This week Huck toasted the London launch of DiY photography zine Grown Man Business, put some Joburg heavy beats on repeat and spoke with the team behind a documentary exploring Argentina’s hip hop scene.
Buenos Aires Rap
In a city that styles itself as the Paris of Latin America, proudly displaying its tango and European culture to the rest of the world, hip hop is usually excluded from the picture. As an underground movement, hip hop’s contribution to Buenos Aires’ rich and varied cultural offering is largely ignored by the rest of society. But beneath the gaze of most Argentines, an immensely creative, multi-class and multi-racial, grass-roots music culture thrives.
After meeting in the city’s thumping underground clubs, Diane Ghogomu from Pittsburgh, Sebastian Muñoz from Chile, and Segundo Bercetche from Argentina, became determined to reveal this vibrant scene through new documentary Buenos Aires Rap. The international crew brought different perspectives to the project, shaped by particular experiences of hip hop culture in their home countries. Huck spoke to Diane to learn more about the extensive three year project and the vibrant hip hop culture it documents.
Grown Man Business
A hundred or so friends came down to our gallery 71A London where James Whineray, Callum Paul, Lloyd Stubber, Pani Paul and Lola Paprocka used the walls to once again prove a subject doesn’t have to be beautiful to make a beautiful photo. Our online preview provided a glimpse at their work. If you’re hungry for more, we’d definitely encourage you to track down the zine — now available at select shops in the UK.
Iapetus Records Playlist
Iapetus Records have never seemed all that comfortable in the South African hip hop industry. They’ve always set themselves apart a little. They’ve never compromised on their core sound, and while other labels can sometimes be nothing more than individuals joined by tenuous threads of text messages and emails, Iapetus have always been locked tight.
They tend to push one project at a time, every artist stepping in to help. They’ll converge on a home studio Yeoville, a Jo’burg suburb. With a beat playing and some good smoke going around, they’ll sit down and start writing. And you can hear it in the music; you can practically see the smoke drifting out of the speakers. Close the curtains and cut the lights, and you could be right there.
Check out the full playlist here and get up to date with the best of Iapetus’ dark, bass-heavy ouput.
Stay tuned for more for stories, interviews and galleries in the week ahead.
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