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Cape Town – South African rapper Riky Rick is performing at the upcoming Bazique Festival and told us about how he doesn’t plan his sets ahead of time and that at a previous gig, a crowd took his shoes.
The festival will take place from Friday, 16 until Sunday, 18 March and will be held at Elgin Grabouw Country Club. Festival tickets start at R670 p/p and can be bought from Nu Tickets.
During the chat we also found out what Riky is listening to right now and what inspires him.
HERE’S CHANNEL24’S INTERVIEW WITH RIKY RICK:
Your most recent videos and songs have been grittier, and a departure from the slicker sound and style of Boss Zonke, can you tell us more about that?
Yeah, I mean, going forward it’s all about putting on the kids and giving them the spotlight and doing something different. We had our opportunities and we took them and became somebody. So now it’s about taking it back to the streets and letting the streets shine.
Does that inspire how you come up with concepts for your videos and where to shoot them?
Well right now, I’m trying to break new ground and do things that people have never done in our space. My main brief to my guys now is that they have to be able to shoot a video anywhere and go. Wherever you go, you must be able to shoot a video tomorrow. If I call and say, ‘We need to shoot a video today or tonight’ we must be able to do it. That’s really what it’s about. We’re taking a DIY approach. We don’t have hundreds of thousands of rands to spend on videos anymore; because of the way people watch videos now and consume as well as upload content themselves. So, let’s just bang it out, like we’re going to do five times a week.
Are you inspired to write songs while filming videos in this DIY way?
I don’t know, it’s more just been about my everyday movements; that inspire my song writing. Sometimes I’ll just be chilling, sending a message but those moments you have to capture them when they come and catch them as soon as possible.
When you talk about capturing the moment when you create music, how does that translate to your live sets, like your upcoming performance at Bazique Festival?
It’s exactly the same as the live sets, because when it comes to the live sets I don’t actually prepare a show. I guess we know what we like and how we like to transition things, but it really depends on the crowd. Everything always depends on the crowd, like who is in the crowd, how is the crowd feeling? Are they coming from a low energy set into our set? So actually, it all depends on the crowd so I don’t figure that out until any minute before I perform.
What was the last crowd that gave you some good energy?
Every crowd gives me that energy. It’s about feeling the crowd and giving them what they haven’t gotten before. So, the main goal is to get them to turn up, so every crowd is really the best. It’s my job, my job is to make the crowd happy.
What’s the one thing you always take with you, to make sure you can perform to the best of your abilities?
I would say the biggest thing is to take comfortable shoes, like one of the biggest mistakes I made once was to perform in big, heavy platform shoes. I think you’ve got to have on really comfortable shoes, so you can really have fun. A lot of people expect me to come out in this big outfit, those looks limit how much fun you can have. You want to be as lose as the people in the crowd. Especially at a festival where there’s dust and grass; you want to be in the position where you can jump with them and play with them, you know, turn up the way they would. You really got to be part of the crowd. A lot of times – like I was performing at a show – and they took my shoes while I was in the crowd. Sounds weird but it's true.
Did you ever get them back?
No, I never got them back.
What’s the one song or album that you can’t stop listening to right now?
I realised I’m actually an old school kind of guy. So, I’m still listening to Kid Cudi, I’m still listening to Busta Rhymes, I’m still listening to a lot of Common, a lot of MF Doom. I’m very nostalgic when it comes to listening to music, I like listening to stuff that reminds me of my childhood.
What’s your favourite Busta Rhymes song?
A song called Show Me What You Got. It wasn’t even really huge, but it was pretty dope.
LISTEN TO THAT SONG HERE:
EVENT INFORMATION FOR BAZIQUE FESTIVAL:
Gates open at 11:00 on Friday and the music will kick off at 12:00. The festival will finish at 19:00 on Sunday.
Venue: Elgin Grabouw Country Club
Tickets: Festival tickets start at R670 p/p and can be bought from Nu Tickets.
Go to this website for more information, including camping options and a lot more.
