EQUATE Meets Nasty C

As an artist sculpted by South African culture and international rap influence, Nasty C has broken down several barriers concerning what it means to be an ‘African musician’. The Durbanite continues to shift the outside lens on African music to one that is broader and open-minded through his playful lyricism, melodic flows and his clear dedication to Hip-Hop artistry. In what could be described as his most blended project when it comes to merging African and Western sounds, Zulu Man With Some Power is a breath of fresh air in a politically-charged climate.

Words by Ope Oduwole for EQUATE Magazine

Ope: The question I think always sets the tone moving forward is how has the pandemic affected your sound and the way you create music over this period?

Nasty C: I guess, because I so much time now, to just sit with the music and it’s the only thing I had to do like all day every day. I guess you would say it gave me a chance to focus on the nitty-gritty stuff. You know what I mean? Like the instruments, the way my sound sounds. And that just includes the mixing of everything, the master, the effects that I put on my songs, that’s really the only thing that has been affected by it.

Ope: One of the things that I’ve realized, especially in comparison to your other projects, there’s definitely more of a seamless transition between your melodic rap and the hard-hitting flows. For example, Feeling, and then That’s Hard, because the beat is ridiculous. So, which one would you say you identify more with? Which one is more ‘you’?

Nasty C: [Laughs] That’s a hard question. Can I say both? Because with That’s Hard, that’s how I usually am when I’m doing like sessions with other people where it’s like, we’re not really there because we had this idea, or we had a concept already. We’re just in there having fun, and the energy is at the roof. So it’s like those types of songs come out. So that’s me like 50% of the time, but then the other 50% of the time, I’m always by myself. And when I’m by myself, I tend to make like the more ‘real’ music. It’s like I’m venting almost.

Ope: One of the concepts I had questions about was the album title, what is the story behind the name?

Nasty C: So, it was inspired by a conversation that I had with NO I.D. first time I met him. We had a very long conversation about just music the similarities and the story – the story of history repeating itself and just about culture and how a lot of artists were able to move from one territory to another, but take their culture with them. One of the main references he made was Snoop and how he took the whole West Coast stuff with the braids and the accessory that you put on the braids, that little dangly thing that little girls wear [beads]. The ones that put the big ones. You remember the big ones that he had. So, those with the bike and the colourful clothes and stuff and he took that culture and made it cool in New York where it was mostly all-black outfits, like gangster attire and Timbs, right. That one really stuck out for me. And I was like, “Okay, cool, dope”, look at the effects of that. Like you see now rappers that come out of New York with braids, just like Snoop.

“My career is literally going to be dedicated to breaking down barriers; changing the stereotype where people look at Africa and they just think, Afrobeats…”

- NASTY C

Ope:…It’s true. ASAP Rocky is the first person that came to mind.

Nasty C: Exactly. So that really made me think, now that I’m making this global transition it’d be dope if I have something on my back that really represents what I am, where I come from and who I am. You know what I mean? Put people onto my culture.

Ope: You mentioned your cultural identity in a recent interview as well. You said that because you’re a South African artist or an African rapper people expect you to look very African in the way you present yourself. So now that you have more international listeners how important is it for you to truly show yourself in your music?

Nasty C: It’s very important, right? But you have to finesse, you have to do it a certain way. A lot of people take the aggressive approach and that doesn’t really work. It’s like, it’s nice for the moment where it’s like, this artist is really proud of where they come from, but then it never really goes anywhere because it’s too foreign and it’s too, it’s too hard and complicated for some international fans to digest and accept it. So, you have to do a little bit of both, like you have to be swaggy so that when they see you, they don’t look at you like somebody that doesn’t belong, you know. But also have an accessory that they look at and go “damn, what is that, what does that come from?” So, for me, I’m going to have on like a full Hip-Hop attire and then just fuck you up with the Zulu headgear.

Ope: Back to the album. There are a lot of references in your sound that relate heavily to your SA roots, as well as the American Rap influences. So how did you strike the balance between the two?

Nasty C: The approach is similar to the attire approach, right? My whole career I’ve just been inspired by a lot of American acts anyway. You can hear it in my cadence, you can hear it in my choice of words, choice of slang, choice of beats. But what I did this time is I put in a little bit more of an effort to bring it home. I got very involved with the beat making, I was very hands-on just to make sure that there’s a little bit of that, that sound that just reminds you of home. That tells you straight that this guy’s not from America.

Ope: The references in the sound don’t just stop there it’s also lyrical. The ones that stand out a lot in terms of South African references are Steve Biko. Abubulali as well. Is it in response to what’s happening around the world at the moment or just a coincidence?

Nasty C: Yeah, it was literally a coincidence [laughs], with “They Don’t” initially it was never supposed to be on the album. It was really just a song for that moment which I had happened to make a year before that moment. I made it 2019, June and I put T.I. on it 2020 June and we put it out then. But it was a song to help aid the people that were victims (of racial inequality and police brutality in America) and people that were touched by it like how I was, even though it was from a distance, but it still bothered me. You know it was actually inspired by that series, they put out on Netflix “When They See Us”. So, after watching that I did a lot of my own research, like my own thing. And the videos that I saw, I was f*cked up, I was disgusted, you know what I mean? I made it for those people – I’m speaking to like mothers, sisters, brothers of the victims. I didn’t really take an aggressive tone. I’m coming from more like a sympathetic place.

Ope: That’s so interesting, especially because you said you did research, even though you’re at a distance because I’d say in some way, I’m at a distance from a lot of the social issues you might reference. So, would you say did that purposely? Like there’s educational value to what you’re putting out there?

Nasty C: Yes, definitely. Definitely. Definitely! Because I know a lot of the kids my age and majority of my fanbase- one, they don’t really take that much pride in their culture. Two, they don’t really know much about the history of this country, because when you get out of High School, you forget all about it. And you start to think, no it’s only for politicians to worry about and care about. So that was like a nice way of just swinging them back in a very, gentle manner.

Ope: You spoke briefly about working with T.I. You’ve worked with quite a few American artists from Ari Lennox to ASAP Ferg, but I feel like those are artists that arguably came up around the same time as you. I feel like it’s different working with someone like T.I. Who’s seen as a legend. You’ve even mentioned looking up to him. What was it like, the process of working with him? Introducing yourself?

Nasty C: It was, it was crazy, man. He was in Cape Town shooting a video about two years ago and he said my name just kept popping up. And he ended up doing his own research and he listened to my music and he hit me while he was listening to it. And he told me, he was like, “yo, I’m in Cape Town” and that time he didn’t even know that he’s the reason I’m rapping in the first place. Like he was just reaching out and he was like, “if you’re down to work I’m ready”, and I already had a song that I felt like he was perfect for. I sent it to him. A couple of weeks later, he sends it back when I was in Portugal shooting a video. Like I had to stop everything. I had to get off set just to go listen to it. I didn’t even have no earphones, no nothing. I just had to listen, and it felt magical bro. Like even when he reached out, that was the first time I ever ‘fan-ned out’. Like I’m a fan of niggas, but I never really fan out. But when he hit me, I had to step outside and just get some air. And this was at like 11 at night [laughs]

Ope: I completely understand that. When I interview artists, I like to ask their opinions on their own project. Is there a song that you vibe with the most, and is there a song that you feel is the best lyrically on this album?

Nasty C: The one I vibe to the most? At the moment it’s La Vida Loca. And then Black and White is one of those ones where it was like, ‘nice pen work’. It’s not, like a bar fest, it’s not too much piano, but at the same time, in terms of plain simple English, there are some bars there.

Ope:…and then how would you say that this project is different from previous projects you’ve done? Especially because your previous projects did so well in terms of acclaim and recognition. How does Zulu Man With Some Power differ from Strings and Bling?

Nasty C: My previous projects were all like very selfish, so to say like I was really just talking about me. And then with this project, I’m actually trying to do something like I’m trying to fly a flag if there’s any.

Ope: Is that something that was particular for this, or it’s something, that’s a mission that you’re going to carry on with?

Nasty C: It’s a mission. It makes me feel like I have a purpose man. Like I’m not just going to be another one of the ones that just made dope music and then vanished, and then you didn’t really do anything. You know what I mean? First of all, the shit that we doing right now is scary because there’s no blueprint or nothing for us to follow. Like, we have never seen African Hip-Hop artist break into the States. What we’re doing right now, is very risky and we’re taking a huge leap. It’s like we’re letting go of one crown to go catch another crown. But we’re not sure it’s gonna work. So, we’re just like, we know how big it is and I know how important it is for us to get it right. The rest of my career is literally going to be dedicated to just breaking down those barriers, changing the stereotype where people look at Africa and they just think Afrobeats. I’m trying to change all of that and break the doors open so that it won’t be such a wild thing to hear that an American artist has worked with a South African artist. It should just be like a feature. We don’t get surprised when they go with a Latino artist. When you go to the Latin community, it’s just another smash. When they go to the UK, it’s just another smash. We should get to that point, where it won’t be about charity.

*This interview was taken from a larger piece that will be available in our new limited print edition of EQUATE Magazine coming soon.*

YouTube/Nasty_C

Stream/Download ‘Zulu Man With Some Power’ HERE

Follow Nasty C on socials:

Instagram: @nasty_csa

Twitter: @Nasty_CSA