Jason X August is a Hip Hop artiste from the group The Higher Culture which is based in Harare and he feels that upcoming artistes should make use of the internet to research more on their genres so as to perfect their art without but not copying what they do. The ZimTainment editor Ninja Reezy (NR) caught up with the young rapper Jason X (JX) at Shoko Festival last week and below are excerpts of the interview.
NR: When did you start you musical career, I remember seeing you at Shoko Festival last year?
JX: We started at 13yrs old with my best friend Tyler and we used to sit on corners, freestyling and we were influenced mainly by Lil Wayne and other international artistes.
NR: How many are you in the group?
JX: We are actually a family not a group as such, it’s not only rappers, there are artistes, fashion designers and it’s a culture man, that’s why we called ourselves The Higher Culture.
NR: What role does Ray Dizz play in the crew?
JX: Ray Dizz is a fashion designer, a DJ/music producer and he also makes music too.
NR: Do you have any visuals in the name of Higher Culture?
JX: Yeah we do, you can check out our Instagram page and if you wanna find our music just go on SoundCloud and search for The Higher Culture, you’ll get our music.
NR: In terms of content, do you use vernacular sometimes?
JX: Definitely we do you know, obviously being the people we are we are always told to put more Shona in our music, but Shona doesn’t mean that we are not Zimbabweans, we are not making music. Music is a form of communication so I’m communicating to you if you feel my music then it’s all good. We do use Shona you know and we are currently collaborating with other Zim artistes as we are trying to mix cultures you know.
NR: With the current state of Zim Hip Hop, what do you have to say to your fellow artistes for the genre to grow?
JX: I always believe that there are two sides to a story so it’s not only the artistes, it’s also the supporters. Hip Hop in Zimbabwe is not big but I encourage all the youngsters to research, go on the internet, watch videos and try to make the culture so strong that it cannot be ignored because it’s quite an ignored genre in this country. All I want is other artistes to work as hard as we are so that in the next 5 years we will have music getting Grammys out there.
NR: How many collaborations have you done with local rappers?
JX: We have worked with Simba Tagz, Jnr Brown, Courtney Antipas and many others that I can’t think of right now and we are currently working with other local rappers on our upcoming projects.
NR: Are there any upcoming releases, new music?
JX: Yeah man there are, we have done a remix of Booming in Harare which is already on radio, we also have another song called Freaky, it’s on a Reggae-Tone type of beat, we are coming up bro.
NR: Thanks for your time man.
JX: My pleasure man, shout out to The Higher Culture, my boy Tyler King, Ray Dizz, Nameless, y’all we all there, halla at The ZimTainment with T.H.C and a special shout out to Kyles Theory for making things happen.
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