From  we are...

Supporting artists from under-represented communities to promote diversity in media.

More creators

From More places

Telling More stories

To make the world More open

And More interesting

MEET UNO JULY          RAPPER

   ENTERTAINER  

  CAPE TOWN’S              GOLDEN BOY

BIO

Name: Uno July

Residence: Cape Town, South Africa
Art Form: Music / Rap Artists

Years Active: Since 2003

Age: 35

Uno July is an independent artist hailing from Cape Town’s most notorious township, Gugulethu. Uno is one of Cape Town’s hottest local acts, performing monthly around South Africa, and he’s supported himself with his music since 2005.

Uno has released four full length albums as a solo artist, six as part of the duo Illiterate Skillz, and one as part of the newly formed South African group, Contra Gang. His local notoriety has earned him apparel sponsorships from Puma and Unknown Union and a production sponsorship from Red Bull Studios Cape Town. Uno’s commercial success has been within the townships and urban community in Cape Town, which affords a living, but not enough capital to easily pursue international marketing and distribution and take his craft to the next level.

In 2010 Uno pioneered the 24-hour album project - recording a full length album in one day. In 2016, Uno released his 3rd edition, again recording and completing a full length album in just 24 hours. With the support of Red Bull Studios Cape Town and an incredible individual effort, Uno garnered 12,000 downloads in the first 24 hours after releasing, Zero Hour Zone.

Uno’s music speaks to the raw realities of the racial divides in South Africa, the hardships of life, and never forgets to honor hip hop nostalgia, while imprinting catchy lyric after catchy lyric into our minds forever. Uno is a ‘big brother’ to the young African Americans’ struggle, having lived through Apartheid in South Africa, and likens his message to conscious rappers like Kendrick Lamar, Mos Def, Nas, and J.Cole.

Uno is ready to bring is music to the global market, and for the second time take on the momentous task of tracking an entire album in 24 hours, but this time in New York City.

HISTORY

2008

• Toured Europe with idols, Slum Village and Masta Ace

2009

• Hype Magazine Top 5 Unsigned Act

2010

• Elle Magazine Top 5 artists to look out for
• Cosmopolitan Magazine Rocks featured artist
• The 24 Hour Project recording at Red Bull Studios Cape Town

2010

• The 2nd edition of the 24 Hour Project recording at Red Bull Studios London

2012

• 14 page profile feature on the Rolling Stone SA Magazine
• Appeared at the prestigious Cape Town International Jazz Festival

2015 (went solo)

• Featured by GQ Magazine as SA’s “Cool Top 35 Under 35” in 2015.
• Invited to New York to feature on the Coogi & Lo-Life 2015 collection range campaign, published by Complex Magazine.

2016

• The 3rd edition of the 24 Hour Project recording at Red Bull Studios Cape Town

2017

• Performed at SA Menswear Fashion Week in Cape Town

2018

• Appeared at the Unknown Union A/W18 collection showcase at the AFI SA Fashion Week
• ***Planning the 4th edition of the 24 Hour Project recording in New York.

Uno July has shared stages with prominent international artists such as Slum Village, Kendrick Lamar, Lauryn Hill, Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), DJ Premier, Pharoahe Monch, Jean Grae, Atmosphere, Casey Veggies, Blu & Exile. Locally Uno rubs shoulders with the likes of Tumi, Proverb, AKA, Reason, Prophets Of The City, Black Coffee, Hugh Masekela, Zaki Ibrahim, Okmalumkoolkat, Prokid and Khuli Chana just to name a few.

NOTABLE WORK

Video - Lindlela Zamandulo by Foresta feat Uno July & Crosby

Video - FokOfPolizieKar

Mini Project Documentary - 2016 24 Hour Project at Red Bull Studios Cape Town

Video - Skelem

Video - 90s Laaitie

Audio - Acting Like a 10 feat. Stan1 (Prod. by KaeB) by Uno July SoundCloud

Uno July’s Body of Work on SoundCloud

THE WORD ON THE STREET

Red Bull | True Africa | Dickie’s Clothing & Apparel | The Plug Magazine | Okay Africa 

Facebook                |        https://www.facebook.com/UnoJulyFanPage/ 

Twitter                |        https://twitter.com/uno_july

THE ARTIST’S NEXT PROJECT

Various Roots has followed Uno since 2015, repeatedly enamored by his electrifying live performances. Uno has shared his 2018 project plans with the Various Roots team and is offering an opportunity to participate in his first project seeking international distribution. This project will be partially funded by a recording studio in NYC (supplying the venue) and Uno, however there is still a gap in the budget needed to pull of Zero Hour Zone II.

Zero Hour Zone II

A full length (13 track) album to be recorded in 24 hours, and our aim is to complete it at Red Bull Studios in NYC. The recording process will be filmed and assembled into a mini documentary to be released as promotional content along with the album. The record will sure include some last-minute NYC inspired lyrics, tying his South African conscious-trap flavor into NYC’s historical boom bap hip hop soul.

*See final pages for lyrics to 2 songs slated for this project.

TOTAL BUDGET: $10,200

Travel & Accommodations: $3,000

Instrumentals: $2,000 (Advanced)

Studio Time: Project proposed to Red Bull Studios

Mixing & Mastering: $3,000

PR: Uno July, RBS, & Various Roots Sweat Equity

Video Production: $1,000

Artwork & Photography: $1,200

Digital distribution: $400

Press Targets: Fader, Pitchfork, Hypebeast, Okayplayer.com, Okayafrica, Sway In The Morning, Hot 97, etc.

Distribution

This project will be distributed on iTunes, Spotify, and SoundCloud via DistroKid or Spinnup.

WHERE WE COME IN

Various Roots is looking to raise a $7,000 grant for Uno July’s next album’s production, which will be recorded in 24 hours in New York City. Various Roots will earn production credits, with special thanks on the album to all individuals contributing over $800.

Minimum Individual Commitment: $200

Maximum Individual Commitment: $2,000

Minimum Total Fund: $4,000*

*If amount is not met, funds will be returned and project disbanded.

1. There is no guarantee of return of any funds.
2. Fund will not be distributed directly to artist other than working day per diem. Travel and Production Fees will be paid directly from the fund to vendors.
3. Fundraising campaign will end June 1st, 2018

Upon making your commitment, you understand that this is a grant, with no promised return. Once the funding has been finalized, Various Roots will negotiate a proportional return on investment with the Artist. Returns will be derived from Streaming Royalties, Merchandise, and Live Performances.

Sample ROI Scenario

After the first $5,000 in Project Revenue to Uno July, there will be a 70/30 split with Various Roots enabling a proportional ROI to all funders.

If all funders put their collective efforts together to help share and promote the album once launched, and our PR strategy is success, we aim to gross $20,000 in Royalties in the first 12 months, netting a 50% return for funders. After $20,000 in Gross Royalties, 100% will be due to Uno July.

Interested in participating in Uno July’s journey?

Contact Andrew McDermott: andrewRmcdermott@gmail.com before May 31st, 2018.

WORK TO BE CREATED IN THIS PROJECT

Track 1 

Name: Fly Away

Chorus: Find your wings and fly away

I'm from where the dreams don't come true,

A tale of 2 citiez I can't be where I want to/

Difficult to co-exist like Jamali and money or mali in Timbuktu,

I have survived darker nights than Ken Gampu/

Insomnia my only friend once again we meet again,

Exhausted by your timelines too tired to keep up with trends/

Ain't enough hours in a day, It's that time of the night clenching my fist mad at the fact that my day had gone to waste/

Struggles to balance between work and play,

Priorities and commitments,

bills need to get paid/

Used to think it was just a phase,

stuck in my ways running in a maze

when I should be cutting to the chase,

Staying true to self, Note to self/

By the time I realize a hustler gotta head out to the airport thus

therefore, an oxymoron last squeeze of a toothpaste/

Tyson cheekingly lies on by the gate

when I roll out my suitcase,

Suddenly news hit me about a 10 year old neighbour died as I'm climbing to the top of the food chain/

How many more murders can my hood take,

meanwhile I'm killin rappers on tracks touché/

I live to see a new day, good news on a Tuesday, cool Js with blue suedes bangin a hot-ass roommate/

Eventually it becomes the city's politics so I leave it all behind,

Even her behind unforgettable as it is I'm chasing the finish line/

So much on my mind that I just can't recline, One rhyme at a time I wanna make this world mine/

Megalomaniac tendencies, Can tell you by first name basis off top niggas who hate to see me succeed/

Belief beneath the pressure and protecting my dreams/

The world taught us how to lose,

Our futures gloom and doom stick up kids outchea dying soon, finetune my ideas till they bloom/

It has been many moons, Promising I'll be home soon, Currently channeling neptune,

Easily jaded by politics but remember the ones who repped you/

Art of war whatever's clever bottom-line my words should shine like Sun Tzu's/

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,

Assume my calibre so prolific and sick I just do dope shit/

Leveling handling channeling my inner-self,

Battling galloping head first in seeking for wealth/

Weight of the world over the shoulders of a first born,

I hate myself everytime when I think about disappointments I caused leaving my mothers heart torn/

Bars drawn from my solar plexus I'm shaken from all senses

my journey losing directions,

Your generic singles ain't moving me inches/

It's a lonely world when I touchdown in Joburg, Nobody to call,

Trust no one not even myself always looking over my shoulders/

Follow my heart and lonely thoughts, Hustle hard they closing doors,

bars are my only source of income,

Royalties and then some,

No medical aids and pension funds, S/o Jimmy Flexx for no reason he's my A1/

Spitting passion behind these bars like Buju Banton,

I'm learning to speak less and apply more action/

Small talk I can't even stand it, Lately convos are corny I tend to escape the madness/

I'm curious, if I was drinking and smoking how I would normally react/

I'm curious, what happens in heaven or hell after life/ I'm curious, how those hollow points shots got Uncle Floyd's inside his dome, I'm curious, the thinking behind a killer's mind/

Conceived to suffer for wins that's just how it remains,

Feeling like crawling back to the placenta same way that I came, Ain't nobody wanna liberate weight of the pain,

So I can just fly away, Black boy achieve joy and just fly away.

Chorus:

Find your wings and fly away

Track 2

Name: Baptism

Purification, Poor living dead in a nation,

Surviving on a high end dynamite like a Hyundai i10 detonation/

Lifelong sacrifice, write songs for grabbing mics,

right or wrong I'm pacified, My life is a bioscope classic night/

Rap creative twists minds like a con artist,

Professional errors when my merchandise fit on Obama daughters/

A likened lineage falling in line with a Basquiat art piece,

I see it every time when I shoot at myself in the mirror like Ian Connor/

Subtract the rape case, Women need more protection beyond the magistrate/ Law-makers overpower the birth-givers, Oscar ostentatiously deflowered queen Reeva/

The killings of our women & children make my spine shivers,

I've seen ghetto mother's tears parade to the rivers/

Essentially fighting for my life, Murder and poverty's rife,

Demanding health food n shelter as I'm surviving a black man's plight/

Born again in this world of sin,

Only the means justify my ends,

I'm next to blow too late to be your next of kin,

Ballers fallin can't you see they choppin tens/

The feeling is in the air, Still an Ill Skillionaire,

I've been doing this for 14 years do you really care/

Feels like a Rebirth, rhyme schemes I purge prior demons return,

before the sunshine the rain and lightning is what I see first.

Fake humble, I see entertainers I see double, Lives falsified misrepresentation/

A misfit that must fit like it or not you must admit my presence is like natural mystic.

Dear God, Dear God,

it's an everyday struggle shit gets heavy in my heart/

Word is bond Hip hop is a lost art,

passion sails away as soon as stardom starts/

One helluva career defining verse and 2 hooks,

Makin dope fashionable no need for look books/

This ain't Sade this is my way,

Appreciate the beauty but imperative that you value the mindstate/

Live from the mother city,

Try apply the 9 months theory,

Divided and conquered by the apartheid abiding to white lies,

People of colour bring each other down it's hereditary/

Told my 11 year old sister not to grow up,

She said she wanna work on radio to assist me blow up/

Uno N Only peep the acronym,

Kay Faith the beat Conductor conceive the baptism/

Ordered for me to preserve the lyricism,

Pre orders before sellouts souls caught the natural mysticism.

Welcome to The Baptism.