Helen Herimbi
IT MIGHT seem like music lovers only hooked up with Aewon Wolf about a week ago, but the artist, whose real name is Arnold Philips, has been around for longer. The rapper, whose collaboration with Tribal, called A Week Ago, basically owned radio airwaves for the second quarter of the year, is hard to pin down.
In between making appearances on TV shows and recording music while travelling between his hometown and Joburg, the eThekwini lad stood me up one morning.
A few weeks later, I bumped into him at Dreamteam’s album listening session and finally pinned him down.
Obviously there to support his fellow Durbanites (and with the rise in popularity of other East Coast players like WTF and Sketchy Bongo, as well as the return of acts like Zakwe and the takeover of someone like Okmalumkoolkat) I ask Wolf if he thinks this is the year for Durban hip hop.
“This is the year for hip hop, more than anything,” he quickly says.
“I always feel like Durban always had a dominating factor because of the way it’s situated as a city. People can focus more on the music than other distractions.
“Once they are into something, they go hard into whatever that thing is. If you look back at house or kwaito, we (Durbanites) weren’t first, but when we come in, we come in with our own flavour. Something that’s hard and authentic to South Africa.”
Durban kwaito had such an impact on music in the country in general that people from other regions began to bite that style. And although frequent collaborator and producer, Sketchy Bongo, is basically working with everyone in the spotlight, his work with Wolf is diverse.
With his Pusha T braids under an umqhele(a Zulu headband), diversity – and marrying worlds that don’t usually go together – is becoming Wolf’s signature. From the trap track, Kumnandi La(featuring Okmalumkoolkat) to the nu-age Afro-pop-friendly A Week Ago, Wolf flexes his skill.
“A Week Ago wasn’t trap,” he points out. “My brand of music is very diverse. I’m very true to the South African theme of being diverse. When it comes to my music, I don’t hold back on anything.
“If I’m in a club, I want to make music that’s really going to turn up the club and make people dance. If I make a love song, I want actual emotions to be drawn from the person listening to the song. So I’m not going to say my genre is ‘trap’. No. I just stay true to who I am as a South African and who I am.”
He also wants to stay true to his name. The peculiar moniker is explained like this: “The first name, ‘Aewon’, came from a dream where I was told that’s my true name,” he says, straight-faced. “People will find out one day what it means, but I was told this in a dream and I believe in dreams. Wolf came later.
“I work a lot with other musicians and tend to bring out the best in them in studio,” says Wolf. “So I also write for other musicians. A wolf is a pack animal and the way that I am with music, it’s like I’m a pack animal. I like to use other musicians to make something unique and different and possibly a hit.”
If he continues in this vein, hits won’t be too far away.
l Check out Aewon Wolf’s music on soundcloud.com/aewonwolf.