‘No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.” That phrase, from the film, Dead Poets Society, was immortalised by the late, great emcee, Ben Sharpa.
As a rapper, producer and thought leader, his words over eccentric rap beats and ideas around social justice galvanised members of underground rap as much as it gained him fans across the globe.
Because he gave us B.Sharpa, a seminal album, 10 years ago, he was able to change the scene and make the world realise you could be an alternative to the mainstream and still be popular.
Ben Sharpa, whose real name was Kgotso Semela, had been living with Type 1 Diabetes and passed away on July 26 in Johannesburg. He was 41-years-old. He will be buried in Enerdale on Saturday morning. A memorial service, which will be open to the public, will be held on Thursday, August 2 at Stop Sign Gallery in the Nedbank Majestic Building on 141 Bree Street in Johannesburg at 6pm.
In 1979, Sharpa’s dad got the opportunity to leave Soweto to study in America. He came back for Sharpa’s mother, his older sister and Sharpa in 1980 and Tebs was born four years later.
In the years that followed, having moved from St Louis to Chicago to Michigan, it was there that Sharpa developed a knack for a dice game and academia.
“He topped the whole state of Michigan in English and mathematics,” says Tebs.
Tebs’ world was influenced and changed by Sharpa’s words and ideas.
employee of the month at IBM.
Sharpa’s ideas would bring the world together, so Krook’d decided Ceelo wasn’t a good enough name for the artist that would later become known as Ben Sharpa. Krook’d gave him the name Oh Kaptin My Kap’n – or just Kap for short.
Hueman, Forekast (aka Breeze Yoko), Gemini and more to form a bigger group called Groundworks. Through their indie label, Con Camp (formerly Concentration Camp), they released projects like Demolition: The Me Story in 2002 and the underground classic, Pavement Special Vol 1 in 2003.
A song that came out of this music family was the popular Stereotype Type by the late Hueman. Krook’d recalls how the song came about: “We made the beat back in the day when Kap was still at UCT.
“He used to take care of the UCT computer lab and so we used to sneak in there at midnight to go use the computers for free to make beats. So that’s how we started making beats – with Kap in the lab, because he had the keys. With Kap’s beats, it was first come, first served.” Hueman was so intent on having that beat, he wrote to it in a matter of days.
While still in Cape Town, Kap struck up a partnership with Damian “Dplanet” Stephens, the co-founder of independent record label, Pioneer Unit.
a culture-shifting body of work led by a riotous track called Hegemony, which was produced by Sibot.
Hip Hop culture expert and OG, Leslie “Lee” Kasumba agrees: “Hegemony was important because all the questions he was asking were important. No matter where you were from, you could relate.
Dplanet and visual artist, spo0ky to release the 4th Density Light Show (4DLS) project in 2012. He never let his diabetes take him away from the music.
Dplanet says: “I remember one time in Switzerland and we couldn’t get hold of him. We got the hotel to open the door and it was two hours before a show and he was in a coma,” he recalls.
way even though he was living with a disease that ate away at his organs. Towards the end, his kidneys started to fail and once your kidneys go, everything does.
Dplanet pauses and then says: “we were working with Jarring Effects in France, who really pushed him. But he was frustrated that he wasn’t earning more money and we didn’t know how to do more than we were doing. There was no animosity but he was frustrated and wanted to try other things. I don’t know why we sat on this unreleased album.
Lee believes Sharpa’s legacy transcended boundaries. “When I put up a post about his passing, people from Ghana and across the continent were messaging me. He had that sort of impact on people who were actually about hip hop,” she says.
Tributes pour in for SA hip hop pioneer Ben Sharpa, but who was he?