Youngsta On How Having White Friends Affected Him

Cape Town based Rapper Youngsta expressed his experiences and concern with regards to race. The  rapper said he began noticing at a younger age how a different skin placed you on a different level in society.

Speaking to Dennis Ngango, the Cape Town rapper said his journey to being a conscious rapper began then.

“When I started noticing differences in treatment, it was back at school because I went to a mixed race school where there were black, white and coloured people. Most of the friends I hung out with went to all coloured schools. I noticed that things that were happening at their schools weren’t there at my school. And, I was ridiculed for going to that school, doing my homework or being associated with white people. They made me feel bad about that.

“It was at that moment that I realised that there’s some sort of a difference in society for all of us. I didn’t know what it was but I knew that different people weren’t treated equally.”

The rapper also opened up about why attaching himself to Cape Town meant so much to him.

“We were blessed to be the cradle of South African hip-hop. I think people like the Prophets of The City, dating as far back as the 70s and 80s adopted hip-hop in SA. From the beat boxing to the graffiti to the DJ’ing and the MC’ing which came last for them. They were really about the culture.”