A fascinating mix of poetry and music, Rampolokeng's sharp writing entertains and provokes in equal measure
To the uninitiated (such as myself, a few minutes before starting my research for this review), this album has a few surprises. Lesego Rampolokeng is not a singer, but a renowned South African performance poet, and the Kalahari Surfers are not his backing band. Theyre not even a band at all. They are a fictional band, according to their creator Warrick Sony, who uses the name as a stage name for his solo projects which have a constantly changing roster of musicians. All of this is probably well-known to any South African readers or any poetry aficionados out there, but before I knew this, I found the album difficult to get along with. Poetry and music have had a long association, with musicians like Bob Dylan blurring the line between poet and lyricist, and poets such as Linton Kwesi Johnson and Benjamin Zephaniah all having released albums of poetry and music, The lyrics were interesting but musically I was lost. Now knowing what I know, the album begins to take shape. Rampolokengs singing is non-existent, really. He talk-sings, because the emphasis is the spoken word content which is extremely powerful and potent, while Sonys backing instrumentation is sparse and harsh, which serves as suitable accompaniment to Rampolokengs hard-hitting poetry.
The words for the album were taken from two collections of Rampolokengs poetry entitled Horns for Hondo and Talking Rain, published in 1990 and 1993 respectively. Sonys music is very unusual and memorable, but it is more or less just a vessel for the delivery of Rampolokengs poetry. The opening track gives you a good idea of wat Rampolokengs poetry is like. It speaks of the brutality and violence inherent in the apartheid system, with verses such as no one can negotiate, when their words amputate/I can only dance to the beat of progressive hands, no song can move me if its meant to break my knee as well as they came in the heat of rum, to freeze the beat of my drum/oh people take note, I wasnt allowed to vote they spoke in the gun & rifle tone, I answered in the language of stone. The last part deliberately evokes David and Goliath (which the poem mentions), but also tells the story of how Rampolokeng managed to find his voice and use his creative talents as resistance and as a method to fight apartheid.
The title track mixes anti-colonialism with iconoclasm in a very droll manner at times. Looking through the perspective of the Christian morality imposed on South Africans by the British and other colonial settlers from across Europe, Rampolokeng says that black tits and bums of a nation of strippers & exhibitionists made Jesus die of masturbation which at once mocks the hypocritical way Africans were viewed by Western colonialists, and also mocks the religious hysteria and moral superiority. Its all that combined in one very funny verse. This provocative streak makes itself present on most of the songs, often crouched in a darkly humorous irony. Rapmaster contains the line I only shoot the British with bullets that are English which I think highlights this tendency in his writing very well, as he mocks the British sense of moral superiority while also pointing to the fact that Britain under Margaret Thatcher supported apartheid South Africa, as well as to the fact that Britain has one of the largest arms exporting industries in the world.
I have not spoken much about Sonys music as the Kalahari Surfers, and while the music is good, often moody and synth-led, its firmly taking a backseat to Rampolokengs superlative poetry. Poetry can have an image as being old-fashioned and stuffy, something boring you had to learn at school that bears no relevance to the real world. Rampolokengs work shatters that ill-conceived notion. In Rampolokengs hands, poetry becomes vital, funny, caustic, shocking, compelling, and commanding. It's hard not to listen to this with a wry smile on ones face as Rampolokengs satirical yet righteously angry gaze takes aim at many of the worlds injustices, all with a firm anti-colonialist and anti-capitalist lens influenced by the Black Consciousness movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The album is also worth your time because the poems gain so much from Sonys apt backing tracks but also from Rampolokengs reading of the pieces. He may not sing, but he captures a real rhythm and flow thats compelling to listen to. As such, the album is much more than the sum of its parts. - From "200 World Albums" list
5022769690808
LRSCD1
Shifty Music, 1993
SOUTH AFRICA
Good condition
C08
(X)
