Helen Herimbi
Jefferson Bobs Tshabalala, who brings his show, J Bobs Live, to the Soweto Theatre this week makes the kind of observations one would expect from a playwright, director, actor and poet .
That’s because through his characters, J Bobs, J Bobhoza, J Booboo, J Bambaklat, J Bora, J Bop and J Bawo, this artist looks at what is seemingly normal and zones-in on its finer details to make the audience think.
J Bobs Live is a showcase which sees Tshabalala accompanied by Benette Mulungo (keys) and Simphiwe Bonongo (beatbox) on stage. It features characters that are caricatures of poets as well as rappers. The two sides are encouraged to swap genre aesthetics and the results are a deep take on what people are actually saying. Very meta.
“If you’re treating the content with the same aesthetics, but writing different material, the foundation shifts,” he explains, “swag rappers are about chains and girls, but when you impose another genre on that, there’s so much more you can unearth.”
J Bobs Live, a 110 minute production with interval, follows Tshabalala’s 2012 show, Boom Bap vs Swag Rap and Tower of Tewop, which was first performed in 2013. Tewop, which was the slam poetry competition wing of his KPN company, stands for The Elite Wing of Poetry.
It was through Tewop that Tshabalala noticed certain types of poets abound in the culture. He took these stereotypes and dramatised them for that production. He also took the stereotypes of mainstream hip hop and created a production out of that.
It is this incarnation of J Bobhoza that he has taken to the South African Hip Hop Awards (SAHHA) stage which he co-hosted with comedian, Pule, for two consecutive years.
“I was already doing Boom Bap vs Swag Rap when Osmic (of SAHHA) spoke to us, the original idea was Pule was going to host and I was going to direct. But it was nice to say here comes the downtown S’khotane and a North Lame who are the best of friends.”
The Soweto show will definitely have J Bobhoza in it. “What I’m trying to do with J Bobs Live is to create a fusion of what happens when the poetry world meets the hip hop world. You’d think they aren’t that far apart, right?” he asks rhetorically. “And since I was coming from both worlds, I saw that when I was in the poetry sphere, I wouldn’t see anyone from the hip hop sphere and vice versa. People are coming from opposing ideological spaces.”
“It’s not to say that the rap guy isn’t doing what the poetry guy is saying, it’s just the ideology is different. People think this poetry guy can’t be rude because he’s just talking and using words like ‘empress.’”
Essentially, Tshabalala says it boils down to this: “people are doing the genre and not the craft.”
Catch J Bobs Live at the Soweto Theatre on November 11 and 12 at 8pm. Tickets: R80.