." I say NO.., I love sneakers. I am not materialistic just because I collect sneakers.
Besides we were placed on earth to enjoy what it has to offer, right?
OS: Yes. critics will say " look at the exploitation." As long as your heart and spirit are in the right place then aye...do it man..!
What made you realise you had something? There's a turning point we all reach that makes us realise and grasp our purpose.
OS: I think I realised I had nothing...
look out for part two.
After having seen what CARL JOSHUA NCUBE has achieved we have decided to honour him with a spot on this page as the first Zimbabwean solo comedy act to go on a world tour , well done carl and continue to fly our flag high
