Where do I begin to describe Jack Parow’s live DVD, Welcome to Parowdise?
Perhaps by stating that it is the best live music DVD to be released in this country? I had goosebumps from the opening track, Hier’s Hy Nou to the final song, Hard Partytjie Hou.
The DVD footage is a montage of various live performances from London to Oppikoppi and, of course, Cape Town.
The language on stage could be termed “foul” by the more church- going members of society. However, the contrast between Parow’s on-stage persona in that famous extended peak cap and the chilled, shy, considerate young man offstage is vast.
The DVD is in Afrikaans, however, there is an English sub- titled option.
Just before he begins the anthem for uncool kids, Cooler as Ekke, he says: “Ek weet daar is baie mense wat nie van my hou nie, maar ek voel a vet p***.” (Roughly translated: I know there are many people who don’t like me, but I don’t care.)
The ensuing song sees rabid fans screaming the words; it is their anthem after all.
“I had so much performance footage of myself that I decided I wanted to get it out there,” he says about Welcome to Parowdise.
“I actually did it for myself. I had forgotten most of the stuff that had happened. I didn’t want to do a documentary as I haven’t been a rapper for long enough. This DVD is about where I am right now.”
So where is he right now?
“I am at a pretty pivotal point. I am recording my third album. Now I can either carry on the same way, or create a platform in South Africa for younger artists.”
Parow is also enjoying international success, particularly in Holland. In fact, he’s just returned from performing in that country. He has also had interest from the US.
“I don’t know why the States want me. Maybe they wanna hang me or something. I dunno. I’m going there to find out.”
He also has a headline spot at Oppikoppi which takes place this weekend. It was this time last year that 20 000 music lovers discovered another of his anthems, Afrikaans is Dood.
That track on the DVD is monumentally brilliant. In fact, every track shows just what an incisive and necessary social commentator Parow is.
All his gigs in South Africa are sold out so it is an absolute treat to experience his performances up close and personal on the DVD. It is then that I realised just how talented Parow is and the fact that his music is actually more hard rock than I had previously thought.
Then, of course, there is the live band. He only performs with a live band. It includes Loki Rothman on the guitar and Jade Deebes on the drums in a bikini. Sexy!
There are performances and tour shots with his close friends, Die Heuwels Fantasties and Francois van Coke.
On Dans Dans Dans and Hard Partytjie Hou Van Coke’s voice has never sounded so good.
In between the songs, an informal chat happens between the camera and the Afrikaans rapper while he is taking out the trash and feeding his beautiful Labrador. It is in those scenes that we encounter the shy, sensitive man who hides behind the wild Jack Parow. It is this man who observes the bull and pain and farcical people who make up our 21st-century reality and translates it into the abrasive, witty rhymes that make up Jack Parow.
Welcome to Parowdise will bring his live performances into thousands of homes. But it will also ensure that people will recognise Jack Parow as something other than a gimmicky rapper with a long cap and a poor dress sense.
They will see him for what he really is – an iconic, highly talented artist who delivers his art with passion, intensity and honesty.
Parow is on his way to becoming a true South African legend. Get this DVD now. It’s available at Musica, Look & Listen and CNA as well as at www.kalahari.net.