SOUTH African music and film are poised to take on the US market once the grand plans hatched by music veterans Eugene Mthethwa and Sello Chicco Twala take off.
Going as Top Crew record company, the duo are setting up business in Harlem in New York, where they will be merchants of South African music and film to facilitate trans-Atlantic collaborations.
"It is our belief that this will increase opportunities to easily export South African music, especially if it is blended with something that Americans can identify with. It is a cross-cultural effort to marry the two worlds through music and film," Mthethwa says.
"As the founders of Top Crew, we come from the ghetto (Soweto) and to us Harlem represents an environment we identify with. This is where streetwise mentality is found and the place where we will find the matching raw talent that is equally found in a place like Soweto."
Mthethwa says they also want to confront stereotypes Americans still have about Africans based on films they may have seen like Shaka Zulu.
Now they are taking the war to the Americans.
"We need to change the global perception of Africa and what better way than painting a beautiful picture than what the very Americans have used to spread their supremacy over other countries through music and Hollywood."
Mthethwa says acquiring an office in Harlem was on its final stages and they are also soliciting government support.
"We believe that through this journey we will be able to begin to export our cultural goods and services, which is something that as a country we would economically benefit from. We would create much awareness about South Africa apart from the people of the world associating SA with Nelson Mandela and our tragic past only," he says.
Mthethwa says old contacts have come in handy as they lay the foundation.
"Some of the businesspeople we are reconnecting with used to promote our music and tours. Some I got to meet as chairperson of AIRCO (Association of Independent Record Companies) during MIDEM and other conferences.
"I must state that it hasn't been easy. Had we also been included in entourages that often travel with the president on trade missions that other businesspeople are taken with to facilitate business partnerships, we would be far by now," Mthethwa says.
Artists signed under their label would receive priority treatment.
Mthethwa and Twala hope to reach the level of success enjoyed by Nollywood.
"We believe that what we see happening with our Nigerian counterparts is a foreign policy decision adopted by their government to change the perception that the world has about Nigeria being a place of drug lords and white collar crime. The quality of the movies may be poor but those movies have three channels than what our local movies have. People are even beginning to imitate the way they speak, and that is how culture is exported," he says.
mofokengl@sowetan.co.za
For more stories like this one, be sure to buy the Sowetan newspaper from Mondays to Fridays
SA duo to 'invade' the US - veterans Chicco, Eugene to export local film and music
SOUTH African music and film are poised to take on the US market once the grand plans hatched by music veterans Eugene Mthethwa and Sello Chicco Twala take off.
Going as Top Crew record company, the duo are setting up business in Harlem in New York, where they will be merchants of South African music and film to facilitate trans-Atlantic collaborations.
"It is our belief that this will increase opportunities to easily export South African music, especially if it is blended with something that Americans can identify with. It is a cross-cultural effort to marry the two worlds through music and film," Mthethwa says.
"As the founders of Top Crew, we come from the ghetto (Soweto) and to us Harlem represents an environment we identify with. This is where streetwise mentality is found and the place where we will find the matching raw talent that is equally found in a place like Soweto."
Mthethwa says they also want to confront stereotypes Americans still have about Africans based on films they may have seen like Shaka Zulu.
Now they are taking the war to the Americans.
"We need to change the global perception of Africa and what better way than painting a beautiful picture than what the very Americans have used to spread their supremacy over other countries through music and Hollywood."
Mthethwa says acquiring an office in Harlem was on its final stages and they are also soliciting government support.
"We believe that through this journey we will be able to begin to export our cultural goods and services, which is something that as a country we would economically benefit from. We would create much awareness about South Africa apart from the people of the world associating SA with Nelson Mandela and our tragic past only," he says.
Mthethwa says old contacts have come in handy as they lay the foundation.
"Some of the businesspeople we are reconnecting with used to promote our music and tours. Some I got to meet as chairperson of AIRCO (Association of Independent Record Companies) during MIDEM and other conferences.
"I must state that it hasn't been easy. Had we also been included in entourages that often travel with the president on trade missions that other businesspeople are taken with to facilitate business partnerships, we would be far by now," Mthethwa says.
Artists signed under their label would receive priority treatment.
Mthethwa and Twala hope to reach the level of success enjoyed by Nollywood.
"We believe that what we see happening with our Nigerian counterparts is a foreign policy decision adopted by their government to change the perception that the world has about Nigeria being a place of drug lords and white collar crime. The quality of the movies may be poor but those movies have three channels than what our local movies have. People are even beginning to imitate the way they speak, and that is how culture is exported," he says.
mofokengl@sowetan.co.za
For more stories like this one, be sure to buy the Sowetan newspaper from Mondays to Fridays
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