The first thing I’m dying to know is what Cape Town’s hip-hop scene is actually like: “[It] works, and I love playing at home but Cape Town isn’t punk enough for rap a lot of the time. Pretoria and Durban are where I feel kids really sweat it out with you and dance and act like they’re at a rap show.”
And about being a female rapper when you don’t see too many women working in this genre:
“In an ideal world there would be more women producing and more women on lineups and I hope that it won’t take too long before we start seeing that. I have hope.”
The inevitable possibility of comparisons between Push Push and Die Antwoord comes up.
“I don’t think that musically there’s anything I’m doing that reflects that same vibe but I will definitely take that as a compliment. I don’t know too much about Die Antwoord these days, but Waddy Jones was definitely a big reason why I started rapping in the first place. To be 15 and hear someone rapping in your accent was a big thing for me. I was like – 0kay, this is what it feels like to say whatever the fuck you want and I really like this feeling.”
She’s been working with producer Thor Rixon recently. “I’m working on a couple things with Thor at the moment. Some new stuff you’ll hear at the Arcade Empire show.”
“I like working with different producers for sure. The way me and Thor work is cool because there’s never any pressure, just two mates who are wildly different to each other getting together and mixing it up until we’ve got something we feel works. I can’t say that Thor has ever let me down. He is a constant inspiration in my life and without him my music would hundred percent sound completely different. He brings something completely new and beautiful to the table every time.”
Push Push is “your girlfriend’s favourite rapper”, and can be seen at Arcade Empire and Griet’s Halloween 2016 party, at the Voortrekker Monument on 29 October. See more info here, and get tickets here.
