Klutch Krew revs up femcees' profile

03 March 2016 - 02:39 By Azizzar Mosupi

South Africa finally has its first all-female rap crew: Klutch Kollective.The brainchild of singer and rapper Toya Delazy, the crew comprises Vuzu's The Hustle contestants DK and Genius, actress and rapper Fiah and Delazy herself.The slang word "klutch" means cool.Said Delazy: "For gears to change, for things to move faster or slower, you need the clutch. So we are setting the pace for where hip-hop should be headed."Klutch Kollective has already released a song, Back To The Roots, which is available for free download for 24 hours and can be streamed on the group's SoundCloud page.Delazy, whose real name is Latoya Buthelezi, said: " I believe Klutch is on par, if not better than, some of our male counterparts ."Klutch Kollective said the crew was formed after she attended the South African Hip-Hop awards and found "a lot of femcees weren't represented" .Hip-hop is on the rise in the country as was evidenced this past weekend when rappers made off with many of the most coveted awards at the 15th annual Metro FM Music Awards.Said Delazy: "Hip-hop is a worldwide thing and it's become commercialised and finally, [South African hip-hop] has come into its own."At the same time, femcees, as female rappers are known, are also seen coming up. Last year, AKA released a remix of his smash-hit Baddest featuring femcees Nomoozlie, Rouge, Gigi Lamayne and Fifi Cooper. The rapper himself was only heard on the hook of the song, which took the award for the best collaboration at the ceremony.Delazy disputed the claim that women had only entered the South African hip-hop scene recently, saying: "It's not that they haven't been in the industry, they just haven't been getting recognised."..

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