Vanderbijlpark produces variety of talent that is often unnoticed and underrated. Whether its sports or the entertainment industry, it always brings new incredible personalities that have immense potential to take South Africa a step higher nationally and globally.
On the hip hop scene, it’s very rare that we get to be blessed with a hip-hop duo that becomes consistent in their craft and do not separate at later stages to pursue solo careers.
Today from the Vaal, straight outta 016 area, we have fresh young promising upcoming talented three men hip hop trio named the Gorillaz. This hip-hop trio is led by two razor sharp swordsmen (Kwen of Heartz and Phsycic-Lee) while the third member (Verbal Assassin) silently horns his blade behind the scenes.
Ladies and gentlemen let’s meet the Gorillaz.
Q: Can you please let us know who the Gorillaz is? Who’s the crew and what are the functions? Example, who’s on the beats, who are the emcee etc.?
The Gorillaz are a collective mainly focused on 3 people which are Kwen of Heartz, the boy with psychic powers Phsycic-Lee and the boy that creeps in the dark but always stays lit Verbal Assassin, the Gorillaz get beats from various producers to work on versatility and other aspects in the craft, management’s is by….
We believe in cooperative assistance from anyone who joins the label
Q: Where are you from and when did you start hip hoping?
The Gorillaz are from the 016 Vanderbijlpark the Vaal and the trio started doing music as a collective in 2021 with it being Kwen and Phsycic-Lee and Verbal Assassin in the shadows still working on his craft
Q: Who are some of your musical influences, the lyrics you spit are some of the freshest I’ve heard in ages I’d like to know how much influence comes from who you listen to or is it just your understanding of how you contribute to the game?
In Lamens terms yes, we understand what we bring and contribute to the game, yet with that said we also got our own influences from the likes of Areece, Nasty C, Young M.A, J. Cole, Drake, you know we studied the greats to be better.
Q: How’s the hip hop scene out here in the Vaal?
Well, we do have artists trying to make a name for themselves, but nothing much is happening considering the fact that everyone just wants to do their own thing and not work with other people get on features and genuinely work with other people.
Q: Do you see any progress of groups coming out representing different corners of S.A or is everything still JHB or CT based? Are we hearing different voices, I know there’s a strong movement coming out of Lesotho, is Mzansi making similar gains? And who is holding it down for S.A in your opinion?
With the last past I’d say Nasty C is currently holding it down for S.A with him going to the United States and just collaborating with other artists and trying to put himself and his country on the map…regarding the hot spots around S.A we’d say everyone everywhere is good at what they do but at the same time they understand that places like JHB or CT are places where they can properly work on their craft and promote themselves, people that do good in JHB or CT aren’t usually people that are from there, people that go there are artists that under that those places are hotspots for breading the success of the artist hence so many artist go from they’re hometown to go pursue their career in those places.
Q: I’ve always found Hip Hop duo’s an anomaly in the genre. From as far back as the 80’s Run DMC held that torch for the longest time till The Native Tongue brought a new breed the likes of ATCQ, De la Soul, Jungle Brothers etc. ushered new sounds into the early 90’s. I’m interested to hear if any two men crews influenced you? Until recently we had OutKast, your M.O.P to the hard-core kids Deep Mobb.
The trio that had an impact in our growth or characters are the Migos, since they are also a trio we strive to be like or even be better than them
Q: Soon we have Back 2 the City festival coming up. Have you attended? Performed on one of the biggest Hip-Hop stages as yet? If not do you intend to spread your works through this platform?
Yes, we have performed on big stages and shared our craft with the people, the love of it just diminished when we realize how poorly upcoming artists get treated at events, especially black kid events, nonetheless we haven’t been on stage this year because we’ve just been trying to work on our sound and image before we make more moves.
Q: There’s always talk about Vernacular vs English or even Afrikaans in SA. What’s your stand on that if any?
We don’t judge, at the end of the day everyone is good at their own craft, what they say and how they say it but in contrast we feel like English is where it’s at, because almost everyone around the globe can speak or even interpret English. Other languages are also good and known but at the end you as an artist you want to reach as many people as you can and give out your story, you can’t do that if someone doesn’t understand you.
Q: All groups have their nucleus, what makes the Gorillaz tick?
We guess it’s the music itself that makes us tick, there’s just something about that next new hit that we can’t unfeel, the sound of well-orchestrated tunes mixed with the right set of words can really have an impact in someone’s life, the heart of this foundation is the sweet love of putting smiles on people’s souls through the gift of lyricism.
Q: On that subject where are people seeing you guys live? Any social platform fans can follow and access your works?
People can find us as a collective on Instagram as 3Gorillaz.entertainment and individually as psychic.lee.official, kwen_official and theofficial_v3rbalassassin, we are yet to spread to Twitter and all those other social platforms.
