Featuring a stellar line-up of local legends of this genre, with an exciting crew of emcees and singers, this musical celebration of home-brewed hip hop pays tribute to music and artists from ekasi (township) who rap about life in the township.

Keeping to the theme of Women’s Month and celebrating women pursuing a career in hip hop, Hip Hop Kaslam will feature a majority female cast. Spearheading the line up are veteran singer-emcee Tia Anam Solombela, the multi-talented Buli Ntlantu with well known ekasi singer Unathi “Slice” Jacobs as host and a surprise appearance by some of the leading artists who took part in a previous Hip Hop Kaslam.

Widely regarded as the founder and one of the frontrunners of this style of rapping, Archie Sopazi, also known on stage as Dat, is back on the line up as the third leading artist. The legendary emcee, reggae singer, actor, director, playwright and community activist, Mandlesizwe “Volcano” Lufele directs the show.

Tia Anam Solombela fell in love with Spaza when she moved to Cape Town in 1995 from East London where she was born. She has been a Spaza emcee ever since then. “The industry was a bit tough then because there were few female artists doing spaza,” she says.

In 2002 Tia studied music business and vocal training at Professional Music Performance Technology (PROMPT) in Cape Town. She furthered her studies by doing script writing, dance and poetry at Arts Media Centre. She shares, “I am a woman of many talents. Besides music, I can do theatre acting, write scripts and poetry.”

In August 2004 she performed at the Women Of the World Festival. She acted in a physical theatre piece called Imbewembi: the Bad Seed, directed by Nhlanhla Mavundla and Rob Murray of FTH:K. She has shared stages with the likes of Ntsiki Mazwai, Simphiwe Dana and Dr Badela. She also featured in the Vusi Magubane documentary Counting Headz: South Afrika’s Sistaz in Hip-Hop which won several awards and was screened in the Common/Jill Scott show in the USA.

Tia Anam wrote and sang two songs which featured on the popular TV show Tsha Tsha on SABC 1. She has appeared in various venues including the Artscape, District Six Café, Zula Bar, Gugulethu, Langa, and Strand. In Johannesburg she performed at the Horror Café, 88 Lounge, Carfax and Wits University.

She adds a word of encouragement to all women out there: “Take good care of yourselves and know that you are more than what your body looks like. And always remember to push to the limit. May you all enjoy the women’s month.”

Sylvia Bulelwa Ntlantlu is 21-year-old Cape Town born actress, dancer, poet, rapper and singer. At the young age of 6 she won a gold medal in a national primary school dance competition. At fifteen she acted in a play called Life on the Streets at the Ikhwezi Theatre Festival at the Baxter Theatre Centre. As a teenager she regularly performed hip hop at open mic sessions in Delft, District Six Café, and recorded her demo album which consisted of rapping and singing. In 2007 she was chosen to join the British Council’s Unsung Voices poetry group. She appeared in Hip Hop Connected at the Artscape Theatre in 2008 as a dancer.

In 2008 she enrolled at the New Africa Theatre Academy and it is here that Buli’s theatrical skills flourished. Within the year of her enrolment, she acted in Can Themba’s The Suit at NATA and in Breath, a short film by UCT film students, featured at the Baxter Dance Festival representing her school and danced at PANSA’s 48hour Festival.

She returned to the Ikhwezi Theatre Festival stage in 2009 in the play Last Ride and then at the Artscape Theatre in a stage adaptation of the Xhosa novel Amaza, directed by Itumeleng wa-Lehulere. In 2010 she travelled to the Voorkamer Fest to perform in Ingqingqo, directed by Andisiwe Mbunje.

Buli has kept herself actively involved in showcasing her talents and experience, performing in venues like Dumalisile Arts and Culture Centre in Gugulethu, Mojo in Observatory and Ragazzi and Zula Bar in Cape Town. She is currently employed at the Africa Gold Museum.

Volcano has had a very interesting theatre and community development background. He is a graduate from the New Africa Theatre Academy, Media Works and the UCT Drama Department. In 2002 he founded the Volcano Arts Project (VAP), teaching performing arts to under-developed children and teenagers in his community. The VAP has introduced many youths to arts and has toured a number of schools in Nyanga, Crossroads, Phillipi and Gugulethu, performing awareness plays. Volcano is not just a performer but also a mentor and role model to many young aspiring artists in Gugulethu. He has appeared in previous Hip Hop Kaslam shows as a DJ and musical performer.

In 1993 Archie Dat Sopazi started four man hip hop group Black G Flow and it was in this group that Dat discarded the American hip hop culture and rap style and create one in his own language. He chose to rap in ringas, a township street slang also known as tsotsi-taal. This evolved into what has become known as spaza today - a combination of various indigenous languages.



The year 2005 saw Dat taking on a solo career and 2007 was the year released his debut album Under Santi. In December 2008 he performed at the annual Khayelitsha Festival, and in 2009 at the annual Hip Hop Connected show at the Artscape.

In 2010 Dat released his second independent album, On Toes, which blew audiences away with hits like iJankie, High Pressure and Cima iTV to name just a few. He performed at the Artscape Fan Fest which took place in Langa for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the annual African Hip Hop Indaba, and the Nekkies Outdoor Hip Hop Festival and at the Dat Summer Concert in December. Dat’s role in the genre of spaza also expanded to off-stage work: he directed the first two Hip Hop Kaslam shows in 2010.

This year Dat has performed at the annual Infecting the City Music Festival, the Black Noise 23rd Anniversary Celebration, and at regular gigs the likes of the Best of Ekapa Underground Hip Hop show and the Cape Bass Sessions in Cape Town.

“Spaza is now on the map. Sooner or later the city will belong to us because we have created a Cape Townian original genre of music. While the radio stations and promoters of big events still undermine spaza, and keep us artists at the bottom of the musical career food chain, the masses continue to love and respect it. I think spaza is going to the top – it’s not going to die out anytime soon,” says show-founder Sopazi.

The Baxter Theatre will provide buses to transport audience members to and from the show at no extra cost. The pick-up and drop-off points are the Gugulethu Sports Complex and Radio Zibonele in Khayelitsha, leaving for the theatre at 15:30, and Delft Parking lot (opposite SPAR) and Crossroads Circle, leaving for the theatre at 16:00 sharp on the day.

Ticket prices for Hip Hop Kaslam at 18:00 at the Baxter Concert Hall on Saturday, 27 August are just R30 and bookings can be made through Computicket on 083 915 8000, online at www.computicket.co.za or at any Shoprite or Checkers.

For further enquiries call Phila Nkuzo on cell 073 667 6647, email [email protected] or visit the Hip Hop Kaslam Facebook Group.