It’s often said that you can’t have your cake and eat it too, but rapper and all-around creative artist Bhubesii may be an exception. Over chocolate cake, he chatted to Helen Herimbi about pastries, his peers and posing for Louis Vuitton.
Even before Bhubesii thought to make his gift of the gab a career in rap music, he had a sweet tooth.
When I meet him at Warm and Glad, a trendy new coffee spot in Craighall Park, I first salivated over a Madlib Shades Of Blue vinyl LP more than their confectionery. Not Bhubesii. He acquiesces to a slice of chocolate cake as wide as a pizza slice and tells me that his “aunts and gran used to bake a lot and I’d always be left with the bowl of batter. I was always allowed to have as much cake as I wanted.”
Bhubesii has collaborated with Kudzanai Chiurai, styled music videos like Toya Delazy’s Pump It Up and magazines like Rolling Stone SA, but he also raps.
Following his first mixtape, Break Fluid, Bhubesii released Members Only, replete with references to being a fashionista in pursuit of riches and puns about his love for dough. It’s likely to not appeal to most tastes because it’s primarily about his friends who call themselves Boy$in Buck$ – which he spends a mnemonic and all 19 tracks talking about.
Boy$in Buck$ is Bhubesii, TV and radio personality, Siyabonga “Scoop” Ngwekazi, Nike South Africa employees, Mkay Frash and Kool Urk as well as Dirty Paraffin’s Okmalumkoolkat and Dr DJ Spizee.
While Break Fluid was all about himself, “it’s called Members Only because my friends and I always called each other ‘the members’. I talk about getting inspired and then influencing others. We realised we were influential in terms of streetwear, radio and TV – especially when the Nike Gallery in Melville used to gooi parties.” Soon Boy$in Buck$ will be a “one-stop creative consulting agency” that combines the friends’ talents.
Bhubesii hurries to Warm and Glad’s magazine stand to show me the GQ UK shoot in which he features. It was photographed by Pieter Hugo and styled by Kim Jones of Louis Vuitton. “(Hugo) told Mkay he wanted cool people to shoot in Jozi and on top of that they pay – I would’ve done it for free. It’s the latest Louis Vuitton collection, seen only on the ramp before.”