Daniel Livingstone a.k.a SafarI is one third of a blazing hot South African conscious rap crew called Articulate Artists. You might know SafarI from creating South Africa's first ever written battle league, Art of War, or from seeing him on stage at SA's biggest hip hop events such as Back To The City, Splash Jam, 420 as well as appearing on several national television programs, but here is an inside-view on SafarI from a little sit-down I had with the emcee:

ZEBULON:
Give me some background on Daniel Livingstone, where you from who you are and how Daniel Livingstone transformed into "SafarI"

SAFARI:
I was born 1987 in Witbank, South Africa, but moved to Pretoria East in 1993 and have lived here ever since. Growing up in the ghetto (an extremely quiet, boring, all white suburb named Moreleta Park) us kids had to keep our selves busy somehow, and besides skateboarding (typical I know) music and more importantly the creation of music was an interest of mine. Like most white kids from the burbs I listened to rock/punk/metal, mostly because it was the only "rebellious" music available to us. Then one day, 97/98 a friend of mine borrowed me a copy of Bone Thugs n Harmony and Easy E-Eazy duz it and I was instantly hooked, I had heard Run DMC etc... But nothing like this, and on that day I decided this is what I wanna do. And the fact that I read a lot, even at a young age didn't hurt. Then in 2003 I bought myself a tascam us 122 soundcard and sennheiser mic and laced my first track titled "African Child". At that time I went by the aka Evil Genius but quickly realised how common it was so one day (whilst extremely high) I came up with the aka SafarI, I honestly don't know why I choose it, and by the time I wanted to change it I was already know as SAF so changing it didn't make sense, from there I just worked my way into my current position.

Note* I would like to send a massive shout out to Kahlem for giving me my first taste of the culture and Scott "Kartoon" for introducing me to the underground!!!

ZEBULON:
Haha dope man. And you also went on to study music production. How did that happen?

SAFARI:
Fate! I had just finished high school and was desperately looking for a job, luckily one of my friends just got fired from his so I applied and got the gig, video shop clerk biiiaaaatch (a pot heads dream job), so I show up at the shop and get told this dude named Arno is gonna train me, after a few hours of "training" I ask what he does, he replies "I'm a music producer and am studying at the moment"! Fate I tell you, so I explain I rhyme, and would love to study music, he tells me "go check out Emendy Music Tech" so I did. Ended up studying there for two years and got a diploma in Advanced music production and Sound Engineering, subjects included shit like, music theory, synthesis and design, music business, engineering etc... It was an amazing experience, there is nothing like going to a college where everyone is following their passion. That's actually where I met Rizzlah (one of the dopest producers I've heard), who ultimately introduced me to Power Of Thought, so without Arno, AA wouldn't exist.

ZEBULON:
That shit was meant to be then man! So Rizzlah introduced you to Power of Thought (POT/Dino), but how did a simple introduction turn into stage rocking, crowd blasting, wax killing crew called Articulate Artists?

SAFARI:
As mentioned above I met Riz at Emendy Music Tech, and he asked me to feature on his tape, I agreed. He played me a couple tracks and among them where two POT joints, after blazing the tracks a couple times, I gave POT a call and discussed us doing some work, weeks later, POT showed up to one of our shows in PTA and after a couple beers, blunts and cyphers I invited POT to come record at Emendy, so we recorded a few tracks and then during one of our sessions decided to record "Pay attention". Track came out pretty dope and our flows worked so we decided to form our first crew Verbal Elite, performed as VE for a year or so but knew we were missing something, and that's where Sizzor Hands, a good friend, came into the picture. After adding Sizzor Hands we decided a new name was in order, so pot came up with Articulate Artists, which we all agreed was perfect, Articulate - using language easily and fluently; having facility with words: an articulate speaker. Artists - 4. a person who works in one of the performing arts, as an actor, musician, or singer; a public performer: a mime artist; an artist of the dance. Makes sense right? haha. As for a stage rocking, crowd blasting, wax killing
crew... Hard work fam! Be it in studio or on the stage we put our everything into it. We love hip hop, and just wanna give back to the culture.

ZEBULON:
Too nice man... Then you guys went on to appear on Shiz Niz and that show on SABC1 as well as loads of live shows. So if you had to choose one gig to be considered as the most memorable show you did, which one would it be and why?

SAFARI:
Like you said we've had quite a few shows (1808, Soco, BTTC, Jozi Fest etc...) so its hard to pick a favourite, one session I really enjoyed and I'm sure all real Jozi heads will agree is Splash Jam, the sessions were just so rugged and raw. If you dope the crowd will love you, come wack, you getting booed off the stage. A lot of the dudes got there first "brake" at splash jam, besides Splash, Back To The City is always dope and 2013 saw us performing to our largest crowd to date, was fucking dope.

ZEBULON:
Sounds ill haha. It must be an honour performing at BTTC though. How does one prepare for that? Take me through how you feel 10 seconds before you go on stage as well as in that moment while performing in front of such a crowd.

SAFARI:
It is crazy fam, ok so basically we get to the gig, go back stage and get our slot time, dude tells us 17:20. Come 17:00 we head back stage, discus our set a bit, start getting hyped up, I need to constantly move around before I performance just to get the juices flowing, stage manager tells us we on next, we tell each other "let's go rock this shit fam", we see the act that was on before us exit the stage and we move into position (next to the dj booth), I peak around the side of the booth and see an ocean of people, now the bloods really flowing, I hear the host say "Articulate Artists" and its on, I walk to the front of the stage, raise my arms, and just take in the energy. The next 10 minutes are blur, but the crowd was live and responded well so we must of done something right, the rush is over way to quickly. Performance done

ZEBULON:
Priceless moments man... Before you can perform on stage, you actually have to write and record tracks which you can perform later on, and I know you put in the work at your studio so tell me about the projects you've completed so far as well as what you'll be doing in the near future?

SAFARI:
The first project AA released was The WorkHorse Programme, which was done in honour of Tyrone, a friend of POT's who passed away, the tape had 24 tracks on (one for every hour of the day) and featured some amazing artists, local and international. The second tape to come out of the studio was POT's debut mixtape Power Of Thought - Dope Joints for POT Heads. Despite the name, the tape showcased a lot more than "weed" songs, POT's choice of beats combined with his lyrical skill made this tape an instant hit with the real heads, also this tape was distributed for free, that's right free. POT has printed over 2000 copy's, not to mention the thousands of digital downloads. I'm in the process of completing my solo debut, SafarI - Just me and my friends vol. 1. Hoping to be ready for release July 2013.

ZEBULON:
(I have a copy of POT's mixtape as well as a digital version of the Work Horse Programme and I HIGHLY recommend it)... Yeah man we'll slam those links at the bottom of this interview. SafarI - Just Me And My Friends is one interesting project. I know all about it but for the ones who don't, lay it out there. What inspired it and what can we expect from it?

SAFARI:
The idea for the tape came, after a 3 week crystal meth binge... I kid I kid. I decided to do the tape when I realised I knew quite a few dope emcee's and really wanted to collab with some of them, so I figured why not make a tape out of it, the idea is to select some killer beats and then feature a different emcee/crew on each track. As far as who's gonna be on
the tape... I don't wanna spoil the surprise. But trust when I say, PURE FIRE!!!

ZEBULON:
Haha I believe you man. Okay so now we know you're a performer as well as a serious recording artist, but what many people don't know is that you're a pioneer of South African rap. You established the first ever written rap battle league in SA. How did you manage to pull that off?

SAFARI:
I've been a fan of written battles since I watched my first GTN battle, extremely attractive, problem was there was no platform for this style of battling so I figured fuck it, might as well create it myself. I organised all the emcee's, Gin I grimes got the venue on lock and Missin Link "borrowed" the video equipment from work, and just like that AOW was born. Then after our first tournament (which Gin I Grime won) GTN President Madd Illz approached me, saying he wanted to launch a GTN S.A division and wanted me to run it as I had already set up the platform, I was well aware of GTN position (6 feet) but figured I could get our MC's some exposure before the final nail. I was extremely excited, I thought to myself, finally the battle MC's from S.A would get some international exposure which is the reason I started AOW in the first place, but after 3 events and countless unanswered emails, I came to the realisation that Madd Illz was more concerned with his own solo music career then actually putting in the time and effort to promote a new league, I now understand first hand why GTN is falling apart and KOTD is running shit. Truth be told after the GTN fiasco I was extremely discouraged to continue organising written battles, also as I mentioned I am a recording artists, and organising/participating in written battles took so much of my time I didn't have a chance to focus on making music, so I decided to make the best out of the situation and focus on my music again. And let's be honest Scrambles for Money is killing it right now. AOW was awesome and I loved every second of it, and hope everyone who came to the events did as well.

I would like to thank all the Emcee's who participated in AOW written battles, for those who have never competed, trust when I say it takes a lot of courage to step into the circle and put your reputation on the line, you know who you are, you made AOW what it was, and for that I thank you.

Second I would like to thank all the people who came through to the battles and showed love, I truly hope you enjoyed the AOW battles.

Then last but definitely not least everyone who helped make AOW a reality, Missin Link and Zulu tunes for the camera equipment and initial editing, Gray scale, Rasty and Gin Grimes for the amazing venue, Foul Play and Spook for hosting and Head Page for covering the battles.

Please continue to support and help grow the South African Battle scene, Scrambles for Money (S4M doing big things), I've got a feeling we've only witnessed the tip of the ice berg.

ZEBULON:
I can tell it really meant a lot to you man and I personally thank you for that. I still watch AOW battles on YouTube man. I think I'm 2 away from having watched everything hahaha. Respect to you. Moving on though you mentioned something to me a while ago about going to Europe soon to perform and shit. Tell me more

SAFARI:
I'm 25 now, and have never left the country, if not now, when? My reason for leaving to Europe is simple, I want to explore this planet, so myself and my girlfriend are gonna go abroad for 2 years. The plan is to travel and at the same time network with people in the music industry, and once I've got shit on lock, book some shows etc... POT's gonna fly
down and we gonna do a 2 month AA euro tour. We just wanna entertain real heads all over the globe, and honestly feel our sound will work overseas.

ZEBULON:
It will man and good luck! What you're doing is dope. 2 years is long though! Haha... Which country in Europe you gonna stay in man? And when are you leaving?

SAFARI:
I leave Jan!!! I'm trying to see as much as humanly possible. Uk, France, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Ireland, Scotland, Russia, Greece, anywhere and everywhere!!!

ZEBULON:
I hate you man. Put me in your suitcase haha. You better watch your chick with those French dudes! Haha moving on... Putting hip hop aside for a moment, what other passions do you have in life? What do you do to kill time? Except for smoking weed

SAFARI:
Those French dudes will catch an African poes klap. One of my biggest problems is I'm passionate about so many different things at one time and tend to stretch myself thin, at the moment I'm really into video and video editing, I fucking love soccer, blew my knee out a few years ago so I can really play anymore, still juggle though (got mad skills). I'm also looking to do a documentary before I leave, just need the right subject!!!

ZEBULON:
Good idea man. You should do that. Ending it off, is there any advice you have for young rappers? South African rappers in particular

SAFARI:
Endure. If you think you gonna just step into the game and rise to the top without putting in the work, you are sadly deluded. Practice and perfect your craft, you can't expect to be good at rhyming if you don't understand the fundamentals. And please, please, please, read a fucking book.

A.A ALL DAY!!