Africa's Own Evil Knievel

*This story is in the current August 2014 edition of Indwe, inflight magazine for SA Express Airways. Read the online version here

I’m interviewing ‘Sick Nick’ De Wit, world number five and Africa’s number one ranked FMX (Freestyle Motocross) champion at a coffee shop in Hatfield, Pretoria. I’m asking the 33 year old Joburger if he ever gets scared of crashing while doing summersaults on his dirt bike and ending up paralyzed or dead. His reply stings like a back hand klap across the Grim Reapers face.   

“If you’re going to die, you’re going to die, don’t let fear of death stop you from achieving your destiny.” He pauses to take a sip from his frothy coffee, locking eyes with me, as if examining if his answer unnerved me somehow…It did, and I think he noticed. “You have to be extremely cautious and have 0% fear to avoid crashes.” 

He says it annoyingly, like talking about crashing will jinx his next stunt. His tone softens while discussing his love for the sport however.

Nick grabbed his first pair of handlebars at age 13 doing motocross races and never let go, but he disliked FMX originally. “When I first saw FMX in the late 90s I thought the riders were insane and I’d never do it.”  Only after winning the FMX competition at Cape Town’s 2002 Woodstock Music Festival did he discover his FMX calling. He won every show until the competition’s liquidation in 2009. In 2003, Red Bull approached Nick with a sponsorship offer that changed his life.

Since then Nick has been stunting in exotic locations worldwide, barely having time to hose his bike before getting called to ramp it in another international venue. He’s also the first African to compete in the Red Bull X Fighters, the boss of FMX competitions. “I rode at the X-Fighters in Spain and Germany in 2009 and Cairo in 2010. I’ve also rode in Singapore, Tunisia, Columbia, Taiwan, Japan, Peru, Dubai, Germany, Namibia and Brazil.”

 He also performed at the world’s biggest action sports tour Nitro Circus at its first tour of Africa in SA this year. Other noteworthy stunts he’s accomplished include setting the world record for the highest FMX show at 3.5km above sea level in La Paz, Bolivia.

On August 23^rd, Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour will host its finale at Pretoria’s Union Buildings for the first time in Africa, and Nick loves it. “I’ll have home ground advantage, and the best thing about it is that I won’t have to sit in a plane for hours and endure jet lag.”

Preparations include tough physical training at the University of Pretoria’s High Performance Centre, and punishing his bike in his backyard motocross circuit, “I’m lucky to have a big piece of land I could develop into a FMX course. It’s got landings, ramps and a foam pit.”

Nick knows he will be up against the meanest FMX riders like feared Frenchman and defending champion Tom Pagès. To gain advantage Nick urges South Africans to show up and show love, “bring vuvuzela’s if you want” he says. But can spectators expect any new teeth gritting tricks? “I’m working on many new tricks. I can’t divulge my secrets but you’ll be blown away.”

With that the interview ended, and the waiter brought our bills on one receipt, I requested separate bills, but Nick politely offered to pay both tabs under one condition, “as long as you promise to come and support me at Union Buildings.” While rising to leave we bumped fists and I confirm, “Ofcourse, I’ll even bring my vuvuzela.” 

LEARNING LESSONS | RED BULL BEAT BATTLE

I wrote this article for Mahala, a free South African music, culture & reality magazine who uploaded it yesterday, June 5 2014. Photos by Luke Daniel. Video by CFTV

Let’s get one thing straight: I’m as fanatical about hip hop as Boko Haram is about kidnapping school girls… so my views on other music and dance sub-cultures are undoubtedly skewed and somewhat condescending. For example, I can barely stand house music or sbhujwa culture and I think anything associated with pantsula is as backward as grown-ass men with cornrows.

Look, hip hop has the best dancers in the country hands down, and if you disagree then consider that 90% of all major dance competitions in SA are won by hip hop dancers. Consider the annual Red Bull Beat Battle, which was held last weekend at Walter Sisulu Square in Soweto. The 100k cash prize and drum trophy has (almost) always rotated amongst hip hop crews, ever since the competition’s inception in 2011. The only exception was when a sbhujwa crew called Prophelaz broke the tradition by winning last year.

So I went into the hall confidently thinking I would see MY culture reclaim the drum and consolidate its dominance in SA’s dance scene… but oh I was so wrong.

There were eight crews, half were hip hop and the other four were sbhujwas and pantsulas. By the second round it was clear that the non hip hop crews were going to dominate.

Take the battle between hip hoppers Supreme 1 and Panzan Entertainment – while Panzan performed, Supreme huddled up and wrote “boring” on a large piece of paper and held it up until their competitors finished performing. But their protest was nothing but a gimmick. When it was Supreme’s turn to dance, they were met with howls and boo’s from the audience and discerning dance heads. Even their ghoulish make up couldn’t hide the disappointment on their faces when the judges and crowd voted unanimously for Panzan to progress to the next round.

The other hip hop crew, Psyko Souljahz, also got knocked out in the early stages and Prophelaz took out Warrior Knights from Durban who wore riot gear to bolster their battle tactics. Sure, but all I can remember is the image of a Warrior Knight member crying backstage after losing to Prophelaz. It just shows that the tide is turning… it will go down in history that 2014 was the year sbhujwa dancers sent hip hop crews home crying to their mommies!

In the end, the hip hop crew Freeze Frame proved to be the last bastion of the culture, and they were too good for their competitors. The destroyed pantsula crew Fire, and eventually went on to take overall victory after squeaking past Prophelaz in the final to take the crown.

But for me (and most people at the battle), the real heroes of the day were Panzan Entertainment, a sbhujwa crew from The Vaal. Panzan fuse elements of Latin American beats and rhythms with basic indigenous dance and their own sbhujwa flavour. Early in the competition, I noticed that one of its members was dancing on steel crutches, which I thought were props… just to add flair to their routine. It was only later on that I realised Musa Motha of Panzan was an actual amputee. Panzan Entertainment made it to the semi’s of arguably the biggest and most competitive dance battle in the country, despite one of their members having a disability. Musa’s bravery and skill humbled me greatly.

But in the semi’s, Panzan  ran out tricks and energy and were beaten by the far superior Prophelaz, who went on to face Freeze Frame and take second place on the podium.

After Panzan’s performance in the semi’s, one of the judges, Somizi Mhlongo, stood up from the judge’s table with a mic and awarded them R20 000 for “showing us that nothing is impossible in this world.”

So instead of gloating about a hip hop crew winning the 2014 Red Bull Beat Battle, I must instead pay homage to Somizi Mhlongo and Panzan Entertainment for teaching everyone a few lessons in life last weekend. I learned that you can NEVER underestimate anyone and it’s irrelevant what music you dance to… what matters is how you use your passion to achieve things haters said you never could. It took one sbhujwa dancer to open my mind to the bigger picture. Respect.

Master Dancer: Katlego Mphahlele

This is a transcript of a story I wrote that is published on page 38 of the current print edition of global monthly magazine, Red Bulletin. To read the full story get your free copy available at every Sportscene outlet in South Africa. 

Katlego Mphahlele was a key member of dance crew IDA as they powered to Red Bull Beat Battle glory in 2013, but this year’s Battle is shaping up as an even bigger opportunity to showcase his sbujwa moves and beat-mixing skills.

Katlego Mphahlele (aka Sii) might only be 23, but he’s been a professional dancer almost half his life. Growing up in Tembisa township, east of Johannesburg, dance was a way of life: polishing moves on the street, earning a buck at corporate gigs, and building a profile by competing on TV dance shows. A master of sbujwa and pantsula, Katlego’s life got real when he was thrust into fatherhood at the age of 20. Spurred on by the arrival of a baby boy, Sii had little choice but to continue to dance his butt off to support his kid. He has toured Europe, made cameo appearances on Culoe De Song’s music videos, built a reputation as a producer and, of course, helped IDA – Indigenous Dance Academy – make history when they became the first non hip-hop crew to win Red Bull Beat Battle last year. IDA’s champion crew has since dissolved, but all the main members have regrouped and will be defending their title on June 7, this time as Prophelaz, and they’ll be dancing to beats produced by Sii’s house band, Drumetic Boyz.

The Red Bulletin: Why did you leave IDA?
Katlego Mphahlele: We left IDA a month before last year’s Red Bull Beat Battle for certain reasons, like the overall transparency of management. But because we had already auditioned and qualified, we couldn’t change the name, so we danced as IDA and formed Prophelaz after winning.

Sii with his crew IDA now known as Prophellaz at a Red Bull photo shoot. Source: Katlego's Facebook page

Has the crew’s split benefited or disadvantaged you?
It has benefited all five crew members: we have grown tremendously since then and we all know what we are working for.

What progress have Prophelaz made?
We were back-up dancers in Culoe De Song’s Make You Move video as well as in his new video No Contest, which we shot two weeks ago. Beatenberg have also shown interest in having us dance in their upcoming video.

How does performing in the streets compare to taking your dance overseas?
Only your peers and screaming groupies will respect you for street dance. Our parents only began taking us seriously when they heard we were going overseas with this; we got props from young kids to senior citizens when we were in Europe.

Little did Prophellaz know that they would win the competition after this photo shoot.

Where did you tour?
We went to France in 2011 for three months when we had a dance theatre show called uKjika with the old IDA crew. I went to Switzerland in 2011 to DJ at a club called Cancun. And three of us were in Italy three weeks before the 2013 Beat Battle as back-up dancers for PJ Powers.

Tell us more about Drumetic Boyz…
Drumetic Boyz is a DJ duo consisting of William ‘Widjo’ Chilimba and myself. We formed the duo because we have so much in common: we’re both dancers, producers and house DJs.

Read the full story in May's issue of The Red Bulletin.