Avenue Crew

HOW IT STARTED
Avenue Crew started in late 2007, the idea to form a group materialised after watching performances from various hip hop groups at the ESPN Basketball tournament that was formerly held in Rosebank. The main concept was for Avenue Crew to just get famous but as we started recording songs we came to the realisation that our music is good and fame isn’t everything when it comes to hip hop. The group initially started with five members, however, due to personal growth within the group the group has gone down to 3 members which are: Andrew Mkalipi (Lali Bucks/GhostMan), Kenneth Mphaho (K.E.N), Siphesihle Makanya (Black Wisdom). All our styles are different from punch line rapper to a ladies man rapper; however, this has made Avenue Crew so distinctly fresh and relevant to the masses. Avenue Crew is about inspiration and upliftment therefore we do not see the need to use vulgar language.

MAIN CONCEPT
The main concept behind the name Avenue Crew was that as friends we were always in the streets never at home, hence the tagline “On Every Street like Concrete”. Our style can never be categorised as we appeal to all genres, our breakout song was “Waah” which is a high tempo, get up and dance song. This song featured a certain artist by the name of Molly (uSuperman Omnyama); another favourite was Never Too Late which is a song about hurt, regret and inspiration. We are about to release our single ‘One Of Those Nights’ off our upcoming album and a music video is forthcoming in the next month. Avenue Crew have in the past been asked to record for various mix tapes which we have obliged to. We have rocked shows from Johannesburg to Soweto and even Pretoria and have managed to move the crowd at every show. We are continuously doing shows to promote our upcoming album and to get a feel of the music that people love and move to. This is of cause a secret ploy to hone our skill and get paid while doing it.

FORTHCOMING ALBUM
For the forthcoming album, we have decided to have a fusion of different genres from crunk to soul music, which will appeal once again to music listeners of all ages we call this Nu-Soul Rap. Our music is more mainstream then ever and the vision of the album is to always tell a story of positivity and adversity that teenagers and young adults go through everyday as well as have music that makes people want to dance.

GROUP MEMBERS

BLACK WISDOM (Rapper/Producer)
Considers himself more a poet then a rapper, he is the main producer of the album. His major influences come from Grammy award winning producers Kanye West and Dr Dre. His style of production consists of chopping up a sample and reworking it to a hip hop classic beat, musically he is inspired by 60’s, 70’s and 80’s music. Favourite rappers are Kanye West, Black Thought of The Roots and Jay Z.

KEN (Rapper)

More of the laid back guy of the group. Loves all kinds of music in general and does not confine himself to a specific genre. Always open minded and loves collaborating and rather the experimental one in the crew. Musical influences include the likes of Nas, Dwele, Damian Marley and the likes displaying his versatility.

LALI BUCKS/GHOSTMAN (Rapper)
A word that can describe Ghost is lyrical; he has rhymes for days and can hold his own amongst the greats of South African hip hop. Ghost has a street mentality meaning he talks about the street life and the upliftment of his community. Rappers that Lali admires a lot are Rick Ross, Jadakiss and The Game.

FUTURE GOALS
The future goals of the Avenue Crew is to release our single ‘One Of Those Nights’ on all major radio stations such as Metro FM, 5FM, YFM as well as community radio stations such as Alex FM, WITS (VOW), UJ FM and so forth. This will, depending on how it does on radio and other media, open other doors to gigs and other projects. Once the single has been playlisted we will release our music video for the single. The album will be released thereafter.

STRATEGY
As a crew we acknowledge the difficulty of making it in the industry especially in the Hip Hop/Rap genre. We believe that our music has appeal to both the young and the older crowd. Our music is basically a fusion of JAZZ, SOUL, POETRY with a modern day twist contained in the rhymes we use. Since the group consists of 3 members it means its 3 different styles of rapping and 3 different points of view to the concepts in each and every song we record. The aim is to establish Avenue Crew as a brand, once that is done we can get people to warm up a lot easier to whatever we put out. Avenue Crew is 3 years old now and in those 3 years we have come up with a clothing line and recorded over 20 songs and experience has taught us that the industry is not a kind one. We have decided to adopt a business type strategy as it has proved to be more fruitful. Although we have had our fair share of lessons dished out by the harsh industry our love for music has always managed to pull us out of every hole we’ve ended up in. We have also seen the advantage of having the right team behind you as this speeds up the process and we can reach more people. We are simply THE BEST at what we do. We have seen an opening for the kind of music we do and intend on exploiting it. This is Nu Soul
In a nutshell this is what our strategy plan looks like:
Target Market: With the nu – soul rap that we are doing we are infusing music from the 1960’s till the present day therefore, our target market will be very diverse but mostly focused from the ages 16 – 30 years. In order for us to reach that market, we need use mediums that the youth are always on which is radio and television.
• Radio: The radio stations that are mostly listened to are the following: YFM, 5FM, Metro FM, Ukhozi FM, Kaya FM, Radio 2000 and Highveld Stereo. These are the major radio stations listened to in Gauteng. We have also looked at community radio stations and these are: VOW FM, UJ FM and TUKS FM. These community radio stations are listened to heavily by students which fall in our target market.
• Television: A television show that markets hip hop in a major way is Shiz Niz, this is a show that gets played every Wednesday on etv, we as Avenue Crew have already been on this show to showcast our single ‘One of Those Nights’. Other shows that showcast hip hop is Soweto TV, shows like Live and Club 808 are broadcasted nationally and this will be to our advantage to be interviewed there.
Record Labels & Distribution: As a entity, we are currently looking for a distribution deal. If a good enough deal for a record contract comes along we might consider signing to one but for the meantime we enjoy being independent.

"On every street like concrete"