Red Bull BC One

**Other Interests:** MCing, Graff, Comedy, Capoeira, Soccer, Skateboarding **Profession:** Qualified School Teacher, MC for Black Noise and Heal the Hood **Motto:** “Find You and be the best You that You can be.” **Profile** Rapper, breaker, and capoeira artist with Black Noise, EMILE Jansen is one of South Africa’s premier Hip Hop personalities. A former school teacher, EMILE also edits Da Juice, a South African Hip Hop magazine, and is deeply involved in youth education. EMILE formed Black Noise in 1988, taking a leadership role in the group’s progression as well as spearheading most of their projects with both local government and NGOs. Since 1993, EMILE and Black Noise have released several albums, taken third place at the 1997 International Breaking Championships, and performed in Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. EMILE has been involved in Hip Hop since 1982. He was first exposed to Hip Hop through B-Boying on music videos like Hanging Out, There’s No Stopping Us, Lets Hear It From the Boys, Thriller and whatever other music videos had even the smallest of snippets of B-Boying. Movies like Wildstyle, Beat Street, Breakin' 1 & 2 and The Delivery Boys were major influences in the education of potential Hip Hoppers. The first B-Boying crew he was a part of was The Pop Glide Crew and then he started MCing for The Chill Convention, which would later become Black Noise Hip Hop Group. EMILE was at high school when he was first introduced to Hip Hop through B-Boying and Spraycan Art. He has since completed high school and teachers college, taught at a school for three and a half years and signed a record deal with a local label. He left his teaching job because he felt that it was miseducating or euro-cating black youth to be white but continued to teach to afro-cate via Hip Hop and the *T.E.A.A.C.H Project *(The Educational Alternative Awakening Corrupted Heads). He also worked on the growth of the culture through The Universal Hip Hop Nation and African Hip Hop Alliance. In addition, he assisted in voter education, performed at the inauguration of President Nelson Mandela in Cape Town, and was in the first group to record as part of the artists in residence project on Robben Island. He also met the fathers of Hip Hop, Afrika Bambaata, Kool DJ Herc, Crazy Legs, and Prince Ken Swift. After leaving the white controlled record label, he started South Africa's first Hip Hop magazine called Da Juice and an underground record label called Outhouse Records/Heal the ‘Hood. For a while he owned a shop in Cape Town called the Hip Hop Corner with Falco and Weals. They also released a Heal the Hood group and CD in Sweden in 2001 and hosted 6 African Battle Cry Hip Hop development holiday programs since 1997. They also hosted the South African elimination for the Battle of the Year. He has toured Sweden, Germany, Belgium and America and recently signed a record deal with Integral Records, an independent record label in Sweden. EMILE credits all these achievements to the influence that Hip Hop has had on his life. He says that Hip Hop culture has had a positive influence on many people around the world. Hip Hop in the Western Cape has taken people out of gangs and other negative activities. It has given pride to a people who think that black lives are worth less than those of whites. It has educated youths of color to gain respect for themselves. It has given an oppressed people a vehicle with which to express themselves. Considered one of the founding members of both Cape Town and South African Hip Hop, EMILE’S credentials are outstanding, and he should be a tough judge to impress at the RED BULL BC ONE Finals in South Africa.