The brief was to lay down a slamming urban hip hop track for a recent TV ad featuring SAMA award-winning rapper AKA and So You Think You Can Dance? finalist - Kabelo.
The lively TVC (with post-production looked after by Ministry of Illusion) plays out in a surreal inner city dreamscape and features everything from trumpets and trapeze to neon bicycles and pink hardhats. The track starts with the familiar sound of an SMS and quickly evolves into an all-out urban street party lead by AKA's smooth raps and, of course, Adam's fly rhythms, blasting trumpet lines and phat beats.
Adam breaks it down thusly: "I worked closely with Rob Malpage (Director and DOP from Frieze Films). With music videos produced for Die Antwoord and Vusi Mahlesela, Rob really knows his stuff! We were both adamant that we wanted to treat the commercial as a music video and decided to first compose the track and then edit to the music. It was great to work with AKA again. We actually go back a few years. I first met Kiernan (AKA's real name) when I was working on the Bala Brothers' first album - 'B3', he was 17! I co-produced a few tracks on that album with Zwai and Loyiso Bala, and Loyiso said we had to get this 'amazing' young rapper in the studio. He featured on a classic Caiphus Semenya track that we re-recorded - Ziph'inkomo - and I knew then, Kiernan had a great future ahead of him!"
Adam took the floating deejay, flashy pyrotechnics, and gesticulating posse as his cue to push the sonic envelope and did more than just represent, yo! Click here to see how the Howard Music crew rolls, playa!
P.S. Rising from the ashes of disco, the term "hip hop" was coined by rapper Keith Cowboy while teasing a friend who had just joined the US Army, by scat singing the words "hip/hop/hip/hop" in a way that mimicked the rhythmic cadence of soldiers marching. You learn something everyday...
