19-Year old white rapper S.C.A.M hails from Pietermaritzburg KwaZulu Natal. A true child of the New South Africa, S.C.A.M was born on the day former president Nelson Mandela was released from prison.
While S.C.A.M lists a number of influences from Tupac and Nas to Skwatta Kamp , his greatest influence is the life altering experience of his father dying from lung cancer when he was a young teenager. A devastating loss at any age, but too much to bare at 14, S.C.A.M went off the rails, ignor...
19-Year old white rapper S.C.A.M hails from Pietermaritzburg KwaZulu Natal. A true child of the New South Africa, S.C.A.M was born on the day former president Nelson Mandela was released from prison.
While S.C.A.M lists a number of influences from Tupac and Nas to Skwatta Kamp , his greatest influence is the life altering experience of his father dying from lung cancer when he was a young teenager. A devastating loss at any age, but too much to bare at 14, S.C.A.M went off the rails, ignoring his childhood friends and hanging out with thugs and dealers. Daily life soon became about looking for fights and smoking marijuana with things reaching an all time low when S.C.A.M tried to end his life. Thankfully he was unsuccessful, but with his anger consuming him, he realised that needed to channel his destructive behaviour.
When somebody suggested he try writing lyrics, he attempted it, and really enjoyed it. S.C.A.M's first song, "Heaven at 57,"(about his beloved father) gave him a sense of fulfilment that had been missing since his father's death and encouraged him to write more. It was at this point that he was sent to boarding school to start a new life and soon his focus shifted from fighting and drugs to writing lyrics in every spare moment he had. Because of what people had heard about his past, S.C.A.M didn't have many friends. However, instead of falling into old ways, he kept on writing and kept on rapping, despite the fact that the more he rapped, the more he was victimised and put down by the people around him at school.
Finally school ended and S.C.A.M went to Rhodes University to study law in 2008. It was here that S.C.A.M met Thabo Choshane and Ash Ngonyama. Their friendship was found on a shared love of Hip Hop and a natural progression saw the three working together with S.C.A.M doing most of the rapping featuring Thabo and Ash creating the beats.
In the S.C.A.M's own words, "Ever since I was a little boy I have been performing, whether it was in the school choir or school productions, I was on stage and loved every moment. My dad dying changed my life, and I felt so much pain and anger. My friends at the time got me to start writing lyrics, which at first was to just release my frustration, and my lyrics were very personal and deep. I was complimented on my lyrics, and this inspired me to write more, and so I just wrote and didn't stop, and by the end of 2005 I had completed a total of 30 scripts, telling a different story in every one of them. Some of my scripts I wrote specifically to gain brownies points from girlfriends, while others developed into topics on current affairs, my everyday life and just my view on the world in general.
Although I do regret getting into the life of a thug, I must thank the men that got me into Hip-Hop, because it has definitely benefited me. I never would have been rapping or writing lyrics if I had never met those boys. I've have taken a lot of chirps and people putting me down about being white and rapping, but I will stay true to the saying that Hip-Hop never left me and I will never leave Hip-Hop.
S.C.A.M is my rap name. It has a very simple meaning. My initials are M.A.C.S which stand for Matthew Augustus Callcott-Stevens, S.C.A.M is my initials backwards, and this is to ensure that my name and who I am stays with me forever."
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