DAWGZBITEBACK
2002-11-14 Pusterviksbaren
DJ MLECCHA: What is kwaito in the Dawgzbiteback interpretation?
DJ MZWAKHE: Kwaito is the only music that made the youth of South Africa to finally
expess themselves though freedom of speech which they could not have during the
former apartheid goverment. The beats / groove influence comes from the late 80’s
UK dance music (house), e.g, Incognito, Soul-Soul, Brand New Heavies, Frankie
Nuckles, etc.- The language is a township slang called ’isiTstotsi’ which is a
mixture of Zulu, Sotho, Tswana and English, the message is unlished in a rapstyle
chanting and the rhythm is entirely African and very vibrant!
DJ MLECCHA: What about the name of your group? What is the thing?
DJ MZWAKHE: The Dawgzbiteback began as a name of a song I’ve co-written
with Mzeke Bokaba in 1996 for our first Kwaito crew (Divine Crew), since I moved
to Stockholm and established the first kwaito crew in Europe, I decided to call
the crew ’Dawgzbiteback’ to dedicate it to my homey Mzeke a.k.a ’Ntja ya Vibe’
(The Vibedawg). The Dawgz are biting back to the system that ate us alive for
so many years, making the rich richer and poor poorest. Now its time to bite back!
The Dawgz are Dj Mzwakhe and Makatso.
DJ MLECCHA: What do you think of the Swedish club culture? If you could add something
from the club culture in J’burg, what would that be? Or in other words,
is there a certain part of the system that you would like bite harder on?
DJ MZWAKHE: The Swedish club culture is very open for Swedish people and less
open for visitors. The club culture should heavily promote music and art, NOT
drugs, therefore the age factor would not matter that much. e.g, would you allow
16 year olds to come to your club to see their favourite artists on stage? Why
not? The music and dance world should be accessible to everyone anytime anywhere.
There should be NO limits! The club nights in J’burg go from 18h00 to 06h00 until
your body can’t take it anymore, its entirely your choice! That way the culture
grows bigger and stronger. That’s how the Kwaito culture managed to grow so big
and strong in such a short time - only 10 years since the first kwaito album to
hit Platinum (more than a million copies sold)!
DJ MLECCHA: Well, you are quite right. I can not let 16 year olds in to BwC when
it takes place in venues where alcohol is served. And there are of course divisions
on many levels in the Swedish club culture that excludes the music and art as
the center of clubbing. But there is not only problems with racism, sexism and
age-divisions (part of them due the authorities and economical structure of our
society) but there is also a kind of general acceptance of this structure. I find
this far more problematic than the laws themselves. It is as if we have got used
to the silence and also let this silence be the standard sound of our society.
I hope we might be able to change this. But I don’t think this change necessarily
is a change in quantity. We must focus on the art of live music, deejayism and
club culture – we have to give us time to enhance the quality of night life.