Music
Things Take Time: How YoungstaCPT's debut album was forged
After more than 30 mixtapes and numerous EPs the Cape Town MC finally releases his first album
Fiercely independent, YoungstaCPT is one of the most outspoken South African emcees of this generation. With 30 mixtapes and numerous EPs under his belt, he is relentless when it comes to his music. His first official album 3T sees him returning to his roots and sharing more about himself as a person. Here he tells us why he waited so long to release an album, who helped him achieve his sound, the challenges he faced during writing and what it was like to be so honest on a release.
You allude to it in the title, but why did you wait so long to release an album?
I think that a lot of people whether they be totally aware of me or unaware, they only know like a few songs, one song, two songs. I feel like sometimes an album is a project you have to put more of yourself in, you have to invest more time into it. So with the mixtapes, it’s almost like giving people samples or little testers. That was my market research. I would see what people like and were into when it came to my music. I think I’ve done enough of that now. I think I’ve given people the basic idea of who I am and what my main mission statement is according to the music that I’ve released before this album.
But for anyone who has never listened to a song of mine and this album will be the first thing they hear, this is also me encompassing everything I’ve talked about more or less in those mixtapes but on one project and also coming with a new theme of leadership. The mixtapes were me trying to grow into a leader and I would say this album is me establishing myself and putting the flag firmly into the ground, saying ja, this is Kaapstadt and I lead this place.
YoungstaCPT
© Jonathan Ferreira
Who did you work with and how were they chosen?
Maloon the Boom is on it. Miles Singleton is on it, he’s also part of the Boyoom team. Ganja Beats, we did the Cape of Good Dope album in 2016. Loopsta who I met in Hillbrow in Johannesburg when I was staying there, he became a good friend of mine. He actually lived opposite me, that’s how I met him, he produced “Sleep is for the rich” with Stilo and “Takkies” as well. So all these guys have gotten a piece of the album. A stake invested in the album. Being that this is going to be my first major release that I’m going to push this hard, I wanted them to also have part ownership because they helped me get this far.
When I started rapping it was so hard for me to get beats from producers because they all wanted money for it. Not saying that I don’t pay my guys now, but now people will send me thirty beats and say I can keep all if you want them. That wasn’t happening from the start. So I’m grateful for that. Because those were the guys that first did it for me, they first believed before there was money they deserve their remuneration now. They deserve their success now, even though the producer doesn’t really want to be known or seen, he wants to remain in his dungeon in the background, I feel like I need to bring them to the forefront, like J-Beatz who produced “Young Van Riebeek” he also produced “Salutas”, some of the tracks for the Four Corners soundtrack, he did “Hella” in 2012 which I did with Red Bull as well. He did the “21 Years Ahead of Time” EP at the old Red Bull Studios, so these are guys that have actually grown with me.
They’ve heard my sound change and they’ve tailor-made the music because they know what I like now. A guy like Maloon who has so much love for South Africa and Cape Town, for me making those projects with him, I felt it was only right that he be apart of this album and bring his sound to it because people like when I rap on those mid-90s boom-bap rap beats. So I had to have Maloon on. It was difficult for me to include everyone but I think we got more-or-less the key players as far the sound is concerned.
When did you start writing and head-space were you in?
The first song that I wanted for my album was “Salutas”. That was in 2014. I think my writing style from then until 2019, that is more or less how long I’ve been writing this album. Even though I was doing a lot of collaborations and I moved to Joburg, I wasn’t settled. I was bouncing around a lot and working with different artists and meeting producers. So I knew I wasn’t going to rush this process.
I knew if I’m going to make an album, especially being the kind of artist I am that has so much content, there has to be something different about this album that’s different from the mixtapes. You can’t be like this reminds me of something he made in 2016. It should give you that feeling of nostalgia, like this, is that, but big with an album. It’s still an ode to what people like of me but it’s something way more amplified than those mixtape tracks were.
The writing side I tried to go into my character, detailing my life. Because I feel like people only have gotten small bits and pieces of who I am really. I talk a lot about Cape Town, I talk a lot about CPT and Kaapstadt, but do people actually know who’s talking to them? The person speaking to them. The man behind the lyrics. I delve more into Riyadh, myself as a person, how I grew up, my upbringing, my family. Because I feel like if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t have these great stories to tell. I wouldn’t have this history that I have. I wouldn’t have had the teaching I had outside of school. School teaches you one thing, but your family is the first real teachers that you get.
So touching on their story as well, because I bet no one knows your uncle’s story or your grandfather’s story and you wish they did or they could’ve heard it. Even from their mouth. Let them tell it instead of you having to tell it. It’s also about me trying to grab as much as I can from the people around me and the adults around me.
I was watching this thing with Nas once and he was saying when he was writing “Illmatic” it took him so long and the label was even getting worried and he said they didn’t understand what he was trying to do. He wanted to encompass everything, all these different stories so that when it came out, no one would have to ask questions. It could all be in the music. That’s kind of what I’m trying to achieve with this. I want this to be my “Illmatic”, not ten tracks, so longer than “Illmatic”. I’m not leaving people hungry.
YoungstaCPT
© Jonathan Ferreira
What are some of the challenges you've faced during this process?
It definitely is when your career path is not that of your average artist in today’s time. I don’t think that I fit into the category of the mainstream, commercial style artists and I don’t think I ever will, as long as I keep this up. As long as I keep this attitude up I’m not going to be accepted in the mainstream. But also, what is my intention, was it my intention when I made these songs to be accepted in the mainstream? No. So I’m also comfortable with the position that I’m in.
I kind of have a cult following one could say. It’s not like the mass media, that heavy stadium following on my end, but I feel like the people that are listening and are following are the ones that are for the lack of a better word, woke. They’re very conscious of the climate and the way things are in this country and this city especially. This city is totally different to anywhere else in South Africa I feel. I’ve been around South Africa and I’ve seen what it’s like. You do get pieces here and there, but nothing is like Cape Town. I feel it’s because slavery and colonisation all began here. That’s why it’s so different. It’s the prototype. Those elements are still lingering because of the fact that it’s so rife here. This is where the first point of entry was.
So my writing, my message, my album, it’s all coming from a different place, but I think it’s made me successful. For me to turn away from that message now, I’d be walking backward actually. I have to run straight into the fire now. I’ve been playing with the fire and I feel the burn, but people like the fact that I do that, they like the fact that I take a risk with the music, they like that I’m the guy that’s going to say the fucked up shit. They know they can depend on me to say “Kaapstadt naaier” because no one else is going to say. We like him for that reason. So if I stop saying that with the album, they’ll be like all this time you built this whole thing up and now you get here to the big day and you turn around and you say something else.
I’ve built this character now for some time to the point that I’m confident enough that people can accept what I’m going to say on the album. And it’s not light-hearted shit, but it never was. I never ever said light-hearted shit in my songs before, this is me just detailing it now. I’m just unpacking the story. More than I did previously.
Did talking about your personal life come natural to you?
I’m always a student. I’m always a student of hip hop music. I’m always still listening to albums from the 90s. Figuring out these guys were already saying crazy shit then. Now we’re looking at today’s time, everyone’s so sensitive, you have to monitor your conversations and your lyrics, you can’t this or you need to exclude that, the clean edit needs to take that word out, like it’s drugs, I’m not swearing, I said the word drugs. Is that a swear word? On daytime radio, yes it is! When I look at these things I think to myself, what is my intent? Is my intent to make it more comfortable or am I here to ruffle feathers? And I am here to do that.
So I feel like ja, the shit I’m saying is a bit harsh at times, it’s a bit intense, but I can’t lie about my life. I grew up listening to artists who weren’t afraid to speak their minds, to say what they wanted to say. Because that was my school, I’m becoming my own teacher, what lesson am I giving this new generation of writers that have never heard of Nas’ albums or Tupac or Dead Prez or Xzibit. They don’t care, those guys are moguls now. So when you see them now they can’t relate to the music that those guys would’ve made. They wouldn’t be able to grasp it now. I grasped it then so that was the teaching, that was my playground.
Now I’m giving that same message but I’ve got to disguise it because they like trap and the turn-up music, so I use those things that they like, I’m not totally against this new generation. I love the shit that people are making, I love the way people dress and the words they use. I use some of it and I combine it with what I grew up listening to. I’m just trying to merge those two worlds for the laaities that are not aware of that and for the guys in our age bracket and older, that know that’s the true school of hip hop.
They can’t front me like he don’t know his shit, he’s just some new-age rapper making this kind of music. Whereas when they hear a message it’s like, shit, he’s rapping on these trap beats but he’s saying something. That’s my way of merging these two worlds that we live in, the past and the present.
YoungstaCPT
© Jonathan Ferreira
How will you be pushing the release?
We’re gonna do the tours and we’re gonna do the schools and online obviously, there will be physical albums available, CD signings. I never underestimate the on-the-ground work. People say you shouldn’t make many CDs in today’s times because no one is really consuming albums. But if I do a show in Mitchell’s Plain no one has an iTunes account. No one is listening to Spotify in Grassy Park. I’m doing a park jam or going to Grassy Park High, those kids don’t have those kinds of mediums yet.
So what am I going to do with them? Am I going to tell them to create an account and give Spotify more business, which I don’t mind doing, but I’m from the time of CDs, and like I said, I’m trying to bring the past and the present together. So I’m still going to do the albums and the CD signing, posters. I’m never going to underestimate the power of the guerilla tactics that got me here. I was selling my own CDs in the streets of Claremont for R30. I was having my own CD launches in 2010 where the entry fee was R10 and you get a CD with it. I was doing that shit.
For me to have built up that kind of reputation and turn around now and tell you to go to iTunes, it’s not true to who I am. So my promotion is going to be the traditional structure as well as online stuff, I’ve got nice brands that have come on board to help us. But being an independent artist and doing that and still staying true to the school that we come from, I kind of have to play both sides of the fence with the promoting and the marketing. I’m not signed to a label, so there is no major push behind it, but all this time I’ve built a reputation in the street, it hasn’t been through labels.
I didn’t expect radio to be playing these songs, so I’m not depending on the radio to get the song to number 1 on the charts. I know that it’s still a war for us, it’s still an uphill battle for us, but I’ve been taking it on for such a long time it doesn’t surprise me. It’s nothing new for me to go up against mainstream artists that have a reach of a million followers. That’s a different ball game. It might come for me one day, but while I’m here now on this level and I have this incredible following of people that before me didn’t care about local hip hop. They weren’t buying local hip hop before I came along, in Cape Town, they weren’t buying into it. Do you know how many people I’ve met that say I didn’t listen to local music until I heard you!?
