Emile Jansen
I am a South African hip-hop activist, rapper, author, schoolteacher, playwright, breakdancer, skateboarder, roller-skater, capoeirista, aerosol artist, soccer player, and documentarian. I am also the founder of Black Noise Hip Hop Group and creative director of Heal the Hood Project.
I am dad to a 5- and 7-year-old for whom I created African lullabies & stories to create a foundation that is Afrocentric. I find such a foundation critical for the decolonisation or re-humanisation of African minds. I've created animated versions of these stories and songs, which I offer at the schools and communities where Heal the Hood Project now works.
I have released 14 solo albums as Emile YX? and 13 albums with Black Noise, one of South Africa's oldest hip-hop groups. I also created Da Juice, South Africa's first hip-hop magazine.
I've self-published 24 books, including What Is Hip Hip?, My Hip Hop is African & Proud, Conscious Rhymes For Unconscious Times, three editions of R.A.P.S.S. (Rhymes Articles Poetry Short Stories Sketches), Reconnect The String, Neva Again, and 11 children's books.
I am currently completing three books: We Live This - Hip Hop Cultural Education, A Colouredful Life and a four-part book, Making A Black Noise, about my 40 years of experiential learning from hip-hop culture. I am also helping to create an Afrikaaps dictionary.
I'm an inductee of the Hip Hop Wall of Fame at the South African Hip Hop Museum. I've also received four South African Hip Hop Awards, a LeadSA Award, an Espresso Mandela Monday Award, an ETV SA Hero Award and the American Association for Applied Linguistic 2022 Distinguished Public Service Award.