From shiny cars to big booty babes every pipedream under the sun, musicians are constantly trying to sell the listener something. Luckily for Driemanskap, they are convinced that what they offer is priceless, writes Helen Herimbi

“It’s sad that Joburg has to approve of you first before the world sees that you’re talented.” The young man called El Nino is delicately sculpting an avocado for a salad is unapologetic about his stance. He continues to peel the vegetable’s layers just as he and his group, Driemanskap, take the layers off society’s ills one rhyme at a time.

When I sit down with the crew that was born and bred in Gugulethu, Cape Town, they are in Johannesburg for a string of club performances and radio appearances. It seems the City of Gold has only just caught onto their 2009 debut album, Igqabhukil’ Inyongo. The title means “the gall bladder has burst” to signify, as El Nino says: “that it’s about to get ugly. We’ve been to hell and back and now you’ll see us.”

It’s taken just over a year and an outstanding video for their hood anthem, Sphum’eGugs – which premiered on SABC 1’s flagship music show, LIVE. The infectious ditty that has an equally awesome video features the lyrical prowess of fellow Spaza rappers, Macho and Khanyi.

“After our Sphum’eGugs music video was played on LIVE, we suddenly became the new thing,” says El Nino, pointing the long knife at the salad bowl, “but we’ve been pushing!” when he says “we” El Nino (born Elethu Mpengesi) is referring to Sonwabo “Ma-B” Kkambi, Bukhulubakhe “Redondo” Nompetsheni and Dlambulo “Dla” Mancunga. Collectively, they make up the crew that is on everyone’s lips.

Back in 2001, El Nino and Ma-B, then Fezeka High School students, decided to put their rhyming skills to work and started a three-man group with an emcee who didn’t last long. “Many are called,” laughs Ma-B, “but you know the rest.”

The “drie” then became two until Redondo was brought into the fold. The three man crew who all lived on the same street was so impressed by Dla (who lived a few houses away in the same street) that they let him spit a few bars on their songs.

Then an unfortunate incident saw Redondo incarcerated for two years. Between 2006 and 2008, Redondo served time for being present when a murder took place in Cape Town. He was released after appeal and the case was thrown out in 2010. “In Redondo’s absence, people were concerned about how the group will do,” shares El Nino.

However, he continues, ‘I feel that the group is more complete now that there are four of us than before. Firstly, the name of the group is much bigger than who is in the group. Our album would not have come out the same way and now we are a force to be reckoned with.” The foursome joined forces with Damian Stephens, better known to the music community as Dplanet, the founder and CEO of Pioneer Unit.

This is the record company that El Nino says they were “lucky to find because they’re also not making any money, they just want to see real hip hop rise to the top.” It’s through Pioneer Unit that Driemanskap released Igqabhukil’ Inyongo. The Cape Town-based company is also the home of alternative hip hop torchbearer, Ben Sharpa and the awe-inspiring spaza rap pioneer, Rattex.

Driemanskap have also been labelled forerunners in the spaza movement, a musical sub-genre of hip hop that calls Cape Town townships its birthplace.

Dla walks into the kitchen, flashes his gold tooth and sneaks a peek inside the salad bowl. Earlier, Ma-B mentioned that they’ve all had to develop a DIY attitude because they usually stay at B&Bs when they travel for performances.

As a result, Dla is the one group member who absolutely hates cooking. So I’m not surprised when Ddla enquires about something to El Nino before making a dash out to the pool area where Redondo is soaking up some sun. El Nino places the remaining vegetables in a plastic bag and then breaks down exactly what Spaza is.

“The word itself means ‘something informal,’” he explains, reminding me that in the townships, a spaza shop is a store that sells various items – sometimes even on credit – in an informal way that you won’t find in the ‘burbs. He’s quick to point out: “we’re not ‘vernac rappers’ because that would mean we only use one language.”

“Spaza is a mixture of things. The definition of this kind of rap is similar to how you would define motswako except the primary language in Spaza is Xhosa,”he says. Word is Rattex and other Mother City rappers coined this phrase in the 90s so El Nino makes it clear that “we didn’t start Spaza – it’s cats from back in the day who could rap in English but chose to mix that with Xhosa that did.”

Furthermore, “Spaza rappers weren’t respected in Cape Town and they were compared to kwaito artists. Called kwaito rappers until later….”

A big bodied woman who is staying at the B&B comes into the kitchen with the intention to throw away her KFC packet. She peers into the salad bowl – I begin to wonder what’s so intriguing inside it – while she’s humming something. El Nino doesn’t even flinch.

“True, some of those rappers back then were boring and using the same old metronome,” he quickly switches into rhyme and sways his neck robotically, “ngaze nga hamba/manje kuya banda/ngizogqoka esami islamba.” He screws his face up and then as quickly as he switched into bad-rapper-mode, he’s back to his normal self.

“But we were some of the people who brought it back and made it popular,” he continues, “we’ve got heavy flows and our use of the Xhosa language is smart. That’s not just what we’re saying, it’s what the public is saying about us.” But what does the rest of the crew say about themselves? I walk outside and dip my feet in the pool and tease that the boys are too cool to join me, they laugh and stretch on the reclining chairs.

“This life is not something you choose,” smiles Dla. “It happened automatically because I never grew up wanting to be a famous rapper.” The crew concurs. El Nino is Driemanskap’s principal producer because, he says, “I know our sound and where we’re trying to go. But besides that, other producers have issues and paying R1000 and more for beats is ridiculous.”

There is laughter around the pool. Passion doesn’t come with a price tag seems to be the sentiment. The most quiet of the four rappers, Redondo, finally steps up to say something. He recollects when he first knew that making music was the only thing he wanted to do forever. “It was Valentine’s Day,” he reminisces.

“I was working as a teller and I was late that day.” On top of his tardiness, Redondo had to tell his boss that he needed time off so he could join the group on a few performance dates. The boss was not having that so, “I quit that very day. I knew I couldn’t deliver as much as I do now on my music if I went back to that life.” Now, “there’s a lot of community work that I do. Like rounding up the kids in our townships and taking them to the grounds so they can practice sports and play.”

And while this is not a life that has a guaranteed salary, “we see our music as an investment,” says Dla – the only one with a fulltime job as a webmaster. El Nino is a marketing graduate and Ma-B (who has finally stepped out of the shower to join us at the pool) is an illustrator.

All four friends focus on community work like motivating school kids and, in light of what Redondo has been through, speak and perform at juvenile centres and prisons. “We thought Redondo would come out like Tupac when he was in jail – with lots of songs,” says El Nino. Instead “he was stressed in there and he told us that the devil is running that place.”

Emphasising that “the only way to survive is through spiritual strength,” El Nino also says: “It’s hard to change the correctional facilities and the judicial system but nothing is impossible.” A primped up Ma-B is passionate about their work beyond the music too. He leans in and says frankly, “When we started making music, we didn’t do it for us. We’ve had a lot of struggles and we can’t let the kids coming up after us face the same,” he continues, “we want to reach everyone from the president to the normal guy because of what we do outside of the music even. It’s all because we do what comes straight from the heart.”

El Nino adds: “sisBrenda… Ringo Madlingozi…Mankuku Ngozi all left Cape Town to make it big in Joburg. Who is going to stay and make it easier for people just like us to break into the industry? We have the opportunity to do that. I don’t care that I’m not being played on Metro FM because I’m not jiggy or swaggerific or talk about girls all the time. Our strength lies in our will to not compromise ourselves.” Now how can you put a price on that?

This article appeared in Musik Mag in 2011.