Dookom Interview

Dookom Interview – KAK STIRVY, CAPE TOWN SEWERS

Dookom talks to us about listening to one another, the ownership of Afrikaans rap, being kak stirvy, and what they really want listeners to take away from their music.

Your artist profile description on Soundcloud reads, DOOKOOM, KAK STIRVY, CAPE TOWN SEWERS, South Africa. Could you elaborate on the use of the words ‘stirvy’ and ‘Cape Town sewers’ and why you chose to describe your page as such?

Dookom Interview: [Human Waste]: I guess it’s a metaphor. ‘Kak stirvy’ means we’re very fancy. We don’t use single-ply toilet paper. Sewers are rotten filthy places full of human waste and discarded rubbish.

Dookom Interview: [Isaac Mutant]: We can wipe our ass with newspaper and make that look kak stirvy.

Isaac Mutant, you are known for using a combination of English and Afrikaans lyrics in your tracks, with a brilliant, distinct, fearless, and unapologetic Cape Coloured accent. In your opinion what place do you think Afrikaans rap has in our local Hip Hop scene, what do you think continues to be the driving force behind Afrikaans rap, and what do you think may be the future of it?

Dookom Interview: [Isaac Mutant]: The driving force behind Afrikaans rap would be like any other language. It gives one a sense of identity I

Isaac Mutant

guess. Almost like a sort of ownership. “It’s ours” and we’ll continue to make it as funky as possible. This drives emcees like me. Of course it has a place, as long as Afrikaans speaking people exist, so shall Afrikaans rap. There are lots of possibilities to explore and hopefully the corporate world will see the market in Afrikaans rap.

Tell us about the track, ‘Porn Star’ and why you chose the picture of Zuma pointing as the track image? Also, If you could sum up politicians and government in one sentence, what would it be?

Dookom Interview: [Human Waste]: Zuma is pointing at you. It’s the same as that old US Army recruitment poster, ‘Uncle Sam Wants You’. Zuma wants to recruit you into the porn industry so you can get fucked. Obviously the song is not literally about the porn industry, it’s about how we’re all getting pimped by the system. The government in one sentence? Pigs at the trough.

Your video for ‘Larnie Jou Poes’ has as we all know gone viral with varied responses from viewers. The track message deals with the unfair treatment of people in lower economic positions in our country, such as farm workers specifically. What are some of the other key issues in this country that also moves you to write songs?

Human Waste

Dookom Interview: [Human Waste]: We deal with everything we see around us and our responses to those things. We deal with emotions, our inner lives, where we come from, and our demons. We are a product of South Africa. We don’t think about key issues, that is for politicians. We just react to what we see and feel.

Dookom Interview: [Isaac Mutant]: We deal with human issues.

What do you have to say to people who think that you are too angry?

Dookom Interview: [Human Waste]: JOU POES!!! [laughs] How can you not be angry though? How angry is angry enough? You have to be living in a bubble of privilege or just delusional not to be angry. There’s so much fucked up shit going on in South Africa and the world. People think anger is ‘negative’. They get more outraged when you say ‘poes’, than at the situation that caused you to say, ‘poes’. Anger is actually a very positive thing, it helps enable change.

What is it that you want listeners to take away, after listening to the music of Dookom?

Dookom Interview: [Human Waste]: We want listeners to get in touch with themselves through our music. To wake up out of their passive slumber and start seeing and feeling again. We want to create a space for people to experience real, raw emotion and just lose their shit, even if it’s temporarily. It’s a form of therapy. Ultimately we’re all humans, we need to understand each other more, we need to listen to each other more.