Riky Rick brought Jozi to a standstill on Saturday with the inaugural Cotton Fest: the street culture festival held at the Station on Carr Street, Newtown. We caught up with uBoss Zonke and VaselineMen ambassador to learn more about him and his thoughts about the music industry.
How are you feeling about the inaugural Cotton Fest selling out tickets days before it took place?
Yes, on one level I’m happy about that but on another level we could have had more tickets because a lot of people [didn’t get them], but I guess this gives us the chance to grow the festival.
Why did you decide to create an event such as the Cotton Fest? What do you hope it will do for the South African music scene?
Well I think the vision for me is to really merge all street cultures together into one, and there are few events that do that for hip hop. So I think it’s a tough quest we have to take on to sort of develop the reach of hip hop, and [other] different styles to [have] platform.
Is that why you decided to host the listening session in association with Red Bull Music South Africa?
The listening session is really an opportunity to have artists be able to play their music, ask their questions and be in conversation with me and other artists. And just to start getting used to the spirit of helping each other and collaborating. I think we did a great job of doing that.
And did you discover any new talent at the event?
Yeah of course, a lot. A lot. It’s amazing how much talent there is.
5 minutes with Riky Rick
Riky Rick brought Jozi to a standstill on Saturday with the inaugural Cotton Fest: the street culture festival held at the Station on Carr Street, Newtown. We caught up with uBoss Zonke and VaselineMen ambassador to learn more about him and his thoughts about the music industry.
How are you feeling about the inaugural Cotton Fest selling out tickets days before it took place?
Yes, on one level I’m happy about that but on another level we could have had more tickets because a lot of people [didn’t get them], but I guess this gives us the chance to grow the festival.
Why did you decide to create an event such as the Cotton Fest? What do you hope it will do for the South African music scene?
Well I think the vision for me is to really merge all street cultures together into one, and there are few events that do that for hip hop. So I think it’s a tough quest we have to take on to sort of develop the reach of hip hop, and [other] different styles to [have] platform.
Is that why you decided to host the listening session in association with Red Bull Music South Africa?
The listening session is really an opportunity to have artists be able to play their music, ask their questions and be in conversation with me and other artists. And just to start getting used to the spirit of helping each other and collaborating. I think we did a great job of doing that.
And did you discover any new talent at the event?
Yeah of course, a lot. A lot. It’s amazing how much talent there is.
In general, what is the hardest thing you've learnt about the music industry?
I don’t think the hardest, but the most important thing I have learnt is to try and remain self-sufficient to a point. In the industry it’s difficult and it’s very easy to give away everything that you are. The only people that will take you to the promised land are your fans. So you need to really trust in yourself and trust that you are able to make a business out of yourself without having to give that away.
What would you say is the biggest misconception about you?
I don’t believe in misconceptions. I think that every aspect of who I am, whether someone only knows one aspect or another, whatever they know about me is probably correct. All aspects of my character will stick with different people at different times. Sometimes I can be humble, sometimes I can be arrogant. Sometimes I have the energy, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I want to help people; sometimes I don’t want to help people. Everything that I do is part of my personality. So I don’t think there will be any misconceptions.
What about a fun fact that people may not know about you?
They know pretty much everything unfortunately.
What are you most looking forward to in 2019?
I’m just looking forward to meeting people and travelling the world a little. I probably want to go to South America this year or Asia.