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| Sweat.X |
Sweat.X is the duo of MC Spoek Mathambo (Nthato Mokgata) and Markus Wormstorm (Markus Smit) from South Africa, with releases on the UK’s Citinite and Try Harder labels, as well as a full-length slated for Flamin Hotz. Mokgata has been writing songs since he was ten and initially made a name for himself through collaborations with MC heavy weight Watkin Tudor Jones JR (Max Normal). Since then he has established himself as an independent force on the South African hip-hop rap scene. Smit is an Afrikaner born in Pretoria, classically trained with a number of electro projects including The Real Estate Agents.
Though they began in Soweto, Sweat.X offer something radically different to the massively popular kwaito – mid-tempo, blingy house – that is usually associated with the area. Fusing Afro-electro dance with new world funk, electro-breaks and rapping, old school hippity-hop and hyper style and retro-future fashion, 'African Coochie Pop', and 'Black Sweat' are the genres they’ve coined for their brand of 'patois-littered electrorap'. Since their first EP Ebonyivorytron (Citinite) was released at the end of 2007, young designers from Capetown and beyond styled Sweat.X’s afrofuturist vision where tailored neon and complicated robot outfits mesh with hyper-bling and X-rated electro-booty beat funk.
Mokgata is Ndebele royalty descended from the Maraba royal family of Polokwane, and the singer, dancer, songwriter and fashion-face of Sweat.X. He lives in Johannesburg. After working in various fields, Mokgata settled on rapping as a career, and began collaboration with Smit after meeting through friends and discovering a shared obsession with Prince. Together with turntablist Sibot aka DJ Fuck Mokgata also forms the project Playdoe.
After classical training as a child, Smit started making beats at fifteen. He attended a local art school in Pretoria where he studied drama and music. While at university in Cape Town he sold a song to African Dope records for five thousand rand and used the money to distribute a hundred copies of his first solo album. A deal with New York's Sound-Ink followed in 2003. Two years later he formed The Real Estate Agents, an instrumental tech-based electro outfit, releasing two albums on African Dope. Smit co-owns SayThankYou music studios in the heart of Cape Town.
Sweat.X have toured Europe and received release offers from labels in Canada, New York, Berlin and the UK, and collaboration requests from top hiphop rap acts like Infinite Livez (Big Dada) and Machine Drum (M3rck), the two have deals with London-based labels Citinite and Try Harder. Releases to date: Ebonyivorytron (EP, 2007 Citinite), 187 (EP, 2008 Try Harder), Throwing Shade (EP, 2008 Try Harder), Saviour and Messiah (2008 Flamin Hotz).
Fans of Anti Pop Consortium, A-Trak, Spank Rock, DJ Assault, or Parliament take note.
> www.myspace.com/sweatx
Appearances:
CTM.09 > FUNK MUNDIAL
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