(Tracks marked as FREE are all less than 60 seconds in length but are essential to the flow of the album.)
Hailing from Cookeville, in the US state Tennessee, activist, actor, singer/songwriter, producer and photographer Brown, came to Cape Town for the first time in 1999 to work with Youth With A Mission. He worked with Cape Town street children and decided to come back to South Africa full time after spending three months in India with the same organization.
Back in Cape Town, he worked as a street worker with Beautiful Gate and in 2004 moved his interests to Khayelitsha's community Town Two.
Now only twenty six, Brown can already look back on a life rich in experiences, which included working since the age of twelve, when he cleaned offices, stocked shelves at a garage and waited in restaurants. His true calling caught up with him in 1998 when he became youth leader of his local church and began working with 'ghetto kids' in trailer parks and housing projects in Cookeville.
Brown has dedicated his life ever since to helping the 'underdogs' of society, creating his own projects based on the real needs, which he identifies while working on ground zero.
His love for the arts began as early as childhood. He claims to have been 'singing before I could' talk, he learned to play the piano, drums and guitar and started acting. His first feature role as a singer / actor was in a Cookeville city production play when he was only five years old. From then on, Brown literally grew up with working on television shows, modelling, as well as appearing in television commercials, print ads and music videos.
He went on to win the State of Tennessee Best Acting Award in 1994 for his role in 'Drive In'.
Back in the States he played in a rock band, but it was in 2003 during the shooting of a documentary, to which US film maker John Henion was inspired by Brown's work with Cape Town street children, that he started to write rap songs. While filming, John noticed that the kids call Brown 'Slim Shady', and because he rapped with them in the street, he suggested that Brown starts to write rap songs.
Rap proved to be the art form in which Brown first started to record his experiences of working with Cape Town's street children. He soon followed this up by writing a book on the same subject and backed up his experiences visually with a series of photographs, taken during his work on the streets.
Since 2004 Brown performed at various festivals in South Africa, such as the Dance for Life in Observatory, which is linked to an event in Holland and was also covered by SABC 2. The response of the audience was awesome, and concert goers demanded Brown to release his album as soon as possible.
All this activity didn't go unnoticed by talent scout and entertainment entrepreneur Alexander Gregori, who was introduced to Brown by a mutual friend, music producer Cavera C. Brown met up with the founder of the PR-, artist- and event management agency Mel.Vent Communications, and they immediately 'clicked'. The result: Mel.Vent signed Brown with an artist- and management agreement, adding this hard working, multi-talented, socially conscious youngster to its stable of unique Cape Town talent, which includes award winning Afrikaans rap duo KALLITZ.
In 2005 Brown completed his Social Work studies at UCT. In February 2006 he released his debut album Hangin' in and Hangin' on during an event at Zula Sound Bar, Cape Town, which also saw the launch of The Brown Foundation.
The Brown Foundation
The Brown Foundation raises funds to support community projects, such as Town Two Sports Academy, Khayelitsha, which tackles the street children challenge at its root, i.e. by setting up pro active programs in the communities, and offering children an alternative to running away and getting sucked into the abyss that is the life of Cape Town street children. Town Two Sports Academy keeps the youth busy and out of trouble, using the holistic approach of the development of mind, body and soul that is at the core of every successful sports champion.kick started with over R 6 000 raised from an auction of Brown's photographic exhibition, which was entitled The Concrete Jungle and comprised 19 photographs.
The Brown Foundation is supported by Ambassadors Suga (Good Hope FM), Dokter & Boere (award winning Afrikaans rap group KALLITZ), Dr Margie Booyens (UCT Senior Lecturer), DJ Ozedwhy, Cavera C and Mzonke 'The Rose of Khyaelitsha' Fana (SA professional light weight boxing champion).
Later in 2006, Mothermix Publishing will publish Brown's book Life Under the Table, which is a riveting must read account of the lives of Cape Town street children.
Mothermix, September 2006
|
84,804 MP3 tracks available @ R7 per track ($0.99) and growing daily!
(114 new tracks added this week)
. Click on 
play buttons to hear samples.
