B EAST Magazine website

July 2, 2009
By Vijai

Living in East Europe, we no strangers to Lagos crack dealers, or ponzi scheme pranksters for that matter. Prague’s Radost was the ground zero for the city’s smiley-smiley Nigerian hustlers in the 90s, and so was Moscow’s Cabana club. A shout out to the glorious Eugene, whose tight white T-shirts were cool before they became fashionable elsewhere, and who made some Moscow gays very happy with his performances at gay mecca, Chance.

But what do we make of K.O.F.Y, a self-confessed crack dealer from Lagos who claims on his myspace page to have shared a cell with Fela Kuti? Unlike his hip-hop compatriots, our K.O.F.Y, who’s inspired by a former UN Secretary General, prefers to rap about African dictators, make strange calls to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and complains about slow download times on the internet.

The Afrojetset tracks are all set in a downtempo, ambient beat with some rap and globalbeat rhythms filling in the space. The brainchild of Belgrade hipster Vuksa Velickovic—who’s written a novel and writes sharp, satirical articles for local zines—K.O.F.Y is just so out there (a Serbian dude painting himself in blackface in 2009 for god’s sake) and politically incorrect. Fortunately, the tracks are laced with enough absurdity and strange, paranoid lyrics to make even a Mugabe choke on his lunch. And, hey, spoofing African dictators is a welcome change from run-of-the-mill celebrity impersonation, and ‘pussycontrol’ obsessions.

Check out our man, when he rings Hosni Mubarak on the track, They Call Me KOFY.

Hello Mubarak, this is KOFY …
We ask you not to use the washing machine
And the dryer
In the laundry room during the following times:
Monday to Friday from 12 until 2 pm

And here is our favorite video from the Return of the Secretary Genearl EP-Mugabe’s Lunch.

B EAST’s DDR Disco party was a huge success, thanks mostly to the kitschy-cool set played by our cassette DJs. Täter and Ostbrot played for a full two hours using nothing but tapes - most of which were probably older than the people dancing to them! And they weren’t afraid to use the microphone, MC-ing between songs.  Their mike technique reminded us of the skills that DJs were once expected to possess. “If you have a request, write it on a twenty euro bill and pass it up,” they said, reaching back into their catalog of old jokes (although, we would have thought it more authentic if they’d have requested East German Deutschmarks). The SPUs (they weren’t called DJs) showed their professionality, drinking only one beer each, and keeping track of their songs in a notebook. After all, these guys once had to pass an exam to receive a performing license, back in the days of the DDR. Before the gig, Ostbrot confessed to us - “I haven’t played a concert in twenty years!” Well, we’re certainly glad they came out of retirement to serve us a decent helping of ostalgia.

A big thanks also to VJ Linards Kulless from Riga’s Space:Garage crew, who supplied amazing visuals throughout the night. And a huge round of applause for the laptoprock team Shameless Limitless, who stepped up to the plate to perform an extra set after DJ Andrei Oid called in sick. The party raged until 5am, not bad for a Thursday night. Stay tuned for the next B EAST Berlin party.