Don Volatile born on the 19th of June 1991 is an emcee, a song writer, poet, author and battle rapper. Having being raised in Tembisa in the East Rand, he grew up around folks who loved music especially Jazz, Hip Hop and Kwaito. Herein, in the 90s the only music that resonated with his heart was purely Hip Hop. Still walking the dusty streets of Tembisa township, the sound of Hip Hop music stimulated his mind and spirit; matter of fact the energy of rap pushed him to even start writing his own rhymes and recording himself on radio cassettes. This happened during the early 2000s and his biggest influence then was Krs One, Poor Righteous Teachers, Wu Tang Clan and Slim Shady.
So in 2005 that’s the year Don Volatile started learning how to freestyle and spitting his own rhymes by partaking in school cyphers and also in the biggest Hip Hop shows around Tembisa. Because of watching Scribble Jam Battles and listening to other dope battle rappers in the hood such as Mad Pro and Digital Fungus, the passion and energy of freestyling and writing his own rhymes led him to start jumping into street rap battles which really inspired him more to keep Hip Hop as part of his mind, body and spirit. During the early 2000s there were a lot of Hip Hop shows in Tembisa such as Kota Tour, Wednesday Caprivi Poetry Sessions and Zniko Rap Sessions. Since “real recognize real” these Hip Hop sessions connected him with a lot of dope emcees and crews such as Book of Life, Kronos Logic, Paradox and Last Digit who is currently a part of Mind Apocalypse with Don Volatile.
Thus, the journey from freestyling and battling in street cyphers transcended into another level of writing songs with his crew Mind Apocalypse. Being in a crew changed his mind set and perspective towards the culture and the whole movement. This made him realize that putting fresh material of music out there for the heads to listen to is very important than just sticking to the stereotypical street cred mentality of spitting rhymes for a small group of emcees. So he stepped into the studio in 2007 to record some a few tracks that he just distributed in the streets. The mad love from the heads in Tembisa made him realize that his greatness in the art of rap is noticeably amazing. So from 2007 until 2010he continued recording fresh joints with Last Digit until they released a free EP called Concrete Clock as a project of Mind Apocalypse.
In 2011 doing his second year at the University of Johannesburg, the passion and energy of rap music was still a burning fire in his heart when he performed his solo tracks and some Mind Apocalypse jams too at the Fore Word Society Poetry Session. In the same year he participated in the Art of War Battles in which he defeated Rhyme Smith but the battle was never uploaded. Still not known why! But he never gave up instead he made more performance appearances with his crew Mind Apocalypse at 21 Mic Salute, Vintage Store Original Hip Hop Parties, Ting ‘n Times Club in PTA Hatfield alongside A Huge Impakt, U-Born Hip Hop Session, Basement Rap Core, UVUKO Poetry shows in the Vaal and Orthodox Hip Hop Cyphers in Soweto.
Now Don Volatile is doing very well in the Scrambles 4 Money Draft League having won 3 battles consecutively against Chaotic Calamity, Tomi Stuck and Chef Toast. On one hand, he is ardently aiming to advance to the Scrambles 4 Money Main Card on the 9th of June Main Event when he battles an emcee by the name of 2012 from Rodepoort. On the other hand, his crew Mind Apocalypse is working on their upcoming debut album called Prescription of Bladed Sounds which is planned to be released later next year in 2014. So watch out for Don Volatile’s moves, he’s slowly climbing to the top.
www.soundcloud.com/mindapocalypse
Tue May 14, 2013 4:56 pm by Mind Apocalypse