00:00You can't see me!
00:11That song, you know, I love John Cena. I'm a huge fan of John Cena himself.
00:15I watched a lot of wrestling growing up.
00:17But the song is actually not about John Cena. It's about a boy that I had or have a big crush on
00:27who I just felt like, you know, he just wasn't seeing me.
00:30I know at Afropunk, they like to say, we see you!
00:33But this guy was not seeing me at all.
00:35So I decided to make this song which was like, you know, you don't see me, maybe I'm John Cena.
00:49I think it's about time that the rest of the world realizes how vibey African music is.
00:54I think that before this, Africa was always seen as having value just in terms of natural resources.
01:01But it was never thought to have any value in terms of ideas or culture.
01:05And this is that era where it's like, oh my goodness, we can actually trade also in culture.
01:11There's something valuable that we can offer from our mind.
01:14That's something that's extremely different from what the relationship the rest of the world has had with Africa
01:20has been for the last couple hundred years.
01:22Like, it's very, very, very different.
01:24And it's exciting to be making music at a time when it seems like the rest of the world is ready for African music.
01:29People don't want to take the time to perceive of Africa as being complex and whatever, and we are.
01:38You know, I come from a smaller ethnic group in South Africa.
01:41I'm Tsonga. I use a lot of Tsonga in my music.
01:44That's something that really wasn't being done in my genre or within the mainstream nationally in my country before I came on.
01:50That until somebody does it, you don't really think, you know, it's possible.
01:55A lot of the Afrobeat guys and stuff started off trying to emulate trap or trying to do US R&B
02:03and saw that, okay, you're not going to beat people at trying to be what they are.
02:10The only way you can actually be something is to be who you are.
02:15My music has always been seen as something that really unifies people,
02:21and I think it's because everybody has had some experience in which they're an outsider,
02:25so everybody can relate to that story.
02:28Whether it's because you're black and having to overcome racism,
02:31having to overcome sexism, having to overcome homophobia.
02:35For me, coming from this small village, from an ethnic group that was really oppressed and undermined for ages,
02:41and then coming out and saying, actually, now this is the new cool.
02:45Everybody can relate to that story, and I think that's why my music kind of brings people together.
02:49Being booked at Afropunk, as always, is like a pleasure.
03:03It's really nice to do the Afropunk festivals this side as well,
03:08because I think it's really genuine to what they're trying to do, you know.
03:12You can't have Afropunk without the Africans, you know, being present.
03:15I always think that there's a connection between black people worldwide.
03:19When I've been eating all this southern food since I've been in Atlanta,
03:23and it clearly has remnants of West African food,
03:27and I'm curious as to whether the music, that's something that carries across still
03:32and remains generations later, that, like, afterwards, people can still have that in common, you know.
03:38I used to be cool when I used to come to, now you wanna act tough like John Cena.
03:42T-T-T-T-T
03:44T-T-T-T
03:46T-T-T-T
Comments