Rhythmic Elements remains untouchable

When the duo from Pretoria surfaced, very few people had faith in what they were up to. But within a short period of time, Rhythmic Element were all over and irresistible.Those who love urban dance have been jiving to these boy's tunes for quite some time now. But how did the duo's musical journey erupt? The group is comprised of a DJ/producer and musician that go by the name of Master T and McKenzie.It was at the end of 2005 when McKenzie approached Master T for a demo recording. Master T then poured his heart out to McKenzie about his desire to put together a project for a group and asked the brother to join him on his mission. Being given such an opportunity, even though the future didn't promise anything, McKenzie jumped in.Come the beginning of 2006, the duo hit the studio and started putting down a Rhythmic Elements project - an album that only got released in 2008. "We take raw African indigenous sounds and fuse them with dance music - which ultimately gives us a platform to easily perform our music live."With one member coming from a DJing and music production background and the other from song writing and live instrumentation, it is interesting how the duo fuse their skills together. McKenzie said, "Master T is a DJ and producer, while I am a song writer and vocalist. So Master T channels me with what he needs to make something work and I bring my influence as a songwriter, being on point so that the song becomes successful."Getting into production, the guys say before they start touching the piano or writing lyrics, they first talk about the kind of a song they want to compose and the type of musical instruments they want to use.Coming to the duo's hit song, ‘2 By 2' from their first release, ‘The Offering', McKenzie said before they could write the song, they had to accept that what they were about to get down to was humorous. "When we started with the lyrics, every part of it had to be humorous, produce facts that people can easily relate to and overall had to make ‘2 By 2' a party song".Revealing how the song came about, McKenzie said Master T had for too long begged him to bring the song lyrics to the studio. He said that initially when he wrote the lyrics, he felt like they were not so in line with how they wanted to be perceived. But on the other hand, Master T believed that the song would work regardless. "When McKenzie sang the song to me, I immediately told him that we had to go on with it. I told him that besides being a DJ and producer, I am a business man and on the release, we needed something that would hook people to buy our album and discover what Rhythmic Elements has to offer" said Master T.Getting to the melody of the song, McKenzie said ‘2 By 2' is made out of intense research. According to him, the duo sat down and looked at songs that were hits in a period of five years. He then looked at the key elements, melodies and harmonies, as well as the overall vibe within the song that they reckoned would attract the right market. After pin pointing major elements that influenced the song, they then picked up those elements and used that as their guideline when coming up with ‘2 By 2'. "When you are working on a song, you need to realize that all the elements in a song need to be on par so that the song can rock the dance floor. And the biggest mistake we didn't want to make was to take all the beautiful elements we had and put them on bad instrumentals", said Master T

Kelly involved in South African investment scam

American R&B singer Robert Kelly, popularly known as R Kelly, has been formally asked to explain his involvement in an alleged investment scam, the Durban regional court heard on Wednesday.
A Durban woman, Busisiwe Priscilla Zakwe has implicated R Kelly in an alleged investment scam that apparently swindled more than 50 people, many of them pensioners.
Zakwe was arrested in 2005 for allegedly taking thousands of rands from investors by promising them they would benefit from ticket sales if they brought an R. Kelly tour to the country in 2005.
Kelly never appeared in the country, but Zakwe claims she deposited R10.5 million into his account.
State prosecutor, Blackie Swart, said on Wednesday he had written a letter to Kelly’s agent Jason Miller requesting the singer to explain his involvement in the scam.
"I sent an email and also faxed a letter to Kelly’s agent last week. We have not received any response from them yet. We will contact them if they do not respond because we want to deal with this matter urgently,"
Zakwe briefly appeared at Durban Regional Court on Wednesday and the matter was postponed to May 6 because the state wants to add more charges against the accused.
On that date, the state and the defence will meet and exchange documents and set up a new trial date.
From 2005, Zakwe had been facing 41 charges of fraud and last week 10 more victims reported their cases.
"We cannot start the trial due to new developments in this case. The state and the defence need to see documents which were taken from the residence of the accused during a raid," said magistrate Sibusiso Mayeza.
He said another suspect was also going to be charged in connection with the case.
The court was packed when Zakwe appeared in court on Wednesday. Most of the victims are pensioners and according to the charge sheet, some victims were swindled of more than R100 000 each.
Attempts to get hold of Kelly's agent were not immediately successful.
SOURCE: IOL

South African DJ Suspended After On-Air "Interview" With Jesus

Mail & Guardian Online is reporting the suspension of a South African presenter (DJ) for an on-air skit where he interviewed Jesus Christ.
Gareth Cliff was taken off the air for two days after numerous complaints from listeners of station 5fm.
According to its website, "5FM STEREO is a commercial and English-medium entertainment, music and information radio station targeted at an informed audience in the 16-34 ...[and] broadcasts 24-hours daily in the main urban areas of South Africa."
Cliff later apologized to listeners saying the "interview" was meant to be a parody of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ" and meant belittle any religion.
In the skit itself, Cliff played both interviewer and Jesus through a common recording technique used often in Radio.
Mail & Guardian Online quotes Nick Grubb, 5fm Programme Manager as saying, "We believe that the segment was inflammatory, and could have been interpreted negatively by a large portion of our listeners. Whilst Gareth is often irreverent and controversial, he merely overstepped the mark this time."

Singer sees more moola in her back pocket

Dancing queen Chomee has sealed a deal with Kwaito king and 999 Music boss Arthur Mafokate where she was allegedly offered 14% royalties of her forthcoming albums. 999 Music’s cashcow was initially offered 10% royalties but she rejected the contract. Though neither Mafokate nor Chomee could be drawn into revealing the details, SUNDAY WORLD has it on good authority that Vuvuzela, as Arthur is known in the music industry, has acceded to her demand.The singer is happy with the deal and plans to release a flagship song titled Siyophelelaphi with Queen of Bling Khanyisile Mbau. The duo also collaborated on Mtororo (cool in township slang).

Kabelo Mabalane

South African kwaito star Kabelo Mabalane, better known as Buza Luv, says he is also in love with Jesus.
Speaking at a one-day church camp in Lobatse this weekend, Mabalane said turning to Jesus only changed his character and not his personality. He said he knows a lot of gospel singers who are not religious or born again.
The theme for the camp was 'young people taking the centre stage of transformation.'
Asked by one of the participants what music meant to him, Mabalane said music is all about having fun.
He said he used to enjoy having many girlfriends, driving expensive cars and showboating before turning to God. Mabalane said despite the seemingly flamboyant lifestyle, he used to feel a void in his heart that only became filled by turning to Jesus.
Relevant Links
Southern Africa Botswana Religion
Mabalane said he turned to God after his life became a mess due to his drug abuse and being dumped by his girlfriend.
He said he turned to God in 1996 but became fully converted in 2004 when he was born again. He added that he would be getting married to the same woman who rejected him when he lost track.

dj abo's tour

Come one come all
Dj Abo will be visiting all south african top universties to give you what you alwayz want, with international djs from USA get ur ticket before its too later few left. feature DJ SNE, DJ FRESH,DJ ABO, DJ SINDI FROM CAPE TOWN, DJ CLOCK FROM USA, DJ TINKY FROM JHB DJ COCO DJ ANDY AND MANY MORE. He will visit all nine provinces. this tour will be around july and august 2008

Let DJ Zinhle rock you!

Dannhauser born, Zinhle Jiyane is a female house music DJ who is making people dance to her tune. If you’ve never believed the saying, being in the right place at the right time, then this DJ is proof enough. It’s been only a few years since Zinhle got into the DJing world, but already she has become one of the few female DJs who has so far created a good image and name for herself.
Zinhle’s love for DJing started in 2004 when she’d mess around with her brother’s DJing sound system he co-own with his friends. Like a joke, her first unofficial gig was when she went to an event with her brother to help set up the sound system. After everything was setup, the DJ who was billed to play was late. Zinhle then stepped to the stage and played a few house songs while waiting for the DJ.
This was the beginning of a promising DJing career! Soon after she finished playing, those attending the event started calling her a DJ – and the sister just rode the waves. But for someone of her age, already she’s being associated with heavyweights DJs like Oscar ‘Oskdio’ Mdlongwa. But wait… What is it that Zinhle did to get her name out?
She said back then when she started, females were not confident enough and didn’t have a strong belief that they could rock like any DJ. “I think when I started; I decided that I would be in everyone’s face, I wanted to be everywhere and be in front of the right people.” Zinhle said being where one wants to be is about networking, projecting one self in the right direction and having confidence in what one does. “We are female DJs and we have a point to prove.”
Commenting on the challenges she faced as she was building up her career, she said one challenge that caused a lot of headaches was not being given a chance to showcase her capabilities. “People don’t have faith in female DJs; we quite often get undermined because people think we are not capable of doing what male DJs do.”
Talking about the strategies she has used to break into the industry, she said when she began with her mission she realized that there was an opportunity to blow up immediately – especially if doing it the right way. What right way was she referring to? For Zinhle, she realized that to get where she wanted to be she would firstly need an opportunity to DJ and as soon as she got that she had to then network with the relevant people.
So far, the DJ said she has created an image that people are able to associate with good things. She has strived to always make people relate her name with quality. “I don’t want people to say ohhh its DJ Zinhle, she’s looking great today. I want them to say, it’s DJ Zinhle and she’s definitely going to rock.” She said people must not feel pity for female DJs; they need to expect the best from them because there is nothing different with what they are doing than what males do.
There is no doubt that Zinhle has capitalized on what has come her way, and on that route she met Oskido, who she still works with to this stage. Though working with Oskido has opened many doors for this DJ, above all, she has the talent; she can work the crowd with her DJing and song selection skills. “I’ve managed to build a foundation for myself; I always apply quality to my work because it pays my bills. I’ve managed to convince people that I’m good at what I do because I know I do it to my best.”