KENZHERO, KID FONQUE & MARIA McCLOY PRESENT TONGHT FT STOGIE T & MELO B JONES LIVE
SATURDAY, 17 JUNE AT AND, 39 GWI GWI MRWEBI STREET, NEWTOWN, 9PM.
Tickets R100 at door
Heat up your winter night at the third edition of TONGHT.
The party is brought to you by Kenzhero, Kid Fonque and Maria McCloy at Club And in Newtown Johannesburg on Saturday the 17th of June. Fresh from his recent SAMA nomination, Hip Hop legend Stogie T will be blessing the mic with his seasoned live act. Warming the stage up for him will be singer on the rise Melo B Jones. Serving the grown and sexy crowd an eclectic mix of sounds will be Kenzhero, Kid Fonque and Maria McCloy on the decks.
“Don’t hate the player, hate the game” is a common catch phrase in the hip-hop community, it reflects the reality of the competitive landscape of the top tier in Mzansi’s hip-hop music business. Stogie T shows commitment to the art of the game to the extent that he has never missed a season. Since 2004 the artist formally known as Tumi consistently released an album every year, whether solo or with Tumi And The Volume or a side project, Stogie T keeps consistent in delivering the highest
quality musical offerings in this genre pedigree, season after season, with constant improvement and evolution through each offering. Stogie T is not only a major player of SA hip-hop music but he’s consistently pushed the game to new heights, his latest self titled latest album is no exception.
Why the name change? Tumi’s latest incarnation as Stogie T is as real as keepin’ it real can get. He’s not the same man he was 10 years ago. And he’s brave; almost too brave, if ever there’s such. Willing to dispense of a decade-plus worth of labour as an artist, producer, label owner; rocking shows solo or with his former band The Volume; dropping knowledge by the busloads on Mzansi and overseas audiences. Under the new moniker, the artist brings a reinvention that speaks to “The new generation with a sound inspired by today’s finest talent in hip-hop, production and lyricism.”
Before Stogie T takes to the TONGHT (pronounced Tonight) stage, Melo B Jones will serve up a taste of tracks off The Start, her EP coming out at the end of the month on Kid Fonque’s label Stay True Sounds . She categorises her sound as “Boom Bap Soul” – which takes the raw elements of old school and contemporary Hip Hop and puts it together with the sweet and sultry elements of Soul. Having performed alongside and collaborated with acts such as electro-house collective, Crazy White Boy (with the hit single “Show Me The Way” from Electro Candi II) and Cape Town based group, Ill Skillz, her body of work expands from House music, to R&B to Hip Hop. She has featured on a Kenzhero compilation and performed in Switzerland alongside Kid Fonque , so is certainly a TONGHT family member.
It’s sure to be a great night out at the third installation of this party series curated by acclaimed DJs, radio personalities and party promoters, Kenzhero (The Rhythm Sessions Kaya FM Saturdays 2- 6pm) and Kid Fonque (Selective Styles 5PM Sundays 5 – 7) , who joined forces with urban culture specialist, publicist and designer, Maria McCloy. “We started this in february to fill the gap in the party market that barely caters to a crowd aged between 28 and 45 or so” she says. This party will happen at And in Newtown three more times in 2017. Kenzhero comments“People love the music and the atmosphere. People tell us it feels like something different on the Joburg scene.” Adds Kid Fonque, “They dug coming to an unfamiliar venue, that the crowd is grown up and even the fact that no phone photos are allowed on the dance floor.”
DJing at the same time with the same circle of people. He was always hip-hop and I was always a bit all over in terms of the music I played,” says the presenter of 5FM’s 5 to 7pm Sunday show, Selective Styles. “We have grown up together over the years – and so have the people who used to watch us when we started. Although we keep DJing every weekend, the crew who started with us are older and find it difficult to get down where we play as the crowd is younger so they stay away from the current party scene. A few peeps mentioned this to Kenzhero and I so we thought, ‘let’s do this!’”
One of those people is Maria, who has been attending parties in Jozi since the mid-90s and 2000s when she was part of groundbreaking entities Black Rage Productions, Outrageous Records and www.rage.co.za. Says Kid Fonque: “She has been coming to our events over the years and when we’d bump into her out of late she’d always say: ‘Come on guys, do a grown and sexy party for people like us… I’m tired of partying with campus kids, but I still want to go out, have fun, meet great people and hear amazing music – out of a hot sound system…’ So after finding our dope venue, And, we approached her to join us. We felt she was the perfect partner because of her knowledge of the scene and her PR expertise.”