South African-born hip-hop artists Emile Jansen returns from the USA to work on his 14th album, “Black Noise”.
Fondly known as Emile YX?, he will also complete two books and promote 40 of his Heal The Hood book clubs in September.
“Black Noise” was made possible after he appealed to SAMRO (South Africa Music Right Organisation) for a small grant and it was approved.
Jansen, who originally hails from from Cape Town, currently lives in Alpharetta, Atlanta, Georgia USA, with his wife and two kids. He is known for being a part of Cape Town's original Pop Glide b-boy crew, which started in 1982.
“I recently became a green card holder and will create similar work in the USA like I do here with ‘Heal The Hood Project’ and ‘Hip Hop Culture’.
“In the meantime I have released a book called ‘Reconnect The String’ and will return in September to set up book clubs and release another book I wrote called ‘A Colouredful Life’ as well as ‘Making a Black Noise’, part 1.”
“I moved to the USA to help my wife with our kids while she took care of her mom who is suffering with a form of Parkinsons,” he shared.
Jansen brought his children home to SA to visit his parents and family after three years of not being able to travel due to the pandemic.
He is also on a mission to raise funds for 480 books for the “40 Heal The Hood Project” in South Africa.
“The HTH Project Book Clubs are part of the 4 R's Project. (1) Writing our own stories, (2) Reading our own stories, (3) overstanding the Remuneration that products related to our stories can generate and explaining ways of diversifying the income streams from these creations,” Jansen said.
“This also involves assessing times when others made money from our stories and ancestral intellectual property and demanding reparations. (4) The last R is for Rehumanization and the sense of equality, humanity and pride that spreading our own story creates.
“It also helps to develop more than the one story told about our heritage and potential. It demands that others have no excuses to read about our stories and return our humanity that was and is stripped from us by the racist and singular views being spread.”
The tour of the “40 Book Clubs” will end in October at the South African Hip Hop Museum in Gauteng. The 25 other interested communities or individuals wishing to host a book club can email [email protected]
People can buy PDF copies of Jansen’s book and donate the hard copy to one of the “40 Book Clubs”.
Contact Heal the Hood Project at [email protected]