Who is Rawtek?
To me, Rawtek is a stage name and alias of my rap persona. My ultimate form of expression. A paltform of creativity that I use to express my thoughts and feelings to the world in the form of Rap music.. To the world, Rawtek is an Emcee, a Rapper, a Songwriter, a Purist of HipHop Culture, a wordsmith, a performer, an artist.. All of those...
What got you into Hiphop?
I was obsessed with Rap music since 1994.. I was only 7 but I was so captivated by it from the first moment I heard it.. I had older cousins who would visit my older brother and they had a few tapes of mostly upbeat 90s hiphop. for them it was kinda just a phase that they would soon outgrow. they were into the dancing shit mostly so albums like MC Hammers the funky head hunter was on blast while they practised their dance moves.. I was entranced by the music. However My biggest influence was a tv channel called bop tv which was like the etv of the 90s. It was like a hidden channel and you could never get a clear picture. They would play a lot of rap and rnb videos from midnight until the late morning.. I found a lot of dope shit there. I would stay up all night waiting for it and have to sit thru a bunch of rnb waiting for a rap song to play and then jump up and record it to video tape. I liked the east coast sound the most. I didn't understand yet what made it different but I loved the classic 90s boom bap sound and the way they dressed and the attitudes. Keith Murray, lost boyz and Krs One were my favourite. By the time I started school I was completely obsessed with it. I followed all the cleche's that I saw on tv of black America. My school pants had to be ridiculously baggy or a wouldn't wear them lol. I naturally fell in with the black kids due to our common music interests. It was at that time of post apartheid south africa and there were only a few black kids in the school. The white kids thought I was strange and couldn't relate to my identity crisis so I never had any white friends in my early school years. The black kids always praised me for knowing a few lyrics of popular rap songs of that time and I liked the attention and felt a sense of belonging.. That pretty much set the tone for the rest of my schooling.. My mom saw how buc I went for this shit and for my 9th birthday she bought me LL Cool Js Mr Smith album and 2pacs stricktly 4 my Niggas album. I wrote out every lyric. I was completely entranced. I moved around a lot and went to a lot of different primary schools accross the country.. When I was 12 I entered a school talent show and performed my own little song and had instant popularity. I knew then that this was the only shit I was ever gna be truly passionate about.. By the time I hit highschool I was arrogant. I thought I knew everything about hiphop. I didn't of course. I met other rappers and was introduced to cyphers and battle rap and it was all new and challenging and I embraced it with all I had. Dudes were listening to shit like pharoah monch and the lyricist lounge tapes and I didn't know that shit so it began a new chapter. I started to study the more intricate and technical elements and started to write my rhymes differently.. Then entered more talent shows and pretty much submerged myself in as much hiphop as I could get my hands on. I was very closed minded. As a kid. I though other music was lame and wouldn't even try to like it. Nothing else spoke to me. It was rap music 24/7.. I'm not like that anymore. Thank goodness. I would have a lot less friends lol.
Tell us more about your typical day.
I work in Dubai as a bartender so I'm pretty much nocturnal for the most part. Work through the night then sleep all day.. It sux. I hate the industry I'm stuck in but it pays the bills for now and I get to travel and work in nice hotels.. When I'm not at work or when I'm back in SA i try to get as much chill as possible.. I like to smoke weed in the morning. I like cartoons. I love Anime and video games. I have a nerdy side too I guess. I read a lot and bury myself in all sorts of arcane and esoteric litterature. My spiritual studies have become Sort of a side hobby I moon light on... I have an extroverted side but I keep it on a tight leash. I love girls too much lol I waste a lot of energy hollering at females that don't even seem to shed much light on me haha I'm a sucker for a pretty face. I should stop doing that. I used to party a lot. Got caught up in drinking and drugs and fucked my shit up a few times over. A few bike and car accidents later. Fights and run ins with the law. All that stupid delinquent shit some of us go thru. So nowerdays I try to stay away from those environments and temptations. I have a bunch of friends still caught up in all that and it saddens me a lot. I have zero self control with alcohol so I try to just stay away from it if I can. If I drink it almost always leads to some other bullshit. So these days I would much rather stay home and watch tv than go party.. 10 years ago I would rather die than stay home on a weekend lol I'm getting old.
What do you do when you not doing what you regularly do?
I stay pushing this rap shit man.. I'm not always super productive as I should be. But I'm always keeping it moving in some way. I'm in studio at least once a week or I'm with producers working on beats and concepts. Thinkin up new bars and structuring complete songs.. I'm learning to balance it all.. I have a lot of great resources and tools at hand to create stuff and I have a lot of talented people around me pushing me in the right direction. I'm very blessed.
Tell us about the best part of your work.
The fact that its mine. I can do with it what I want. No one pays me to do it yet so no one has any say in it. I have complete creative control. Iv done my homework. Iv paid enough dues. Iv studied and mastered the craft. People tell me I'm great at it. I like that I get to meet all sorts of interesting artists who appreciate what I do. Its dope when artists whom i admire for their work admire me for mine and we get to feed off eachothers creative energy. Even if we don't do create the same type of art.
Where do you see yourself in 3 years ?
I try not to look at things on such a typical timeline. I don't like to feel rushed and preasured. I like to feel like wherever I am is exactly where I'm meant to be. Sometimes I feel like iv shelved too much material or that I abbandoned too many projects. I'm a perfectionist and if It doesn't feel perfect enough I'll shelve it and start something new. And I'm okay with that actually. Cos I feel like my best is yet to come. Maybe next year. Maybe in 3 years. Maybe in 10. When I t feels perfect then it will happen and it will be spectacular. But to be realistic about it all, I feel like I'm close. My dreams don't feel like pipedreams anymore. They feel like goals that are within my reach now. I just gotta join the dots now. In 3 years i believe I could see some financial and personal fruits of my labour. Don't hold me to it tho lol I mean, even if I never earn a cent from this I'll still always keep doing it. I do it for me first and foremost. And I do it at my own speed.. On a more personal tip tho.. I crave stability. I want my own space where I can create stuff without having to wait on others or work around other peoples schedules. I would like to create music and film as a full time hustle and not haave to make cocktails or carry drinks on trays for rich people. I would really like to have a kid soon lol I'm broody as fuck lately. I'm 28 and I'm seeing friends and fam having kids and I envy them at times. I'm ready to experience fatherhood. Definately. But if that doesn't happen, I'll embrace whatever does happen and try to understand why and continue to search for my spiritual truths and disclose spiritual falsehoods. I am thoroughly enjoying this journey for all it is and isn't. I still make great mistakes and fall on my face but I bounce back quickly. I seldom get too bleak about shit. There is nothing of this world that can keep a brother on his knees. I was built to rise.
Who is the best rapper you have worked with?
Paragon. We have a cool dynamic when we work together. I really love the way he writes and he has a very distinct vocal delivery. But above that, I really relate to his subject matter and the overall content of his music. He has been a great influence on me lyrically. I always bring out my best when I work with Paragon. Infact we have songs that we did together more than 10 years ago that people still say is our best work. We just keep that shit hidden in the archives and make jokes about releasing a duet album in the future. Like a greatest hits that were never heard lol.. I like him as a person. Such a humble and kind spirit. I like to work with people who have a good energy about them. It was an honour for me to drop a verse on his recent album.. I have a great respect for what they do over there at TItusTrack.. They have helped me a lot and Rawtek would be a nobody without TTE.. They got tons of rawtek material on ice at the TTE headquarters piled up over the years and have watched me grow and guided me at times lol if I died tomorrow they could probably release a double disc of Rusty Rawtek materail lol.
Who is your inspiration/Role Model?
I draw inspiration from so many different sources. I don't have a role model per say. I wouldn't want to be anyone other than myself.. But I admire many great people.. I'll say some names.. Hermes Trismegistus, John Dee, Aleister Crowley, JZ Knight, steven Hawkins, leonardo de vinci, Van gogh, christopher Columbus, Napolian, Michio Kaku, Steven King, frank Sinatra, johnny Cash, kurt kobain, Tupac Shakur, Dr Dre, Marshal Mathers, Marlyn Monroe, malcolm X, Tim Burton, Charles Manson, Madonna, Mic Tyson, Bruce Lee, walt disney, HG Wells, erich von donogan, steve jobs, pablo Escobar.. To name but a few.
Who would you explain your style of rap?
Tidy yet complex, technical, intricate, flow based, intelectual, poetic, versatile, orthodox at times. Flexible at other times, thought prevoking, conceptual, theatrical... Emotional.. Educational...
Views around politics in hiphop, underground/commercial?
I feel like everything has a place and every expression of art is unique and special at least to the artist creating it. But I'm not too blind to see the blatant control, and unfairness not only in hiphop but in all media, entertainment, education, society as a whole.. I feel like the people who control the music industry are business men who know nothing about music and art let alone hiphop. Its a numbers game for them.. Abd they are just puppets anyway dnacing on strings controlled by biggers smarter pre designed systems of control. I feel like the world doesn't know what great hiphop is because all they see is what these big media giants show them. Massive elusive control systems regulating everything we see and and hear.. All so that we stay trapped in the matrix. So that the masses stay asleep in order for the Elite to reep maximum profits and rape the world of its substance. I believe great art not only gets ignored but deliberately hidden or sabataged. I believe hiphop was dirctly sabataged by powerful people who were afraid of its potential and msgs. There was a time when rap music was so clever and so poetic. So deep and had sucj strong writing. I can't see how a forward thinking world would reject it in favour of the dumbed down, superficial, tasteless, idiotic type of hiphop that we are forced to hear on heavy rotation today. Lacking substance and message. There is so much gret rap music that will never be heard on radio and tv. so much deep intelectual content brilliantly and beautifully weaved by talented linguists of the rap world, but you will never hear it.. I feel like RAP used to stand for rhythm and poetry. I hear the rhythm still, but the poetry has been abandoned. Its so difficult for me to understand why. I refuse to believe that people aren't interested. Imagine a rapper like diabolic or Apathy or black thought having a nicci manaj budget to shoot videos. Imagine Hopsin or army of the pharoahs or Jedi Mind Tricks or Sand people or EMC played on radio.. I refuse to believe nobody would like that.. I don't hate commercial bubblegum hiphop. I can listen to anything. But I have a problem when you forcing me to hear the same shit over and over while so many great talented artists who have also dedicated their lives to the craft get blocked from mainstream avenues.. I think that sux.. It sends a clear msg to the kids that if you want to be majorly succesful its more important to follow the current trends even if it means making dumbed down, pointless, music without soul than making something a lil bit deeper or clever or bringing a msg of higher truth and wisdom cos if you do that you have no chance of reaching a bigger audience. And will be considered boring or uncool. Cos the people who control everything don't want you to be awake. Hiphop used to ask questions and change things. So they killed it. Now all hiphop does is brag senselesly and glorify things of no real value or substance. Its msg only is only to gratify the senses. Its the music of idiots now.. It could be so much more.. But all we see and hear is what the media spotlight shows us and all they show us is strategically designed by the mega corps that keep us trapped in their brainwash programs.. True Art is too expressive and honest. So if your art is real and has a msg that teaches one to think independatly, then it is the enemy of those that wish to keep us oppressed.. And so it will be taken away from us.. I know many agree. Some dissagree and that's okay wateva man. I'm not trina win a debate. Those who know what's going on in the world understand why it is how it is and those that don't are just perfectly programed by these monster systems of control.. I'm not e revolutionary rapper. I also make songs about girls and parties. I also want to be famous and wealthy. I also make aggresive music when I'm feeling those emotions.. But I also make. Write a shit load of deep emotional shit, I never use profanity cos I dont feel a need to. I also exercise my vocabulary to its full extent. I also try to make people smarter with my music.
Which politician would you feature?
All of them lol I would let Julius Malema spit a 16 bar verse cos I actually think he has some smart ideas.. I would get Hellan Zilla to sing the hook and get jacob zuma to do adlibs in the background. That's shit will be fire yo.
Phone or pen and pad?
I use both. I'll use my phone to jot words I wanna rhyme and punch lines I might forget but the screen is too small and I like to use a full line to structure each bar so I need paper for that.
Night owl or morning person?
My working hours force me to be a night owl. But I love mornings cos they hold the magic of a million possibilities that the day ahead can unfold. The earlier worm always dodges the bird.
Last gift I gave someone?
I left my favorite hoodie with my Korean girlfriend in dubai when she saw me off at the airport. I had a feeling that I'll never see her again.
What would we find in your fridge?
Hopefully milk.. Or I'll be pissed off.
What word do you use the most?
Purple.
What cartoon character are you and why?
Naruto. Cos I'm the one the whole village doubts. Yet I grow up to be a deadly ninja.
Most embarrassing moment?
My ex gf got into my phone and found a very below the belt phone sex conversation that was like 8 months old. She was so upset that she snapshot the most explicit part of the conversation and uploaded it on fb. I was put on full blast. Shit. It served me right I guess. I took that one on the chin.. A woman scorned.. Eish.. People still ask me about that when they see me in person lol.
What can we expect from Rawtek?
My first full project will be a collaboration album with another rapper and close friend named Commix.. The album is called Avenue Herd and will the beats and concepts we got for it is just crazy. We busy with that now.. After that I'll be dropping a long over due solo project. I have two.. One is a concept album called The Conundrum that I have been working on forever and one called Homeward bound that is more relivent to where I'm at now and a more mature light hearted project.. I don't know which I'll drop first. But both will be done by the end of next year. Between all that I'll continue to post random tracks to on my fanpage, including some new video content, cyphers and freestyles etc.. I'm ina good headspace now and working hard so I promise to be more active than ever and conjure as much dopeness as I have to give.
If its our last conversation, what word of advise would you give me?
Firstly I would say thank you for this great interview. My first ever actual interview. I got to know myself a bit better in the last 2 hours lol I enjoyed answering these questions. Was great introspection for me even if nobody reads it all.. so thank you.. Secondly.. Just be real to yourself. Develop a set of principles and live by them. I believe every man and woman is a star on their own orbit and your only mission is to follow your true will full heartedly. If you're a rapper or artist. Try to Be an artist of many dimensions. Then you're great. Even if nobody embraces you in your life. You are great cos you can do what the sheep do but also what the wolf does and even the shepard. And look deeper than what you see at face value.. Know thyself.. Love yourself and be your own best homie... Chase down your dreams.. If the sky is the limit then reach for the stars.
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