‘My music is human. I kinda base it on my name Relievo. I got it from the dictionary, and it means relief. But because I’m an artist, I flipped it. Called it great relief.’
It’s 11h48 Sunday morning March 8th (yes, pre-covid lockdown in South Africa before the real life sci fi hit us) and I receive a text from Bas: ‘Big bro… feeling a bit better this morning. My body is unfrozen.’ I’m quite happy to have heard from him following his text the previous day saying he felt ill. Basso starts off immediately addressing the topic of artwork for his upcoming EP: ‘Tides of Freedom.’
‘I sent him the demo he listened to it and he sent me the pic of the mask’ says Bas on discussing his communication with Leratho Kuzwayo a Creative Art Director staying in Pretoria. Basso goes on to explain they met at the Tshane Arts and Crafts hub in Pretoria as well. A venue called U-the space an art café where Leratho had been exhibiting a series of work. A particular piece caught Basso’s eye and a conversation sparked between the two. Having studied visual art himself, Bas breaks down the passion they shared and how the art aligned with the rapper’s vision for Tides. ‘He liked the tape. On listening to it Leratho says he felt cosmic energy and his artwork has a lot to do with that. Tides having cosmic style cuts (tracks). You know… different variations for the singles off this five track project.’ Basso leans over showing me a brief text Leratho sent him proving their shared enthusiasm stating his masks usually having a Setswana name. ‘Perfect fit’ ends the text from Leratho.
Our meeting place is in a park in the suburb of Esther Park in Kempton Park, Johannesburg. It’s partly cloudy and cool. The wind barely bothersome enough to have me adjust the position of my voice recording equipped phone twice amongst an open notebook, two cans of energy drinks, some bottles of water, a big packet of Italian cheese Lays and Basso’s notepad with him holding his phone scrolling through it. The round concrete slab table holding our humble attentive snack assortment has a colder feel with further help from two overlapping trees. Their branches shadowing us at times. I’d urged Basso to this sitting area some distance opposite his usual place to avoid being interrupted as best we could. A familiar grey C-class is parked at a similar sitting place towards the middle of the park more open to some sun. It’s owner bangs out soothing house tracks and later switches to familiar favorites from Aaliyah, the Isley Brothers and even Brenda Fassi. My voice recorder captures it all and for those moments, it was as though the weather gave up its slightened trouble to their songs leaving enough to remind all present it’s a Sunday. God is here. And so the birds frantic chirps above us calm alongside the wind’s partly silenced unruly behavior.
‘Music is everything. It’s physical somehow. It’s visual, it’s emotional. You can kind of align music with all senses. It’s therapeutic, it’s spiritual and that’s how I view my music. ‘Excitedly Bas raises his voice and exclaims: ‘And a whooole lotta positivity…cause that’s where we at with this. That’s the currency, know what I mean? Positivity brought me a long way’ says the 25 year old. ‘In the choices you make it’s key. It’s all in the mind. I don’t care what choice you make’. (Bas laughs) ‘Yo I wanna go rob a bank today! You better be positive bout that shit’.
Mathlatse Stephen Seshibe better known as Basso Relievo was born October 4th 1996 right smack in the middle of what most refer to as the golden era of hip hop. That year birthed many an integral album to the decade. In the same month days later on the 15th, Jeru the Damaja’s sophomore ‘Wrath Of The Math’ shared its release date alongside Poor Righteous Teachers ‘The New World Order’ and Xzibit’s ‘At The Speed Of Light’. Jeru’s take on hip hop’s flashy suited ‘jiggy’ era continued with assistance from DJ Premier all amidst an East West feud which had by no means simmered down. Poor Righteous Teachers fourth album was not able to follow as much success as their previous efforts. The Fugees sampled one of their rapper’s lines: ‘Before I manifest a rhyme’, off their debut’s commercial hit single ‘Rock Dis Funky Joint’. The Fugees themselves having released what would be their 2nd and final album ‘The Score’ in February. Other memorable albums released in Basso’s year of birth included Jay-Z’s ‘Reasonable Doubt’, Outkast ‘Atliens’, De La Soul ‘Stakes is High’, Nas ‘It was Written’ and Lil Kim’s ‘Hardcore’. Dre had just left Suge’s Deathrow Records and presented ‘The Aftermath’ while his former label mate and friend Tupac released 2 albums, ‘All Eyez On Me’ in February and ‘The Don Killuminati: The 7 day Theory’ was released in November following his assassination in September.
Basso starts at the Lays chips pausing at times answering between chewing.
Where would you say it all started with you ?
Definitely high school…but for me… and of course I’m a lover of hip hop music… I grew up on that shit, so sometimes I can even take it back to then. Even that counts…the fact that I knew Tupac’s ‘Broken Wings’ at a very early age. I knew that song.
Who introduced you to that song ?
My Dad! He loved it. I was probably about 4 or 5. Plus my older brother and I… maaaan…my dad let us play anything! My older brother was listening to Tupac at the time.
Who influenced you ?
I listened to Wiz Khalifa, Kanye, Jay-Z, Jay Electronica and J Cole. I remember spending a lot of time alone but also spending time with my sister at home in 2011 as she’d matriculated the year before. She’s 4 years older than me. (Laughs) I’d pull out pages from a notebook, spelling errors and all that and she’d encourage me to rap. She’d play some instrumentals as I’d been inspired to write but I kept it low key. I’d write verses and only rap to my sister. I’d always take a long time to write my rhymes. I’m still the last to finish even amongst my own 1619 crew but get praised after. I have a twin brother who also played a role as someone who’d influenced me.
What’s Artcore? It seems there’s some association with 1619 Records?
We’re a group of guys. We have rappers, we have visual artists. Some have fashion interests. There’s like a high endedness to it.
What would you say you bring to the table as opposed to the rest of your 1619 Records label mates?
We highlight different things. But there’s a focal point. It’s like we all have bibles, but we would highlight different verses or lines.
With 5 tracks on your project break it down for me.
The first track’s called Talkin Bout produced by Rayve who I met through (1619 Artist) Gusto. It’s short but powerful, brief but hard. The beat’s like god of war. Even the style of writing I call podium raps. This song is the intro. You gotta stand at the podium, catch their attention, poke your chest out. Command people to come together.
Track 2 is Candle / Can handle produced by P.SOUL an American producer. It’s my most well-known performed song but the beat’s also famously known having been used by Xxxtentacion and Joey Badass. I was quite glad… you know…through these digital distribution channels, we were able to get in touch with P.SOUL. That’s all thanks to ‘X’ (1619 Records owner) but I just thank God for this digital era you know? But yeah…Candle. It’s about the light that we share.
Track 3 is called Ego, produced by Monde H featuring Dome (1619 Records Artist) and its really just about…you gotta have an ego. You gotta have a sense of pride because that’s what you hold onto. That’s my ego. That’s my pride. All this positivity. So if it makes my people proud then shit! I’m going to hold on to this ego because its the right thing. It’s the right sense of ego. To be a king it’s not about being you know… worshipped. If you’re a king you know it. It’s natural. Proper leaders have that ego. That pride. And if it’s good for the people that’s the one to keep.
Track 4, The Wire features V-Eye produced by Mas Musiq whose popping right now recently signed by the popular South African House DJ Maphorisa. I remember when he gave me the beat he said: ‘Make sure you have a singer on the hook’. I wrote the hook and it features V-Eye whose also an amazing guy. He’s a childhood friend. He’s like family. He’s a great artist and he’s a singer, he’s a rapper, he’s one of the greatest freestylers I’ve ever heard. HHP was a mentor to V-eye and so he was part of that whole movement before Jabba died. He was essentially going to be the next big artist even going out on tour and writing songs with Jabba. V-Eye’s played a part on me taking this rap thing seriously. I remember we even used to share lunch together at school. I regard him as a teacher, so we built that wire that connects us. Connects everything. I’m building my timeline.
The last track is called : The Promise, by our in-house producer Fa X Fu also a childhood friend from my suburb in Kempton Park. The beat was actually meant for a singer I’d met and I asked Fa if he had anything just lying around that he wasn’t using. Fa said he didn’t finish mixing it but to go ahead and take it. If she likes it, it’s fine. Anyway I walk out of his studio and as I’m walking back home I’m like lemme listen to this. Yaw ! I held on to the beat for like a month or two and Fa comes back to me asking about it.I told him that singer wasn’t serious. I’d in either case lost contact with her. I’ll take it! I like this beat. It’s very outro-like. A sort of bye on the project. It’s like ‘The Promise’ is basically me standing next to it.
Basso downright forces positivity on you as your mom did that medicine you refused to take. Only it’s in copious amounts.
Still…that being said he’s easily more cough syrup than old regular Scotts emulsion cod liver oil.
He paints pictures as a moral combatant but he’s not ignorant bragging invulnerability.
Tides of Freedom comes across as a thoughtful letter catered to hustlers seeking further encouragement in their journey on the grind.
It does well to uplift your spirits and simultaneously encompasses a story showing Basso Relievo as a rapper’s rapper.
It’s a role to which he seems well suited and for which I have no doubt he’d be saluted.
Tell me more about Tides Of Freedom. How it speaks to you.
The tides of things. It’s not the full wave. It’s the process you know? The appreciation on processing the steps. It’s like I can make my own choices now and it’s like wow. That’s power. It’s all about the ageing of art. I wrote this shit in 2018.My first few solo joints. I was like Yeah. Let’s do this. I wrote 2020V, a bunch of joints. Memorized them and shortly after memorizing them I go out and start performing. That’s even when I got my driver’s license. Thank God for my mom. She helps my twin brother and me and she’s like: ‘This is the last thing I’m doing for you guys!’ My dad was cool at the time. He let me drive his bakkie (pick-up) and I was like…as soon as I get my license, I’m not going to be that guy who goes out and parties. I’m chasing myself. I’m building my shit now. It’s all a process. Trust!
Images – Kurt Adonis and Gusto Artcore
CREAM : @officialgustolvk
Leratho Kuzwayo : @leratorato_artworx
U-the space : @u-thespace
Basso Relievo ‘Tides of Freedom’
Available to listen : https://linktr.ee/bassorelievo1619
Thank you for the music 