Watch Dookoom’s controversial video
Larney Jou P**s, Dookoom’s incendiary new music video, premiered on City Press on Sunday and on Vice’s music channel Noisey last night and has been making all sorts of waves around the interwebs.
The first track on their new EP, A Gangster Called Big Times, Larney Jou P**s tells the story of a farm uprising in the Western Cape, an area where tensions have flared regularly between farmers and workers.
“Farmer Abrahams had many farms; many farms had farmer Abrahams,” sings Cape Flats underground legend and Die Antwoord collaborator Isaac Mutant, updating the children’s gospel song Father Abraham. “I work one of them, and so do you, so let’s go burn one down.” The music video ends with the band having branded their logo onto the farm.
On Tuesday, October 14, minority rights group AfriForum laid a complaint of hate speech against Dookoom with the South African Human Rights Commission, but Isaac says, “We’re not inciting violence. No one gets hurt in the video. But it’s about claiming the land and being angry, because we have a right to be angry.”
Larney Jou P**s is an impressive debut from director-to-watch Dane Dodds. “When Isaac sent me a few tracks to choose from, Larney Jou P**s made me feel the most uncomfortable,” says Dane. “As the son of a farmer, I know those feelings are there, so I just wanted to make people talk about them, because they’re often swept under the carpet.”
Born in 1994, Dane’s been making videos since he was five. He’s spent his first year out of high school on a film residency with award-winning Cape Town production company Fly on the Wall, while also assisting leading street artists Faith47 and DALeast.
Dane’s been shadowing Fly on the Wall over school holidays since he was 15, when he discovered director Bryan Little and photographer Filipa Domingues (Suicide Monkey) in South African pop culture magazine One Small Seed. “They’ve been heroes to me,” he says. “The work they do feels South African; it’s not someone trying to be European. That’s the kind of work I want to do.”
Dookoom recently signed to 88 Management, who also represent Hugh Masekela and BLK JKS. For more information, visit http://dookoom.bandcamp.com/.
Watch and embed the music video:
