What story do you tell on your first album? The album that will set the foundation for your career and either gain or lose ears? The album that sets the first impression, like the first encounter of the evening on a blind date? Do you play it safe and tell the story of money, cash and hoes so as not to scare people with uncomfortable truths and sincerity? Or do you tell a true story? A story of adversity and triumph, of almost giving up but finding the strength to rise above, of the pursuit of fat as*es and ample bosoms, of hard work and equally intense hours of partying, of late nights and early mornings, of money and new fame, of wild performances and flashy threads, of love and lust, of deceased parents and new lives, of friendships and family? You tell a story of dreams.
When you’re from a city that is popularly known for its bunny chows,
plush beaches, beautiful women and a lavish annual horseracing event that no one attends for the horseracing, it’s easy for your attempts at success to be eclipsed by all the city’s generous attributes. Admit it, a year ago when someone mentioned Durban, you couldn’t help but let your imagination wander off to a warm, placid utopia. The last thing you thought of was music, and when you did, the experience
involved two highly zealous chubby guys and a skinny dude (R.I.P Mashesha) on stage
hypnotising the crowd with amazing highenergy house music. We’ve never been mad at that. But what that did was sell the hip hop community there short of its awesome dynamic. And the surge of young prodigal producers, fierce emcees, buck krumpers,
skilled poppers and lockers, vocalists and graffiti and visual artists were not being represented to the world. They were being told they had to move to the city of gold to ‘make it’. They might as well have not existed. And now that’s all changed.
‘Tsekede’ was a cool record. It popped up out of nowhere one day and dominated radio
and television. Then the remix came along with AKA and Big Nuz, which was even more
awesome. But at that point you were forgiven for thinking Dreamteam was a one-hit wonder, and riding off a Super Mega co-sign as well as the credibility of the biggest house trio on the continent. Then ‘Izass’ came out and it was banging in the club but had little substance. After ‘Phambili’ addressed the substance, the ravings were that the crew never properly acknowledged the city they were from; ‘Dubane’ did that. When you saw them perform live at a local concert near you (in one of the thousands of shows they’ve rocked in the past year), your cool went out the window when you witnessed your girl get down to ‘Yaya’ in a way she’s never done for you before. And slowly but surely all your arguments were starting to have a weaker case against the hip hop trio Dreamteam. All of this was done with a uniquely authentic approach to hip hop, bringing the dance, tradition and festivity of their surroundings and their city to a culture where sometimes more than a head-nod as a response to a rap song is considered soft. A storm was brewing. What’s more admirable than the actual music, is how they have become walking incarnations of the possibility that dreams can come true. From humble beginnings to stadium status. And it has all culminated with the release of
their debut project Dreams Never Die. They stay awake but are forever dreaming
Congratulations on the release of your debut album Dreams Never Die. You guys had two years of momentum prior to the album dropping. Why did the release take so long?
Trey: We felt as though we could drop the album at any time we wanted. And also we
wanted to drop it in the right space in terms of our brand and our album in order to hav maximum exposure. You can’t rush the process of your first album. Last year was also a very big year, everybody dropped an album. This year was a bit more safe [laughs]. Not to say we were afraid of competition, we just wanted as much attention as possible on this thing that we’ve been putting our blood, sweat and tears towards.
Why the decision to drop an album at all actually? Since dropping The Blow Up two and half years ago you’ve been consistently relevant with successful singles, campaigns and shows. Albums and CD sales aren’t seen as a priority to the consumer or a major source of income for the artist, and we’re seeing the trend overseas is that many artists are becoming single-reliant and doing well of it.
Trey: I think that is the goal for every artist: to put out a complete body of work. As much as singles can be your bread and butter and get you bookings, with an album you can get people to understand who you are and get a little deeper with the music. Singles don’t necessarily allow for that because you are trying to get to radio, trying to get in clubs. I feel like an album is more about you, the artist. It’s about telling a story. People are just always saying we can’t rap or we just dance, so this is the perfect platform for us to address those kinds of things and show that this is what we can do and what we are able to do. It’s there in one body of work. An album is good for accolades such as award season too; those things matter to a certain extent. And as an artist you want to be competitive with the rest, and be relevant when it comes to the MAMAs or HYPE Awards if they ever were to come back, you want to be competitive in that space as well.
Absolutely. Speaking of singles versus albums, you’ve mastered the club and radio scene with infectious song after infectious song, so it was always clear that Dreamteam could produce bangers. On the album, you’ve expanded that range. Tell us about the sonic direction going into the recording process.
Saso: We’ve always liked other genres of music. So there was no way we weren’t going to add it onto the album. We’re influenced by all these different genres like maskandi; we had some electro songs but they didn’t make the album so we can still do them later on. So we get inspiration from a lot of the different genres to make sure that we do things in our own way and give our own twist to things. In a way that it will make sense for us.
Why did the string of songs you released prior to the album like ‘Dubane’ and ‘Phambili’ not make it onto the album?
dash It’s all new material. The only songs that we didn’t put were ‘What’s Your Name’ which dropped this year and ‘Phambili’ which is only on iTunes because we wanted to get into the new material. If you’re going to start performing your album, you don’t want to perform songs that you’ve been performing for the past two years. Because the music that we are performing right now is essentially the music we are going to be performing for the next two years, we thought it would be better to start fresh and get people to know these songs and get to know the videos. Let’s bring something new and have
fresh legs.
Speaking of something fresh, the interludes on the album are the most personal you guys have ever been as rappers. In a group it’s easy to the individuals’ voices to become muddled up into one identity so it really cool to hear how you guys differ and the stories and contributions each member brings to the table.
Saso: We wanted to express who we are individually. Where we’ve been, where we come from, what our dreams are and what our goals are. Yes, we are one entity but there are different elements that make up this entity; otherwise what would be the point of being a group if we didn’t each bring something different to the table? We did it in The Blow Up and it made a lot of sense for us. Those interludes are also very personal. They are less about turning up and more about allowing the listeners to get to know us on a deeper level; people connect to that when they realise that we’re also human with ambitions and tribulations. trey True. When you make songs as a group, it’s not about what you as an individual want to do. It’s about what’s best for the song, so that takes priority. With the interludes, it was about giving the individual space to get their creativity across in the way they wanted to, without worrying about how it affects the overall song or the hook or the timing of the next guy’s verse. Understand that if you never allow someone a chance to be themselves in a group environment, they’re going to search for external avenues where they can do that. It’s important to us that we don’t suppress one another’s individuality so that it never gets to a point where cats are like, “You know what? I need to leave and go discover myself elsewhere.” dash Yeah and the reason why those interludes are so personal is because we always try to be as honest as possible. It’s always best to talk about what you know and what you think rather than making stuff up. So besides the interludes, there are other songs that are quite personal but have a turn-up appeal carrying it just to make it more listenable. If you listen to ‘Talk That Sh*t’, the content is really what we think and how we feel.
Trey: Everybody on that song, even Kiernan, was addressing things that are close them. But it might not necessarily come through because it’s a song that’s up-tempo and most people won’t necessarily take the time to listen to the lyrics. But we’re okay with that because music is a give-and-take situation; you need to entertain as well as engage with people mentally and emotionally. But if you actually listen to what we’re all saying most times, you’ll hear that our music is very, very personal.
Dreamteam is definitely a general musical force that people can’t ignore. But the
name rarely comes up when people have conversations about ‘best lyricist’ or ‘best hip hop’. With hip hop being such a critical genre, is lyrical respect something that you guys are concerned about or is the focus on something bigger than rap?
Dash: We probably have different views on this. For me, one thing I’ve always said is that at the end of the day I want to make music that is relatable to as many people as possible, whether you’re a hip hop head or not. The wider range of people you appeal to, the more people your message will reach. There’s a line from Drake that we always quote where he says: “Being just a rapper is not enough, you’ve got to be an
artist.” So at the end of the day if you hear the tracks that we release and you think that we can rap, then I’m happy. But also, when you hear a song like ‘What’s Your Name?’ and it makes you want to dance, I’m happy about that too. I don’t care if you put me on your top rappers list or not, it’s not about that for me. It’s about making music that will last and music that will affect people’s lives.
Trey: Yeah, I think we just try to make the best music and that’s the bottom line. Music is universal, it speaks to everyone regardless of your genre of preference. If I’m on a song with AKA I’m going to try to kill it in as much a hip hop way as possible. It’s not just about the fact that he’s the best lyricist in the country or whatever but I’m going to bring my best because I want to make sure that the song is at that level. In the same light, if I’m on a song with Anatii which requires a more melodic approach, that’s what I’ll give. I think that’s where we as a group look at it.
Your collective mentality shows, more so because you have been able to forge a relationship with Afrotainment, who are a house music powerhouse. Hip hop cats tend to stay in their boxes. What is the nature of your relationship with Tira and his team?
Trey: With Tira, he is able to give us perspective. He’s got such vast experience
and been through it for the past 15 years. So he’s that kind of a person to who we can go to pick his brain about business and just bounce ideas on. Obviously he doesn’t have a very deep knowledge of the hip hop industry but he knows the industry in general. And it helps to have someone like that in your corner. It’s not the kind of deal where he tells us what to do or which songs to use or tries to control our moves. It’s more of a partnership. We share ideas and exchange information, and we are there for each other in a musical and business capacity because we have common goals and respect each other’s crafts.
Going into the album, how did you approach the featured artists? As pioneers from
Durban right now, a lot of people thought you would have put your entire city on. The only Durbanite on the album is Abdus, who most people from the city were happy to hear from, I’m sure.
Dash: Speedsta asked why we didn’t put Aewon Wolf on a song or call Breeze or WTF for a feature because all of those guys are currently helping to keep the Durban torch burning. And the thing is, it wasn’t as if we sat down and decided on who we are going to work with. Much of the process, like the lyrics, developed naturally.
Trey: Yeah, initially we did have a rough list of a few people we wanted to collaborate with. But we didn’t end up following that list.
Dash: The people who we worked with are our friends. They are people who we spend a lot of time with in the music industry so naturally we have things in common and end up sharing our art with one another. Donald, for example; we hang with Donald when we are in Jo’burg and he hangs with us when he’s in Durban. We didn’t have an official conversation about the song we did together. We were just chilling and the idea just came about, that’s why it worked. The only person I would say we had a formal interaction with was Ice Prince, because he reached out to us to say he wanted to work with us. So I’m happy to have worked with friends because the collaborations are organic; music is never right when it is rushed or forced.
Most def. Do you have expectations for the album, numbers-wise?
Trey: I honestly don’t.
Dash: I think for me at first when we started making the album I felt like I wanted us to sell the most and get all the awards. But the more music we made, and the more invested we got into the process, I started to feel like, whether five people buy the music or 5,000 buy the music, I’ll be happy either way. Because it’s about the impact that the music has on a person. I just want someone to appreciate it as much as we put into it. Because you can sell 20,000 records but did people enjoy the music? Was it genuine and sincere? Did we put out the quality that we wanted and tell the stories we set out to tell? All those things are more important to me personally in the bigger picture than selling a trillion copies.
Trey: I have to agree with that. But on the other hand, don’t get us wrong, we want people to buy the album. We’re going to play our part by marketing and punting it. We are going to do whatever we can to get the most sales possible. But at the end of the day, we aren’t trying to sell 50,000. And if that’s what ends up happening then it’s a blessing from God. dash Tumi did an interview with Vuzu once and said that it’s a pity that now the game is all about numbers. Back then it was about the quality of the product. Now, it’s about whether you go gold or not, and that’s not a measure to determine how good your production is. Look at AKA’s album, he’s got so many number ones from that.
Now that the album is out, what happens next?
Dash: We’re going to bring the heat with videos first and foremost. We are trying to do
our branding, marketing our merchandise. Also, we’re looking into a proper tour. After that, we are going back in studio because we want to drop an EP next year.
Trey: It will just depend on the music, the songs will determine what we do next. We can’t push two different things simultaneously so we will have to see how it plays out. At the moment all of our focus is on this album.
Dash: And just expect a bigger and better Dreamteam, we’re going higher now. We have learned to do much in the past two years.
What do you want people to walk away with when they hear the album?
Saso: I want people to get to know us beyond our singles. The album is more in depth and we’re telling a story that will hopefully find resonance with a lot of people.
Trey: I just want people to walk away with the interludes, because then I’ll feel like you’ve listened to everything that’s on the album.
Dash: The message that we are a testament that dreams never die.