POSTMAN L SPEAKS ABOUT GROWING UP IN THE EASTERN CAPE, THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSIC INDUSTRY AND HIS NEW EP WITH ROB DENIRO TITLED "THE ART OF THE SWORD"

Baamogetswe: Peace fam, what's good? We've put this interview off for a while now, firstly I'd like to thank you for agreeing to chop it up with us..

Postman L: Peace fam, thank you for taking the time for chopping it up with me.

Baamogetswe: From what I've gathered, you're from Cape Town right? For the purpose of the fans and followers can you give us a brief description of your origins?

Postman L: Nah, I'm actually originally from East London, I moved to Cape Town 2007 and I've been based here since so I rep both cities.

Baamogetswe: How did the name Postman L come about? I know the L is the initial to your first name but how did the Postman come about?

Postman L: Well, it all started in 2003 when I started writing poems, most of them were about the things that happen in the hood, issues like too many taverns and fewer schools and just street encounters. The hommies called me a messenger because of the message I was conveying in my poems so the Postman came from that and I just made it more personal by adding my first name initial "L".

Baamogetswe: When was your first encounter with hip hop, what did you hear or see that made you fall in love with the culture?

Postman L: I was very young, probably around 6 or 7 years of age, my big brother used to listen to rap and my sisters were big Salt n Pepper fans and Aaliyah, I even performed Aaliyah's Back & Forth joint with my sister in a competition when I was 7, I did the R Kelly part.

Baamogetswe: At what point subsequent  to your first encounter, did you realize that this is something you want to pursue as a career?

Postman L: I started thinking of trying to rap much later in my life, I was probably 16 at the time, funny enough before that I was on some kwaito sh*t in boarding school but later moved on to rap music.

Baamogetswe: You and Blaze 5th are part of the collective called UBM, how did you guys meet? When did you guys discover that you got chemistry and what pushed you to form the group?  


Postman L: Yeah man thats my brother, UBM was formed way before I was even in the picture, it was formed by Blaze 5th and Virgo I just can't tell you which year. When I moved to Cape Town I was studying at CTI College in Claremont where I met Chef4Souls in class, he's also part of UBM. We used to freestyle in between lectures so we hung out and he introduced me to Blaze and we clicked right then and the rest, as they say, is history.

Baamogetswe: Are you and Blaze still together and when can we expect another project from the two of you?

Postman L: Hell yeah, that's my brother for life, he's in France now busy building that side but we're still fam, its deeper than rap. We have spoken about doing "All Nite Godly" Vol.2, which might happen this year. 

Baamogetswe: Before I get into the heat that is "The Art Of The Sword" I first wanna congratulate you on the consistency and the release of such an influential project.

Postman L: Thank you bro, I'm glad people are feeling the project.

Baamogetswe: How did this collab with you and Rob Deniro happen? For up and coming artists, can you tell us the steps you took in putting this together.

Postman L: Well, I have always been about building a bridge between SA and the rest of the World as far as the "underground" street music is concerned, I've done international collabs before with Clypto from Cali, who we have 2 tracks with on the All Nite Godly EP I did with Blaze. I look for dope producers on the net and download their beats and just write to them and shoot a video and tag the producer and leave it to the producer to decide if they want to work with me. If you check out my Youtube channel you'll see a gang of videos of me spitting to different producers beats and that's how they notice me. Rob saw the videos I posted on the gram and heard what I was saying on them and hit me up or the other way around about doing a track which is the first track on the album, that dropped in January last year. After that dropped we felt like we could actually cook up a full body of work together so we did it, it took time, but we made it happen.

Baamogetswe: For those who aren't too familiar with the project, can you touch a little on the features, the people you worked with on the album and also what inspired the content brought forth on this project?

Postman L: Yeah, so I only really had 3 features on this project, one from Miskeen Haleem whos part of the Black Hand Music Group on Spanish Daggers, M.ila did the chorus for Light Up and also featured on Word Dezine, M.ila is also part of UBM. Rob also had Body Bag Ben who just dropped a project with Eto to do the cuts for Fly Lingo, got heat with him dropping soon too. The project was just inspired by 2 things, my love for Martial Arts, Yasuke the Samurais to be exact and also just by my background as a young teen carrying knives in a time where the number was popular in East London amongst my age group. Ever since I have always loved knives, used to even have a collection until my mother disposed of it. I also kind of saw it as a figurative way to let the game know I'm cutting through everything that's in my way and I wanted that aggression to be felt.

Baamogetswe: I personally think the whole project is works of God, it sounds way too clean, what made you decide that Rob was the producer needed to achieve the end result?

Postman L: Good looking out fam, it was a no brainer for me man, Rob is an incredible producer, he's really good at what he does, I just loved his sound and felt like its what I had been looking for, for a long time. It was mutual respect between us so it only made sense for us to take this journey together and give the people what they need.

Baamogetswe: Can we expect visuals for the singles anytime soon? The album paints a certain picture and all of us are anxious to see what angle you take with the visuals.

Postman L: Oh yeah I'm definitely going to be putting out visuals for some of the tracks, that's currently in the works.

Baamogetswe: What are your plans for the year 2020, can we expect another banger from you? How does the 2020 calender look for Postman L?

Postman L: 2020 looks good thus far, I'm doing an EP with M.ila, fully produced by Intelektu which should drop in 2 to 3 months. Hipe and I are going to revisit a project we started in 2017 that we never got to finish which is called "Stank Face Goonz" and Hipe it that nikka so you know its going to be crazy. I'm also featured on a few projects which are dropping soon from Mindframe, Body Bag Ben, Kheyzine and Yosonova to name a few, all based abroad, US and France. I have also been gathering all tracks that never got released since 2017 so I can drop the second "Lost Scrolls from a Monk Writer", got a joint on there with Chron Burgundy too which is produced by Lion Green A.K.A Blaze 5th. This year is going to be busy fam, I can't take my foot off the gas, im getting a lot of attention from this project so I can't sleep.

Baamogetswe: On a regular day when you're not Postman L, when home with family or out and about with friends what does a normal day in the life of Loyiso look like?


Postman L: Aye man when I ain't Post, I'm a sales rep for a Business Broadband Company, that's how I keep my boat afloat and take care of my family while I chase this dream.

Baamogetswe: you've been part of South Africa's Hip-Hop scene for a long time now, how did the Johannesburg Hip-Hop scene differ from your home town's?

Postman L: Joburg is busier man and they are closer to the channels that allow them to eat or willing to invest in the culture than we do here in Cape Town or East London. I was in Joburg in 2018 with the UBM family to perform at the KOL rooftop party, it was dope, s/o to Akio, P Kuttah and the rest of the team that made it happen, including my brother Walter who was behind the scenes in making that happen. I loved the energy up there, I definitely want to come back at some point to make some moves.

Baamogetswe: Alot of artists in South Africa struggle with breaking their records or even getting their careers started, they often give up on what they believe in cause of all the doors being slammed, do you have any motivational words or rather advice for up and coming rappers trying to make a career out of their passions..

Postman L: Yeah I know, this industry is tough man, you really gotta have a thick skin. I think the important thing is knowing your taget market and once you have that figured out just keep catering to your market. I know most people willing to invest in my type of music are not only here in SA, they are all around the world. People are into trap now and hardly have time for bars and boom bap so I go find the people who have time for bars and I serve them. Master that and you'll be able to eat off this music.

Baamogetswe: We hope that this interview helps you reach all your fans and followers, we appreciate the transparency in your responses. Big ups to you for breathing more life into the culture, we need more artists like you.

Postman L: Most definitely, I appreciate you trying to help the people understand me a little bit more, respect G.

Baamogetswe: Before we close it off, I'd like to end it with my signature question, I ask every artist this. How would you describe your sound in one word?

Nostalgic

(PURCHASE/STREAM)