By Helen Herimbi
“Pardon me, how the f*** you gon’ start with me?”
Lil Fame screams into my ears as MOP’s Cold As Ice blares through my earphones. It’s a scorcher of a Saturday morning in Cape Town and thanks to Castle Lite, I’m en route to meet two of the most unapologetically ghetto, brash and rugged rhyme spitters in the flesh.
Made up of long-time friends, rapper Billy Danze and rapper/producer Lil Fame, MOP is a rap group straight out of Brooklyn, New York, and they’re in the Mother City to shoot a TV advert for Castle Lite – which premieres tonight – similar to the ones starring Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer.
I’m sweating – more from the sun than the prospect of catching some behind-the-scenes action on the set of the advert – and trying not to pull aggressive rap hands as I mouth the Cold As Ice lyrics (off MOP’s breakthrough album, Warriorz) to myself.
MOP’s music has earned the group a reputation for being in your face, for encouraging moshpit behaviour, for being (for lack of a better word) belligerent. So I put my earphones away in anticipation of seeing a set-up akin to the group’s wild Ante Up remix video. Instead, I am greeted by girls in freakum dresses, smiling faces and people posing for pictures.
Turns out the commercial has already been filmed and this is just a photo shoot for the campaign promo shots. A quick scan around the room – Billy Danze doting on a blonde, Lil Fame looking jovial – gives me enough time to realise that in this moment, MOP aren’t trying to live up to their abbreviation: Mash Out Posse.
They look happy and nice and, well, happy. I’m able to find out where some of this happiness stems from after I pass by a platter of pastries, a smorgasbord of sarmies and a bevy of beverages set up outside a hotel room where MOP conduct interviews later that day.
“This is our first time in Africa, period,” Danze beams before he excitedly talks the advert up. “It’s hot. The commercial is going to be hot. Great vision from the director (and ad agency, Ogilvy Cape Town). We feel good about this. There’s going to be a sequel and it’s going to be colder.” Lil Fame adds, “We’ve got a song called Cold As Ice and of course, Castle Lite is an ice cold beer.”
MOP were chosen as the next American act to feature in a Castle Lite ad because “we always look for iconic musicians and the song Cold As Ice, is perfect for our brand,” Leanne Martin, Castle Lite communication marketing manager told me.
So in the ad, a mock-band called The Kwaggas are playing a ’70s hit, Cold As Ice, which was originally sung by British-American rock group Foreigner. This song was sampled by Lil Fame and made into an instant classic by MOP in 2000, so while The Kwaggas are jamming in 2013, MOP arrive.
“I grew up with all kinds of music around me,” explains Lil Fame, a man of surprisingly few words, “and the Foreigner song was just a good one to remix and revive.”
I ask him why he produces under the name Lil Fizz – which is what appears on the production credits – instead of Lil Fame and he says, “I rap under Lil Fame, and then there’s my producer monicker. But you know, around the way, in my neighbourhood what happens is…”
He pauses and asks me, “What’s your name? Helen, right?” I nod. He continues, “Then they would call you Hez.” Without skipping a beat, Danze interjects: “Heeeeeeeeeeeeez!”
There’s laughter from me as well as a group of minders and brand people who get to sit in on an, er, one-on-one interview. “So,” Lil Fame starts again, “then they’ll call me Slap or Fame and so they’ll say Slez or Fizzy. Lil Fizz.”