Musical Mover & Shaker!

Jack Parow truly is original, he is in fact the “original donker dodgy afrikaans rapper”. The rest are just “fokken copies.”

Afrikaans and South African rap are not one of the most listened to genres, with Brasse van die Kaap, Dokte, Waddy Jones and Jitsvinger being the leaders in the industry. Jack’s inspiration as such is “Eminem. He is always king. He is one of my favourite rappers, but I was rapping before he came out, so I’m not like some white kid trying to be Eminem. Waddy [Jones] is a good chommie of mine and we roll the streets together, but I’m straight Afrikaans, they are more English and thus have a different approach to the market, but other artists don’t inspire me, I get inspired by drunk people mostly, the best lines come out of drunken peoples mouths, I also get drunk before I write sometimes, it’s kief. People that also inspire me are zef people, like myself and most of my friends…”

He’s loved rap “since [he] first started listening to music” he continues “you know when you’re younger you buy those NOW and Monster Hits cds and I always smaaked like Dr. Alban and Shaggy and those vibes and then I bought Monster Hits 5 or something, it was like a kief purple one with this heavy green monster on it and there was a track called Doggystyle by a gevaarlike man called Snoop and I was instantly hooked on rap. I was like 11 or 12…ja, that was it, but I never really wanted to be a rapper, I just liked rapping, I studied and still do web design and graphic design, but rap is obviously always been the main thing, I never thought I would be able to do it for a living….”

He started rapping in 2000 “but was just having fun and fucking around, trying to freestyle and stuff” Then he rapped in English for “a long time, till about 2004” it all changed when he “wrote this track in Afrikaans where I was being robbed by a bergie and I was like tuning him kak and so, and it came out so cool that I was like, fokkit, why haven’t I been rapping in Afrikaans all along?”

He is heavily influenced by “drunk people. I love drunken conversations, they are the fokkin best thing ever-also people who are like heavy into cars or systems, they have the best one-liners.”

He started making music “because its fun and I like it when people around me are enjoying themselves, so ja, it’s a lekker way to gooi it.”

When he creates songs he “usually just writes it in my head and then just kinda beatboxes or hums it into my phone and then go to the studio and try my best to recreate it like it is in my brain.”

The new things happening are “work on some secret projects that are gonna be ill as fok and no other rappers are doing, but it’s a secret so you gonna have to wait and see…will probably launch that vibe next year sometime, it’s gonna be kak fancy…”

When he starts doing solo gigs full time-the shows will be “gevaarlik, I’ve just been hitting the laptop vibe for now, but when the album launches it’s gonna be a whole other fokken thing all together. I’m not going to let too much information out…”

He “would like to be next level with boats and brandy sponsors and kief cars and just sit on a throne with a crown and a scepter and a ruby covered chalice and drink brandy and coke all day.”

His favourite thing about performing is “when people are really listening and then I drop something dirty or funny and everyone bugs the fuck out.”

Recording the album was “great fun, its so lekker fucking around in the studio and coming up with new stuff!” His favourite track is Cooler as Ekke.

Cooler as Ekke happens to the single he’s just released. He explains “it’s a track about everyone who think they are so cool, you know the vibe, those guys and girls who look like they stepped right out of one of those Hip magazines and are always like standing in the corner and watching everyone cause if they move to much or maybe dance and something happens, like they slip or maybe dance to the wrong track, they might not be cool anymore.”

As the Afrikaans Super Ster Rapper Jack Parow “hopes to change the fact that everyone is so clicky, I hate that, I party with everyone and everyone is fun in their own way, and people are to heavy involved in their own little circles and never step outside it, That’s why I’m glad my music attracts so many different people, because then they can all get drunk together and gooi die jol rof. I also want like world peace and to feed all the hungry children and stuff…”

If he could have a beer with one Afrikaans Skouspel backtrack pop artists it would be “Robbie Wessels, I just fokkin love his music…dont know what I’d say to him, maybe like, please do a track with me!”

His favourite T.V show is “Oor die Kole on KykNet and Okney Snorkney reruns”. His cd player currently has “Major Lazer – Guns don’t kill people, Lazers do” on rotation. “It’s the fokkin best shit ever.” He would most like to be on the reality show “Boer soek n vrou” His favourite of the many great Afrikaans swear words, starts with a P and ends with an S. Fill in the blanks.

Jack Parow is never one to shy from controversy but also just wants things “like world peace and to feed all the hungry children and stuff” as well as simple things in life like, “boats and brandy sponsors and kief cars and a scepter and a ruby covered chalice and just sit on a throne with a crown …”

My interview first appeared on Moral Fibre…