SA Music News Magazine Meets Early B – The Bloemendal Boss man of Afrikaans Rap on His Jozi/Gauteng Travels

SummerRaine February 2, 2022

8 minutes read

After a shout out to SA Music News Magazine to ‘link up’ on his Friday Facebook Live video, minutes after landing in Jozi, cruising in his ‘gevaarlike wiele’ sponsored by Pro Quick Motors, I decided not to miss out on the opportunity to follow through and meet up with the man who is killing it on the Afrikaans Rap scene – the one and only Early B!

With Two hugely successful Albums behind him, namely ‘Aangename Kennis” (2018) and his most recent release ‘Funky-Kaans‘, recorded during lockdown and released in February 2021, the signed Universal Music Star agreed to meet up for a pre-show chat at Silverados before heading to Presleys Boksburg for his anticipated performance. I just happened to give birth to one of his biggest fans, so of course there was no better choice than to have my youngest Son Luca (18) chaperone mamma for the evening.

The Meet Up

As the girl always behind the scene, I had never actually taken on a face to face interview with artists we promote, leaving that to the pro’s who we work with. With only a few hours to prepare, and a nine year old daughter doing her TikTok thing, distracting me to the max , I eventually crumpled up my nervously scribbled notes and decided to just show up for an impromptu rendezvous and simply let the evening roll out as it would.

Showing up a few minutes before our 7.30pm meet up, we ordered a drink and requested the outdoor music to be dropped a notch in anticipation of Early B’s arrival. Shortly after, Early B and his vibrant Manager, Rochelle, came up the stairs and met us with the warmest of greetings, and I felt instantly at ease and in the presence of friends. Naturally, it didn’t take long for a fan to arrive at our table to convey her adoration, and again, his humble and appreciative response to her gained my respect and complete admiration.

After informing Early & Rochelle that this was my first FTF interview ever, he graciously took the reigns and let things flow like a rap on fire!

The Chat

Hailing from Bloemendal, North of Port Elizabeth, Earl Swartz, aka Early B, took it back to the beginning and broke it down. He explained that he remains grounded to his roots and finds it important to always represent where he came from. Hence his well known catch phrase #vandiedalaf.

If you ask Early B who his idols were as a child, he has no hesitation in saying his parents! Musically he enjoyed The Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie Smalls), Tupac & Eminem, and at the same time, Elvis & Michael Jackson – he even asked his Dad to make him shoes just like MJ’s!

Entering the music scene as a school going teen with his friend MC (Maurisio Charles) , and Agemi who Early went to gym with (he actually did Body building back then), they began rapping at talent shows at BethelsDorp Comprehensive High and even other schools in their community, which they weren’t shy to ‘Gatecrash’.

Starting their own little home “studio” with call centre headphones they simply broke the mic off of, mounted on a CD spindle and rapped like nobodies business on a makeshift set up! The three young hopefuls eventually sent their mixtape to their local radio stations. Though the feedback was in favour of their tracks, the quality just didn’t cut it for airplay, needless to say they took offense!

They decided to start their own station… “The Bluetooth station“. The trio set up groups of friends from school who would use bluetooth to share tracks with one another. Eventually they expanded by sharing with different schools and progressed by sharing their music with late night factory workers who were always looking for some fresh tunes to see their shift through with.

Back then the youngsters were still what one would refer to as ‘angry rappers’, standing out and reviving the scene during a time that most of the other locally known rappers had gone silent. Their rise brought a bit of beef with the existing OG’s (real gangsters) and Early B’s followers . Fights broke out in clubs and it just got messy. The breakthrough came when they made a song called ‘Make a change‘ which conveyed the message that peace had been made between the two groups and everyone was on the same page. The news even made the papers!

After school the guys went off in their own directions with their own personal responsibilities, Early had been studying Mechanical Engineering in his Fathers footsteps. MC left the trio first, which left Early & Agemi to go it alone.

A few years down the line around 2015, Agemi announced that he was done. He had given up trying to get that big break – Early couldn’t accept that, he felt at that moment that his dream had died. He didn’t feel he was capable of going it alone or that he had been a strong favourite of the three, so he was a little hesitant about being accepted as a solo artist.

Early B reminisces, saying “I’d lay in bed at night and have these melodies playing in my head, and I said to myself, just go get it out and just record“.

In 2015 he took a leap of faith – recorded his own Mixtape and ambitiously made his first music video for the track ‘Leka Djy‘ – The track blew up, and in his own words he says ” That was God answering me“. The ‘Leka Djy‘ video now sits at 3,521,478 views!

Watch the breakthrough video – ‘Leka Djy” below

After ‘Leka Djy’s take off, Early B started recording on a regular basis. About 2 years after the release, in 2017 KykNet invited him to perform at the Ghoema awards. He finally had the labels eyes on him and Sony Records reached out to him first. About a week later the big guns at Universal Music grabbed up the rising star! After 220 songs, Early’s mixtape days were over and he was signed to Universal Music.

Jack Parow asked Early B to collab on their first track together in 2018, says Early “I said yes, then Jack sends me five beats – I made four songs out of those five beats – I said choose one” The song Jack and Early released as their first collab together was ‘Kak soek‘

The most popular collab between Parow and Early B to date is most certainly ‘Potte‘ which Early asked Parow to feature on and is now standing at 6,589,525 views on YouTube.

His album ‘Aangename Kennis‘ was released on the 10th of August 2018 and went Gold within a few months.

The following year in 2019 he found himself at the April 17th, Ghoema awards – this time as an actual nominee, walking away with two much deserved awards – ‘most streamed online purchased album” and ‘Best Hip-Hop song‘ for the track ‘Ben 10′.

During lockdown, Early B featured with Karen Zoid & Neil Sandilands too on a moving song about the current locked down state of the world titled ‘Toe die wêreld stil gaan staan‘ released on April 10th – in October 2019 he also featured on Janie Bays ‘Die Heelal‘ via Warner Music, topping numerous music charts within South Africa.

During lockdown 2020, behind the scenes, the Afrikaans Rap-Geni rented a place in Cape town and worked on his second album, even breaking a few rules by picking the collaborating artists from their homes on the quiet to get the recording done and dusted!

On this album Early brought in a few not so well recognised, yet up and coming names to collaborate with, after connecting with them as artists, such as Bliksemstraal, (Sê Net) King B (Baainaar) Miss Understood (Loco) and Anny (Forever Or Never). He adds “During covid and even before that I would check like, whose consistent, who was busy, and most of them where from Cape Town. King B & Bliksemstraal wrote their own sections to their songs. I just reached out to them, asked them if they wanted to jump on the track with me, and they were like, sure”

When we asked Early for his thoughts on another rapper making waves on the Afrikaans rap scene, YoungstaCPT, we were pleasantly surprised by his answer “We actually have a few projects coming! He’s my maat. Youngsta’s been busy for a long time. The two of us have worked on a music video that never got released yet because of covid, we will be dropping another music video too but he wants to have a proper run, he’s very strategic ”

Watch the beautifully moving ‘Forever or Never’ featuring Anny below – it has even become a “wedding song” for newly weds so we are expecting huge numbers with this track for sure!

Early comments on his collaborations – “I believe in collaborating, because I love challenging myself, I’m very diverse, I don’t like to box myself” he continues to say ” When I finished my first album recording with the big guys I knew what it felt like just to get a gap, because Jack Parow was my first commercial feature and after Parow, a lot of things happened”

The Album ‘Funky-Kaans‘ dropped on Friday, 19 February 2021 via Apple music, who stated that Early ‘had raised the bar’ by exploring a new sound. Early B says ‘Michael Jackson had a lot of influence on my second album‘ ‘Funky-Kaans‘ – bringing in a more funky / mellowed vibe, which was already evident with the award winning track ‘Ben Ten‘.

On ‘Funky-Kaans‘ we see more singing and less rapping, proving how much Early B has matured and grown as an artist, and we are loving it – staying true to his statement that he simply cannot be ‘boxed’.

Early adds “I know what it’s like to help someone else, and that’s why I’m featuring our up and comings” – commenting on the albums progress so far he says ” with Funky-kaans we have to choose what’s going to be the next single everybody’s like, we like this, we like this…the numbers are close on all the songs. We had to literally narrow it done, like ok, this one is beating this one by a couple of streams, it’s a gradual climb, but all the tracks are climbing together ”

Get the album Funky-Kaans HERE

Tracklist Below:

Early B – Moves Is Bad

Early B – Forward

Early B – Moet Vat

Early B, Jack Parow – Sak Sara

Early B – Forever Or Never (feat. Anny)

Early B – Slaai Krap

Early B – Sê Net (feat. Bliksemstraal)

Early B – Loco (feat. Miss Understood)

Early B – 2 Blessed 2 Be Stressed (feat. Christine Bam)

Early B – Niemand Soos Jy Nie

Early B – Oooh Jinne

Early B – Side Piece

Early B – Hearties (feat. Tertuis Cuyler)

Early B – Blomme

Early B – Isie Nca Nie

Early B – Baainaar (feat. King B)

“If music is in you, it’s in you – You can’t NOT do it” ~ Early B

The Show

Although the club was not quite bursting at the seams, the crowd was large enough to raise the roof as Early hit the stage. A temporary glitch with the sound gave him the chance to work his audience up good and proper, chatting to them like old friends. Charismatic and delightfully charming, Early B was born for the stage.

It was evident that everyone there were there especially for him, judging by the way the crowd knew every word of his songs as they sang along at the top of their voices – it was incredible to watch. If he is in your city, be sure to catch one of his performances – I can vouch … you will leave feeling uplifted and wanting more!