The Gospel according to Rico Myers of Shisaka Entertainment
House of Shisaka nestled in the heart of Yeoville, and just a stone throw away from the once hip and happening famous Rocky Street, has over the years grown into a go to spot for most Reggae Dancehall fans who are particularly into Zimdancehall. Started by a group of DJ’s who after having performed at almost every venue there is in Yeoville, felt a need to start their own thing and own their own space; and out of that The House of Shisaka was born and now it’s on its way to becoming a force to be reckoned with in the Reggae Dancehall space in Mzansi. Shisaka Entertainment is owned by Tapuwa Shiridzinomwa aka Big BouyaMan, and the name comes from ‘Shi’ his last name and saka meaning “So what!”
MzansiReggae went out to check the place and get to understand what it takes to run a successful business in an area where many would not even dare to set foot in. We linked up with Rico Meyers the Logistic Manager and Entertainment Manager of Shisaka Entertainment to find out more about their future plans.
While checking out the place Rico gets straight to it;
On a regular House of Shisaka can accommodate close to 600 – 800 patrons, we’ve hosted big names like Killer T and it was a full house, another show that was packed was Black Dillinger’s, Jeremiah Fyah Ises has been here. What I ended up seeing is that the South African artists, them on their own don’t have a pull factor and to them it’s all about “they said they are going to give me money so let me just go and perform” so when you perform at a place where people are not familiar with your music and not to say they don’t like what you are doing, they just don’t know who you are, but if you have 10 to 15 people rooting for you, the other patrons will want to get your music and follow you, so that slows the momentum. For the official opening, Bobotikal and Coppashot were on the line up, DJ Pepe has been here, also Lasbon, DJ Fanta has been here numerous times, Conqueror Arson, even when we had Winky D’s album launch he was here.We’ve incorporated them, but the problem is the pull factor. I don’t why.
I was about to ask why, I know you don’t have an answer for that, now that you are saying it, it makes me wonder, cause they do pull crowds in other Venues outside of Yeoville and in the townships
Ye but what you are saying is, it’s like me being in Zimbabwe and I do a show and there are people in the ghetto who are just idle so they’ll be there when they hear a boom sound somewhere. So what I’m trying to say is get out of your comfort zone, when you are out of that comfort zone, what’s your pull factor? How many people can you pull? Then you look at your fan base, it’s good to be known on social media but there’s also the physical part where now you need to see the people that keep liking you posts; do they come when you perform? not at home but somewhere far off where they don’t know you. Can someone spend R300 on you, let’s take Jeremiah from the East Rand, can 20 people leave the east rand not as his guests, can they come here to Shisaka and pay R100 and still buy food, drinks? You realise people keep liking my posts but no one is prepared to spend R500 on you, so what are you doing about it, remember this is their work too and when they work they must also be paid, so now it pushes the artist to go look for promoters, if there’s no promoter then there’s nothing they do to push themselves, they can’t hustle for themselves. So I said no we can’t do it like that, that’s why we now have House of Shisaka.
I, personally from when I was growing up I did open mics, I DJ, I MC, I dance and it’s a whole act. When you go around all these places that play reggae and dancehall and you go to the ghettos, people love rub n dub dubstep it makes them happy, dancehall gigs are supposed to be like that also you know, but now you don’t get that anymore, so we have House of Shisaka for that, in the city, the city doesn’t sleep, so why should people rub n dub till 8 and just go home.
The ghetto sessions also gave birth to this idea, everything gives birth to something, whether there’s good or bad in that thing, to stop the dancehall culture from dying we started this, that’s why you see there, there’s a stage, it’s not just a small little corner for the DJ, it’s a big stage 1 and half meters from the ground so when you perform everybody can see you, nice sound nice everything.
So who came up with the idea of House of Shisaka?
It’s Yeoville and this is the famous 123 Hunter street, Rasta House where the livity of black people as Rastas has always been represented, so going around we as just DJs, I remember I man, Myself, Big Father and a couple of other DJ’s from around here in Yeoville, we would just go around to check spaces where we could host reggae events. We pushed and pushed, also whilst we were busy with that here, ZimDancehall was also coming up in Zimbabwe. While ZimDancehall was growing in Zim we are there also, behind the curtains, behind the mic, behind the walls so when the big artist from Zim come this side we were their go to guys. We have pics from when we were young with these guys, but compared to other guys who are running things this side like Lion Paw, Jahseed, BaddaBadda and all the other guys from Zim, we are still youngsters, so whatever we are trying to do we now have a foundation. I used to be here before they even split the place into two, I used to play here in the afternoons with other acts, Brimstone, Big Trees Band, so now the crowd was a mixture of Malawians, the South Africans and Zimbabweans, Nigerians, Congolese and so forth, they love reggae and ganja, and you know those two go together, you can’t have one without the other so that’s a push factor on its own. We used to hang here a lot till things started getting out of hand, the crime, the killings in Yeoville and people stopped coming around, but we stay here and we couldn’t give up on the place. We kept pushing until one day, there was a show with Souljah Love and we were supposed to do it here and Elder Linda gave us a spot, the guy who was supposed to pay for sound pulled out last minute. There was a guy we knew who could help us, we went to him and told him we needed help, and that guy is Tapuwa Shiridzinomwa aka Big Bouya Man . So just like that the game changed, he elevated everything, from it being a small time hustle to an overnight success.
What made it a success, I’m 100% sure you don’t just wake up the next day and everything is a success, business wise?
Like I’m saying its years of not giving up, I could call out names of people I started with and they gave up and when they gave up something would open for me maybe a week or two later or month. When they come now, I’m a step ahead but I know I started with them so let’s work, it becomes easy, but you now find there is so much hate, so House of Shisaka, Shisaka entertainment is an actual a success story of Reggae Dancehall from the street, from its infancy, in this generation. It’s a success story because this is something we made happen just from the streets of Yeoville, we started with big artists if not all big artists from Zimbabwe. We started being relevant to everybody until we did Beanie Man. This was just a stamp because we had hosted Winky D, The Late Oliver Mtukudzi, Nutty O, Seh Calaz, Killer T and every artist you can think of including South African Artists, even when we did Beanie Man, Bongo Riot was there, we incorporated everyone. We hosted his show in Newtown, Cape Town and Zimbabwe, we were rolling with an international reggae star and nothing bad happened to him, he got his monies and everything that he wanted.
So in terms of crime, like you said it was bad before and it is still rife, does it impact the place?
Obviously, it does but also what you end up seeing is that with all the crime that is happening it can never be more than the people in the dance, if you put security measures in place you can overcome it but then it becomes the question of the neighbourhood not just your venue and the gig so you only protect the people who are coming to your event because people don’t want to lose anything when they come to your space, if something happens they won’t come back. We’ve had 0 to 0.1% incidents, yes you know during an event someone would need to go outside to answer their phones and someone would get robbed but that happens anywhere in Jozi. When we have crazy shows we tell people to come but we also warn them, they must remember that they are coming to the ghetto, it’s an urban ghetto, it’s a concrete jungle, dog eat dog situation, sometimes you become the dog that eats or you get eaten, either way you are exposed to these things by virtue of the environment and time and it is what is happening now. Security has always been here, we have no complains.
What would be your advice to anyone who would want to start something like House of Shisaka, Shisaka Entertainment?
Determination, determination, your story is your story sometimes we do things cause we are a group and we forget that there’s destiny. When we talk about destiny, we are talking about personal space because even when they say One Love,One Aim,One Destiny; what is that destiny, what do you want to start, like I said earlier on, Shisaka Entertainment, House of Shisaka is a success story of boys from the streets of Yeoville that end up having a beautiful concept all the way to running the big artists, it also gave birth and opened so many doors for me. We started when were still young you know, even when you guys we doing that Reggae against Rape and Abuse event it was years ago, we were there you know, we’ve been pushing. When we talk about this we must also relate to African Storm Sound System because they also paved the way in as much people fall out but it is growth, you can’t stay a baby forever. Like I said that with House of Shisaka, the Big Bouya Man was the muscle, he is the one that was putting money on us, he put the money on us and we worked, we’ve delivered beautiful shows, to a point where we started getting bookings outside of Shisaka for music that is not even reggae. Last year I did Elder Alick Macheso with Zero One One Entertainment and that music is called Sungura, and we did Busiswa, Miss Cosmo, but you have a Reggae MC who’s hosting the shows. To everyone who wants to do something use me as an example, you can as long as you are determined ,and this does not only apply to just music it applies to everything in life. But most importantly I say don’t lose heart, people lose heart on things, too many concepts, Drink and Merry, 1st Fridays, all those concepts but they just fizzled out and died, but the crowd is still there and when those concept started people were young, now they are parents and they have money to spend and I’m talking about Reggae and Dancehall diehards, they can’t go anywhere else as much as they can afford to, but they still love Reggae but thereare no proper spaces for them, so people give up on their projects. I never stopped and I’m not stopping, you can’t stay a baby forever, you get help here and there but you need to work.
What has been your most memorable project so far?
Shisaka Entertainment, because I’ve worked with so many people prior to Shisaka, some people didn’t value me, some didn’t pay me. I also got to realise that in this whole game, talent, the gift, whatever you want to call it is only 10% of who you are and the rest is business, attitude, and the right attitude cause a stinking attitude won’t get you anywhere, so the biggest project for me ever is Shisaka Entertainment. I won’t talk about the gigs because we’ve had too many beautiful gigs before Shisaka AS Individuals, I’ve done more shows with Commander B, Riddim Ryders International, I’ve been with the House of Tandoor, House 28, Club 28, Rasta Empire, too many. I’ve been to Mzimhlophe, I used to go there.
Why did you stop going to Kasi? Haven’t seen you there in a long time or you are just busy?
Uhm! It’s not even the matter of being busy, you can see the Jealousy in people’s eyes over what they think is success, people think success is money. We are Rasta and when we look at it closely you can see that there is no love, people end up pushing this vibe for the wrong reasons, you can go to the Ghetto Gig and when you get there, the love is no longer there like back in the days, or maybe its cause we are growing up! That’s why we did it here somewhere central where everyone can come and when the gig is over they can still catch a taxi outside, but they don’t call you, I’m not hating, look at the Japanese boy, overnight he came, overnight he is a big phenomenon in Africa, why!, why! Then you find that the other brothers are the ones that are opening doors for him, you open doors for them but they can’t do that for you.
That hate makes the growth very minimal until there’s no growth at all. Reggae against rape event, that venue, how many people were there, that was in 2012 now years down the line here we can accommodate 600 – 800 people, if it’s a small show where we charge R50 we are expect 150 -200 people all, now you look at all the other guys they push reggae in a coffee shop, it’s in a space where if there are 50 people it’s full and I ask myself “are we 50!” Because when I count all this people that come here +- 600 of them, you have Zimbabweans, Nigerians, South Africans infact I won’t count South Africans because this is their home, so if you don’t support your own things there is no way you are going to come out and support our things, the business makes me not frequent the Kasis because there’s no business I can’t leave here and go to perform and at the end of the day you want to give me R200, it doesn’t make business sense. I won’t mention names but we’ve given people R2000 for a thirty minute set here to show that this is a business so now if we can all come together and talk business imagine what we can put together, why should we go to Swaziland and Lesotho for Reggae festivals, why! Over the years we keep doing that over and over why! Benjy does something in Soweto people come out, 2 days Clarks party, you see how many people come out, that’s a festival on its own, there’s Reggae Camping by the Countryside, how many people have been there, so when you count the people that go there you’ll find that there’s 50 people that are consistent in this and there’s another 50 that come and go then there’s another 50 that we don’t see that you know are on your phone and all this people are not coming together to do something for big for the fans, either in the East, Soweto or Joburg, what’s stopping that.
Then how do we bridge that divide, you know there’s a lot of politics in this small industry of ours?
You know even the leaders we choose to represent us they resent us, so there’s no way we would want to be affected by politics when we know, there problem is when we ignore what we know, we know these problems are there but what are we doing about it. I know there are people who hate, I love it because they love, when you hate, it means you Love. I’m doing something that you love, otherwise you are not supposed to have any feelings towards me and my business, it’s a yin yang the two go hand in hand, where there’s good there’s evil and where there’s evil there’s good. There’s so much unnecessary hate over things that we know and if we ignore them we will continue to do business because now it’s about business we are not kids anymore, cause at the end of the day we have had big Zimbabwean artistscome and perform here in Shisaka, the hate has to go, the stupidity has to go and people need to acknowledge the fact that we are grown now. I’m going to repeat this you can’t stay a baby forever, some people are still stuck in their past mistakes, you don’t owe anyone an explanation but you owe yourself growth. If you want to see yourself grow then the growth must also come in the business that you are doing even at work in your work space there needs to be growth.The business is big but we are splitting that business into 100 small groups instead of just coming together. People are greedy, people that are eating Reggae money are people that are not working with reggae on a daily, people are being greedy but they must pay the people that are working because people are struggling out there. I’ve had events where we would wake up without money but whoever that was on the bill got paid, nice invoices. There’s money in this business but people must paid otherwise it will die.
Over the years we’ve noticed that there is a structure that’s need to be put in place;something that will bind people legally. I know a couple of projects where the government put in money but people were never paid because some people got jealous.We know these things are there so we can’t get ignore them and we can’t let those things bother us. There’s about 2000 of us who know and are in positions to help but what are we doing, so we need to put in place a structure that’s going to represent that, because there is nothing solid now.
Ye there isn’t and there has never been
But why, it’s 12 years now why
Like you said its greediness
Yeah, there are people that we’ve identified, the thieves, in the dance, in the streets, they can never be more than the people in the dance so if the people in the dance know that these people are the people that are stopping the dance from being big why can’t we look east cause we know these things, we know that so and so is like this and when they do this the vibe is like that so us who are being affected what are we doing cause we are also going to keep pointing fingers at them, what are we doing.
But how much flak are you getting (that’s if you are) for being a Zimdancehall space in Mzansi, I know you addressed the issue of people who can’t pull a crowd and maybe that’s one of the reasons you don’t book S.A born artists anymore
S.A artists need to work on their promotion, they need to get out of their comfort zone and go out there and get themselves sorted Rico is here I’ve worked with all of them, they can come to me and say Rico let’s do this cause already we see whenever Rico does his shows everything is proper.Last year I was in Cosmo City doing Jah Pryzah we had a crowd of more than 3000 people, it was nice, now Imagine if I take Fyah Ises from the beast rand as Lasbon calls it there, cause now when I go with him there, my 3000 people plus his 3000 people we will get 6000 people, but they don’t see those numbers, they don’t see it like that, they are the ones on the ground,they are the one at home, they are the ones with access to more things, why is Ragga Attack still the only biggest show, you know what I’m saying! we’ve identified these things of hate so why can’t I just say hold on hold on (it stops right here) yeah something got to give Agent Sasco says “me got a daughter now so mi got to think smart, something go to give” I had to let go of the gangsters life on the street cause now somebody put so much money on us, it’s not anyone who will have somebody like that, big up to Father Gray, Paramount BaakAYard, for pushing Jeremiah Fyah Ises, big up to Tapuwa Shiridzinomwa aka Big Bouya Man for pushing Shisaka for pushing reggae dancehall.Its not everyone that has people who will believe in them but if that structure is there it will represent, where is Momo’s music, where is Zorro, Crosby is big overseas and in Cape Town when they come here to Joburg they are not known and me when I walk on the streets, walk with me from here to the market you will realise that people associate me with music more than the streets that I come from, so what I’m saying is: these guys when they walk on the street they don’t have that celebrity status to them and these are the guys that are supposed to be known, that are supposed to be getting that recognition so if that structure is there representing and defending this, the growth is immediate, I’ve seen it and I know. Another situation now is today its Bar Bar Black Sheep there, Habesha there and they are all small spaces and in those small spaces the guys that has the lease for that place is the one that’s going to eat that R500, everyone will just get spare change, people are spending money on someone else’s thing and we have our own thing.
But then again in terms of what the guys are trying to do at those venues maybe their vision is in line with Shisakas, they realise they can’t be stuck in that same position forever so they are trying something new
But when you are trying something new you must be smart about it, it mustn’t affect growth cause the most important thing is growth, you can’t go and try something else but now you are trying something that YOU’VE DONE before and you know you can do, what are you saying to self, cause there’s no way that I am going to want to go where I’m going to perform in front of 50 people. On my own I’ve pushed until I’ve performed for 3000 people so there’s no way, unless if it’s a very intimate and very expensive set up then they can do that, at a place that they are owning. There’s nothing wrong with all these spaces, but are we owning them?At the end of the day who’s making the most out of it, is everyone on the line up happy when they leave? You’ll find that Coppashot won’t care cause he already has a cheque at the end of the month, so is Pepe, Fanta, what about those that don’t have permanent work. If it’s done in a space that we own, if we are owning this thing, then we will benefit, we’ve seen people fall out we know,we know why they fell out with each other but then what are we also doing. I’ll pose it more to the South Africans what are you doing, JJ Alcapone, Jahlink, everyone just becomes a Facebook superstar, lets come on the ground and command, we got people that have been doing music for the longest time, why can’t we put in those structures. Have you noticed what’s happening now, you go to a reggae dancehall party and you are subjected to SA Hip Hop, Amapiano, Afro beat, there’s so much reggae, if not let’s just play Bob Marley’s music the whole night cause everybody loves Bob Marley.
The next big project for Shisaka?
We are not stopping like I said that we deal with artists, for the fact that there are artist then there are people out there, it’s not everyone that loves Yeoville not everyone that can come to Yeoville for the good or for the bad, we have people in CT, we are big in Kempton park, Pretoria, Durban, Polokwane, we are big in all these places so that on its shows there still more work to be done, and we don’t play Nigerian music, even if we play Zimdancehall we are playing Zimbabwean reggae of which in that reggae they sing in Shona and they sing in English and now people want to come and make it look like they can’t relate to it. It’s the same gong either its tuff or soft but its same gong because the instruments are the same, the drums, the lead guitar, the vocals, mic, the same CDjs so people need to stop this thing of saying its Zimdancehall so we can’t go. If you don’t go there you won’t get exposure and experience, you going to keep crying but you going to keep crying to who, because you don’t have a structure.
Would you consider taking House of Shisaka to the Kasis?
If we don’t do that then we are not appreciloving South Africa and we are not being fair cause there has to be fairness cause that’s what is called justice because now when you deal with justice then it means something is wrong and it needs to be fixed, so if we don’t come to the ghetto, it’s taking us 10 steps back. Unfortunately we got things like xenophobia, I always think about you guys, watch what was happening when you started Reggae against rape and you stopped, look at all the killings, the rapes and the brutal form of it, we are not saying it wasn’t happening but it was subtle but now this is in the most brutal forms where even a lover can beat and burn somebody that they love, lure them into their office and kill them there, so now imagine if you didn’t stop then with all of this happening now, you could have had even some money being injected into it cause now you have a ten year trial of that happening, so we need to come to the Kasi but the only thing that can make us go there is knowing that the people in the ghetto that are representing Reggae Dancehall in the Kasi know what they are doing, THEY NEED TO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING, everyone plays a role, there’s the DJs, ambassadors, engineers all that, all those people need to play their roles, there has to be a structure that will legally bind whoever that does not abide that they will be jailed and no fine.
That’s a bit harsh!
But then, it is what it is, we can say its harsh when there’s a tornado but its nature, its life. Sometimes you need to be cruel to be kind. We need to protect some things and it’s a legacy. Nkulee is running with his father’s Legacy, big up, at least we know Lucky Dube band and the Daughter are still there and they are still going, we need that. You also need a legacy and where we are now this is what we are doing, soon you going to be hearing we are doing something different, but Shisaka still stands. When we come together we defend this thing that we know as Shisaka, whoever does wrong is told , there’s punishments some people that used to be there are not there anymore cause of the wrongs that they did; so even in the S.A structure you need to have that, where people that do wrong get jail time, the beauty of jail time is while you are there, the movement continues, now the movement is not there and people are still there.
When you look at people like Burna Boy, Shatta Wale, all these guys you can tell they are dancehall youths but now they are doing afro pop mainstream on TV and all that but when they do their shows, they go onstage with a joint, shout Jah they are toasting, they are dancehall youths, it means this thing is big they have their structures, Zim has Zimdancehall structure, S.A doesn’t have it, it makes it difficult even now for me to come to the ghetto with Killer T, YOU MIGHT NOT UNDERSTAND Shona but something beautiful is beautiful; its not like everyone understands patois, they don’t, it’s a lie but people understand English, there’s reggae dancehall in French, in Spanish and it’s nice, we dance to ‘Despacito’ but we don’t know what it means, so that’s what stopping us from coming to the ghetto cause even in the ghetto there is Zimbabweans, there are Malawian, Tanzanians, so if reggae goes there and it’s not just rub a dub,it’s not just a thing that is there in the corner, it becomes a solid structure that can feed, clothe, educate and entertain cause too many people are still in bondage, too many people are still suffering, so when we are there these are the kind of messages that we still need to preach to people. That ‘ok get up, get off your bum, do something it might not be overnight, for some it does, but if Jah is blessing someone either you know or in your area, don’t hate, it means Jah is in the neighbourhood. Some people end up doing wrong things because of pressure of certain things, other brothers are losing it, you ask yourself why,it’s the pressure of not having something to fall back on, that structure is needed, the Reggae government is needed, and I can call out names of people that I know can do something for the youth to identify…
Call them out maybe they will hear you
It must be an interview for next time, visual interview I’ll properly write down it down, what I am saying now is, this is a success story of Reggae Dancehall from the ghetto youth, from the streets of Yeoville, now we have big artists from Jamaica calling, I’m sitting on one of a Jamaican artist contract now, they want to come to Africa, they all want to come, for the fact that they know that the is Rico from Shisaka, a Zimbabwean in Johannesburg, In Yeoville in South Africa doing this, imagine how big can anyone from here get now. They can be huge, there are people that I know can do this, that love this but they’ve been disappointed before but they need to be approached and told that ‘ok it was those people, they are there, we are doing it now’ I’ve approached too many people now and they’ve said ‘but but’ and I say ‘yes you are very right but it’s me now, check what I am doing’ We have done beautiful successful shows here in South Africa. If they can put up a structure, it will be phenomenal, since Lucky Dube apart from the Elder Dr. Colbert Mukhwevo in Limpopo what do we command, for digital we are not commanding anything and these people they commanded during that analogue era and we have the world on the tips of our finger, the internet has made the world a very small place but we are still not eating, why! We need to be driving Ferraris because there’s Rasta everywhere, there’s people that love Reggae everywhere, when you listen to any music you can hear traces of reggae, reggae is the only music that still have a positive message. We need that but people fall out, alcohol, people are losing it through alcohol, it defines the stress levels but you can’t let it subdue you, people are now taking drugs to try and ease their pain and they are losing focus, these things mustn’t control us. People that do this things do them for recreation, when they are happy, to celebrate but now we are doing them when we are in sorrow to drown our sorrows, and I can’t laugh at you cause you are drowning cause we are in the same boat, I need to help you out. If people don’t see what Rico, what Shisaka is doing or has done then I don’t think there’s any other inspiration, for me personally this is a success story, I’ve done everything, now I can put up a show, you will just sit back and relax and I’ll deliver a beautiful show but you must pay me.
All Photo Credits: House Shisaka FB