Sjava wasn't impressed by 'English' cyphers for Sway & tweeps are touched!
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Image: Oupa Bopape
While many hip-hop lovers are still high over the "amazing" cyphers for Sway at the Castle Light Unlocks concert, Sjava touched a couple of nerves when he expressed his disappointment at the lack of vernac representation on that stage.
Rappers such as A-Reece, Rouge and Moozlie impressed US hip-hop head and radio presenter Sway Calloway when they dropped bar after bar during an improvised freestyle cyclical rapping session aka cypher.
But Sjava asked where their native languages were and why they only used English? He further questioned why not one SA rapper bothered rapping in vernac.
"So vele at that Meek show yesterday there was not even one rapper that raps in a South African Language at the Sway cyphers," he tweeted.
So vele at that Meek show yesterday there was not even one rapper that raps in a South African Language at the Sway cyphers
— Sjava indlalifa (@Sjava_atm) June 18, 2019
Sjava explained that he was not taking anything away from how good the rappers that represented were. He said that he just wanted to highlight that at least one rapper could have been authentic enough to impress in their vernacular.
ibambe lapho qhathizwe i was not critisizing english rappers ngikhala ngokuthi kungabi khonarapoers abasebinzisa ulimi noma olulodwa lase Ningizimu Africa https://t.co/Ja3KL7j8Wy
— Sjava indlalifa (@Sjava_atm) June 19, 2019
it is deep what do you mean its not that deep??? Its very deep its deeper than you think actually https://t.co/JM2jgmJYJX
— Sjava indlalifa (@Sjava_atm) June 19, 2019
Hip-hop fans had different reactions to Sjava's question.
While some seemed to agree with the rapper and said there should have been at least one rapper who represented Mzansi languages, others thought he was just being "unnecessarily woke".
"There's nothing wrong with rapping in English, your tweet is in English," one tweep said.
Here are some of the reactions.
@Sjava_atm should calm TF down. ..he can rap in zulu all he wants and it's cool but that doesn't give him a right to question other people's art, freedom of choice nikka. .we all do what we wanna do, #U_HearD? 🚮
— #Swollen_Voices (@neo_matete) June 19, 2019
We always trying to sound American and deny it..... pic.twitter.com/oaTBBXcCYY
— JnzBeats™ (@JnzBeats) June 18, 2019
The so called hip hop heads of this country are putting Sjava on blast for insinuating about a lot that’s wrong with rapping in a foreign language 98% of the time. Whether you like it or not he was right!!!
— Let’s talk about Six, Baby (@_Dubani) June 19, 2019
Kwakufuneka wena jama . People don't know that African music and language is blowing internationally . pic.twitter.com/K6OUMjDPGa
— The Duela (@The_Duela) June 18, 2019
There's nothing wrong with rapping in English , why does everything have to be an issue in this country 🤷♂️
— Kopano Gafane (@h2o_aristocrat3) June 18, 2019
So Sway was supposed to guess the bars you spat in Vernac?🤷🏼♂️..dude would have caught only a few of them pic.twitter.com/PdWKHIZmZY
— Kagiso Martin (@KagisoMartin8) June 19, 2019
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Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.