In his song Big Brother, Kanye West rapped: If you admire someone you should go ahead and tell ’em, people never get the flowers when they can still smell them. The Remix Awards, which take place in Washington DC next month, aim to turn those lyrics on its head.
The global initiative has recognised South Africa’s Emile YX? Jansen and nominated him in the Pioneer of the Year category. The nominees in this category in are chosen by the Curatorial Committee for the Words Beats & Life Inc’s Inter-national Teach-in organisation.
According to a press release, these awards seek to “commemorate commit- ment to hip hop culture and active involvement in its development”.
Also nominated in the category is B-boy icon, Crazy Legs of the Rock Steady Crew, and legendary graffiti artist, Mare.
Jansen is a Cape Town hip hop activist well-known as a founding member of the legendary Black Noise group, the head of the Heal The Hood community organi- sation and the man behind the annual Hip Hop Indaba. But people outside of hip hop may recognise him as one of the judges on the TV dance show, Step Up Or Step Out. The man with a super afro says he wasn’t expecting to be nominated.
“I was really surprised,” he told me.
“You know, here in South Africa, the congratulations only come once you’re not around anymore. So it’s nice to be acknowledged. And the people who are on the list, that I’m nominated alongside, are people I learnt a lot from. Like, Crazy Legs is someone I learnt how to breakdance from and Mare is someone we used to watch on Beat Street and things like that. So, even being included in that list, I’m like: am I really that old?”
The activist who first burst onto the scene as part of Black Noise in 1982 laughs at his rhetorical question, but one wouldn’t really guess that he’s been involved with hip hop for more than 3 decades just by looking at him. Maybe he’s on that Pharrell Williams diet?
“The secret to looking young,” he cracks up, “is to hang out with young people. That and don’t get married!”
Jansen’s Heal The Hood, which uses the arts to work with young people in communities in the Western Cape, is a 2010 Remix Award winner in the Hip Hop Organisation of the Year category.
“One of the positives of working within hip hop,” shares Jansen, “is getting a group of kids from a young age and seeing them grow and achieve on international platforms – which happens regularly with the kids that we work with.”
While Jansen waits for next month to hear if he has won the Pioneer of the Year, he’s busy with his projects and putting plans together to take some of the kids he works with to next year’s awards.
• The Remix Award recipients will be announced on July 1. Visit www.wblinc.org or www.healthehood. org.za for more information.