DJ Dimplez talks to Munya Vomo about how he broke into the industry at a time when there were no hip hop DJs
You are in a club listening to DJ Khaled’s All I Do Is Win and the crowd is going crazy with their hands in the air. Right after that comes Yaya from DJ Dimplez and the revellers go even crazier. It is at this point that you realise our local boy DJ Dimplez has cracked the formula that international DJs use on the club scene. It’s all about a good beat, a catchy hook and a hilarious but memorable intro and outro. In a landscape where South African hip hop has taken over the music industry, it’s the perfect time for DJ Dimplez to release his critically acclaimed album, Zeal.
BEGINNINGS
“I played hip hop because I listened to it. At the time DJs played house music and as much as I loved going to a party and listening to house, it is not what I needed. It wasn’t my forte and I knew I’d be much better playing hip hop so I just decided to teach myself to play the genre,” said the DJ.
For him, a love of hip hop and timing gained him easy entry into the industry, unlike what his peers have had to endure.
“I think I was lucky in the sense that I had a breakthrough from day one. Milkshake and I got on Tbo Touch’s radio show Rhyme n’ Reason in 2004. I was only six months into the DJ game. That was the easier route and a lot of DJs would want that so when we got it we used it and never looked back,” he explained.
LEAP OF FAITH
While DJing has different facets, DJ Dimplez decided to go into making music largely because no South African hip hop DJ was doing so. This was pretty clear when listening to hip hop sets at nightclubs.
“For me, DJing is always fun, but you are not going to do the same thing over and over. Some DJs go into production, or scratching competitions, but I got to a point where I felt we needed to play more local music. When it’s like that you get to a point where you play a song and people don’t know it and they stop dancing. So I made a decision to make local music that I could play alongside the international stuff and still get the people to like it,” he said.
Breaking down the process of how he makes music, Dimplez spelt out the relationship he has with the producers he ropes in on his songs.
“I work with producers and they do not party as much as we do. They shut themselves away from the world and prefer to listen to what’s around so that they can know what to make. So as a DJ I have to connect them with what’s happening out here so that we can find the perfect sound. Even when DJing now, you need to make local music that the fans can understand,” he said.
While we are only getting his album Zeal now, the DJ has been working on it for a while and is enjoying the fruits of his labour.
“The first song we made was in 2012 and it was called Toast. Since then it’s taken me three years to complete the album. The first time I made a song, it was just me trying to see what I can do. George Avakian came to me and said we should work on something. I told him of the sound I thought people could adjust to. We also called in JR and Toast came out of that. To date, I think JR is one of the most talented artist in the country and South Africa doesn’t even know it. Working with him on that project inspired me to make more music of my own,” he explained.
WILL THE REAL DJ PLEASE STAND UP
Being the first DJ to release a hip hop project did not come with praise only; some people questioned DJ Dimplez’s originality.
“People have linked me to DJ Khaled, but if you know your hip hop then you would know that DJs have been making their own music for years. From Funkmaster Flex to Drama, the culture of DJs creating music has always been there. It’s just that the younger generation only got introduced to it through DJ Khaled and they think I am copying that, which is unfortunate,” he fired back.
“When international DJs come and play their original music, it’s okay, but once a local DJ does that, they get attached to some international name. I feel that somebody needed to break the ice and I did it, and got the criticism. Now every other DJ is dropping hip hop albums and people seem to be fine with it,” he said.
AND THE HITS KEEP ON COMING
While some naysayers may try to bring the DJ down, the is no denying that Zeal is a top contender in this year’s hip hop charts thanks to hits like Yaya, Amantombazane and Way Up. DJ Dimplez recalled how he stumbled on Yaya: “We were in studio and I invited Dream Team for another song and they did not feel that it was the right sound for them. They felt that it was too new.
“Anatii was there too, going through beats. He has this thing of free-styling without singing proper lyrics just to get a flow. So he was mumbling: ‘show me that yaya” on the beat and we all asked him to keep the beat. It was catchy then and we held on to it. The Dream Team’s energy had them come up with the dance moves before the song was even done.”
HIP HOP FOREVER?
When you hear legends like Yvonne Chaka Chaka confess that they like Cassper Nyovest’s music then you know that our hip hop has taken over. Yet, DJ Dimplez feels that nothing lasts forever.
“Music is a wheel. Fifteen years back there was no house genre. Now those DJs who played house are into hip hop. There was kwaito and Afro-pop, but now we have other genres with hip hop on top. One day people might get bored and move on to another genre. That’s what happens,” he said.
• Zeal is in music stores and on iTunes.