On the 5th of February 2014 former Buttabing Entertainment come back kid Kwesta Mr cool now known as the self proclaimed King of african rap (DAKAR) took to twitter to express his view about 5fm and their choice of music towards a rainbow nation youth. He felt that 140 characters where not enough to express his views and wrote an official open letter , this is not a racial rant but rather a outcry from a music and arts perspective. You tell me what you think
Dear SABC,
This is an open letter which elaborates on some of the much publicised
remarks I have shared with hundreds of thousands of fellow young South
Africans about the prevailing notion which is shared by many of them that the
only National Youth Radio station is not meeting its mandate and not living
up to it's promise, detailed in the profile pictured below: I would like to know
what is being done about this…
THE BLACK YOUTH OF SOUTH AFRICA ALSO WANT THE POWER OF 5FM
On Wednesday the 5th of February I addressed a matter I've been grappling with for the
longest time... I echoed the thoughts of many people and engaged in, a now much
publicised, debate with members of the 5FM music committee who generally agreed that
things needed to change at5FM but also wanted it to be acknowledged that things have
changed. With that being said one thing that still hasn't changed is the notion that 5FM is
a so-called "white station" and as a public broadcasting platform that is regrettable and
unacceptable, considering what this country has been through and given the youth's
responsibility to de-racialise our country, as well seek to create a single national identity
living up to the promise of the rainbow nation, which is still a myth in my opinion for
various reasons.
What I can say though is that there are people within 5FM who are fighting our battle on
our behalf and doing their utmost to help deliver programming that is more inclusive and
representative of the youth as a whole but what disappoints me is the sense I get that
there is a unhealthy and seemingly malicious force that is resisting change and thus
denying 5FM to black masses. We can't deny the problems we have with race relations
and they stay largely unresolved. Waiting for transformation is not going to get us
anywhere if we all don't have our shoulders to the wheel in a pre-emptive to bring about
integration.
I'm trying to bridge the racial divide as far as my music is concerned by giving the
township perspective to an audience that was either raised to fear the hood and it's black
people and at the same time to those of us grappling with the inferiority complex that
comes with knowing that we’ll have to find our place in a "white man's" world. My feeling
is that 5FM could do a lot more to lend itself to this cause by bringing young people from
all walks of life together and that's why I took to twitter to address the elephant in room.
The problem with twitter though is that you have a 140 characters with which to bring
your point across to an audience that might not get the full scope of your argument and
what is actually a relevant contribution to on going public discourse aimed at resolving
issues that hold our society back but are ignored because over-time the rate at which
change is happening desensitises us and we end-up accepting because we give-up the
fight for the greater good, can be turned it to something else quite spectacularly. This is
why I wanted to qualify my remarks with a full statement so people don’t dismiss the
concerns as a self serving attack on an institution which I feel has the power to change
this country and help us realise our African dream. From the bottom of my heart I hope
that we can find the strength within ourselves to nationalise the minds of the youth and
achieve the common goal of rebuilding our nation free from the bondage of the racial
divide, which is one of the haunting remnants of our painful past. That responsibility falls
squarely on the shoulders of our generation. There isn’t a nobler cause to serve and
together we need to get to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. To all the young
people of this country I say if we are honest with ourselves and critical of our shortcoming
then this change that we all want is not only possible but also it is with reach, in our
lifetime.
I would hate this to end up being miss-characterised as a misguided rant and I hope you
see the sincerity of my impassioned plea for the National Broadcaster to meet its mandate
specifically where youth radio programming is concerned. What I was aiming to do was to
show that as the only national youth radio station 5FM has an obligation to deliver radio
programming that "informs, educates, entertains and supports the public at large." The
public at large in this case means the masses, 79% of whom are black and generally of the
opinion that 5FM is a "white" radio station. It cannot be accepted that such a perception is
shared by the overwhelming majority of our young people, thus rendering the only youth
centred mass media platform an institution that effectively alienates itself from the
majority of our population because it doesn't represent the broader youth culture
adequately...
Where urban Hip-hop is concerned there is obvious disconnect with the public at large
because the play listing does not reflect what most young people are listening to for
various reasons and this results in a glaring colour divide that doesn’t sit well with me.
The truth is that is one of the many ways that our social disunity manifests itself. Black
and white people in South Africa generally lead parallel lives and there aren't enough
points of intersection. When the World Cup is over too many of us run back to our old
ways because that's what we know and are confortable with, unfortunately. You see it on
school playgrounds, university lawns the office cafeteria and anywhere else you look. The
fact that we are so divided is clear in our musical taste with few exceptions and this is why
the music that is not being played on 5FM has us black artists feeling overlooked even
though we represent to majority of the youth. What we'd like is some more representation
on this youth platform and the brand perception to change from what it currently is to
what it should be and that is the voice of South Africa Youth. I feel that if research on
tastes of the youth at large were done it would show that 5FM is inadvertently
misrepresenting the young people of South Africa to a certain extent and if this can be
addressed as a matter of urgency we’ll all bare witness to the true "Power of 5" as a
platform that has the free youth dancing to the same beat.
In my opinion the music committee does not consist of enough people who are passionate
about the advancement of our booming street culture and/or that have intimate
knowledge of the taste, styles and sounds growing in prominence and this deficiency
cripples 5FM which is the market leader in youth media but in this regard they lagging
behind and out of touch. What pains me is that this very same 5FM is very quick to
respond where there are white faces involved, where as Teargas is overlooked but a
Bittereinde will come from nowhere with a chart-topping hit that's not resonant with what's
really happening on the streets at large. To this I take exception because they all should
have a place on 5 because that is the variety we need to show off that famed diversity that
we sell our country on. I'll make an example with Jack Parow who released "Blou Bek,"
the first single off his new double album. It's has been play listed and I can almost
guarantee it will be making its way up the chart in the coming weeks while on the other
hand 5FM has only recently play listed iFani's Milli which has been the most played South
African Hip-hop track in the country for months now in what can only be described as a
delayed reaction to what the music loving youth are responding to. I doubt it'll make the
Top 40 chart but I guess it should be commended that iFani was not completely
overlooked right? I for one am not satisfied with this status quo and anyone with any
knowledge of what is happening on the streets would agree that they are simply being
ignored by our youth station. I know from personal experience that when Boomshakalaka
had already reached it's peak on various radio stations and long become the most
downloaded rap track in the country I still had to carry out the research myself and collate
data to prove to the music committee that the song was worth playing even though as I
was told that there was too much vernacular in the lyrics for the "5FM listener" to which I
responded so Afrikaans must be the only African language that is palatable to the "5FM
listener" because at the same time Jack Parow’s song was getting enviable airplay,
unjustly so considering how I was being snubbed, which begs the question who is this 5FM
listener? Of the things the 5FM listener could be is it thus inconceivable that he/she could
possibly be a young South African like me, from the hood like and black like me, amongst
other things? In the end I didn't give up and Boomshakalaka made the play list eventually
thanks to the people in the music committee who had to lobby for it... Although grateful I
was unhappy with the lengths I had to go to, to have my song played and I never got to
get over what I was subjected to because it persists to this day which prompted a change
in my attitude towards 5FM. I don't even sample them with the same singles that I send
to other radio stations hence I released High On Life and shot a video for it purely because
I knew Thul' Ujayive stood no change of playing on 5FM but when this effort proved to be
unsuccessful and I asked why I was told it wasn't catchy enough something I know is not
true because I have crowd tested my singles months before I released them and this just
showed me that the people who say that are not at my shows when people are singing
along to every word, they don't follow the comments on social media where people are
quoting my lyrics and evidently the young people my music appeals to are not the desired
5FM listener. I guess I just don’t get the message.
I’ve been thinking to myself for months now: why is it that I have to prove that my music
is popular by performing to thousands of responsive young people around the country and
spend thousands of Rands on music videos before my songs can break onto on 5FM's play
list when, they are supposed to be a "new music" station and introduce new sounds to
their listeners? I have no problem with going the extra mile for myself but when it's not
only me who is left dumb founded when considering what exactly it is that 5FM wants
knowing how much work artists like iFani, L-Tido, BlackLez and the likes are putting into
their craft I thought maybe it's time I speak on our behalf and show 5FM that we have a
significant following that are not happy with not hearing enough of our music on the only
national youth station.
On Wednesday morning I saw Cassper Nyovest tweeting about a struggle I know all too
well... How to get his song play listed on 5FM? His song, which has dance-floors filled
from Mafikeng to Cape Town and I thought maybe if I create enough noise around it
maybe someone, would take notice. I saw history repeating itself and realised that we
generally share the sentiment that 5FM doesn't acknowledge the work we're putting in,
outright. I addressed the facts and painted the true picture of what we experience and
people contributed their own experiences, which were all the same.
I felt that maybe if I could rally up my followers, who are always vocal about our common
interests, then maybe the forces of resistance within 5FM would have no choice but to
respond to the calls of our people. Later that night Cassper Nyovest's song was played on
5FM for the first time and I went to bed happier. What happened the next evening (6
February 2014) was completely unexpected. V-Entertainment covered the debate we had
on twitter and spoke to Cathrine Grenfell who was the one person who I know for sure was
instrumental in my singles Pump It & Flava getting play listed when my debut album came
out some 4-years ago. I'll be the first to admit that things at 5FM have changed a lot but
at the same-time the whole world has changed and it has changed faster than 5FM has. I
feel that if the music committee was in touch with the broader youth and was just as
passionate about South African Hip-hop as they are about indie-rock & EDM which
dominate the play list and chart unfairly so then they’d attract a wider audience...
The only other SABC youth radio station is TruFM in Bisho and it doesn't even have
coverage in the whole of the Eastern Cape. Metro FM is not a youth station, Ukhozi FM and
the likes are not youth stations either so as far as the SABC is concerned all we have is
5FM and although it's a commercial station it still needs to meet the mandate. 5FM can
no-longer be characterised as a “white station" that plays music for "white people & socalled
coconuts." As the only national YOUTH radio station it needs to be cognisant of it's
obligations to the youth of South Africa as a whole and play it's part in social integration
by fairly representing the views of the youth and serving to break the racial divide by
making more of an effort to reach out to the majority of young black people because they
have been largely overlooked and robbed of an inclusive platform that represents their
interests as well as those of other youth groups in an effort to create a more unified
national identity amongst the youth. We're almost 20-years into democracy and although
there's noticeable change, right now the Black Youth of South Africa want & need the
Power of 5FM but we’re left out in the cold and I just feel like it’s "either they don't know,
don't show, or don't care about what's going on in the hood…"
For these I reasons I can say that what is clear is that 5FM is failing to live up to it's brand
promise which is detailed in the profile pictured below, by marginalising the majority of our
diverse youth culture and although there are strides being made
toward inclusive programming there is not enough progress and this must change!
