DJ EFN travels to South Africa to explore Hip Hop culture.
REVOLT is releasing two new installments of host and record label DJ EFN, real name Eric Fernando Narciandi, new hit series Coming Home: Colombia and South Africa. This documentary film series explores Hip Hop's vast influence across various cultures.
Co-produced by his Crazy Hood Film Academy and Rock the Bells, the global lifestyle brand dedicated to elevating Hip-Hop culture founded by LL Cool J. The film, directed by DJ EFN, follows him and his crew as they travel to different countries. The series launched with Coming Home: Colombia, which spotlighted how the music provides a platform for citizens who often go unheard.
Coming Home: South Africa will air on Monday, June 13th, where viewers will see DJ EFN explore the vibrant culture inspired by social justice, patriotism, and love of all things music.
South African Hip Hop artist.
When he spoke to For(bes) The Culture, he said the project's genesis started when he wanted to have a deeper connection with Cuba as a first-generation Cuban-American.
"If anybody knows a little bit about the Cuban community, especially in South Florida, they're very, diehard right-wing about the communist regime in Cuba. You don't go there because if you go there, you're contributing to the regime," he explains, even though he still yearned to know more about his family's roots.
He contemplated taking a trip to the communist island and connected with a friend who had traveled to Cuba several times.
"He had linked with many hip hop artists in Cuba, which made me more curious to want to go. I told one of my boys that I managed. He was in my crew, part of my record label, Garcia, an MC, and he's Cuban-American," recalls DJ EFN, who decided he wanted to document their trip for their children and families.
Granted, the two men had to agree that this would be a covert mission because their families would greatly disapprove. Their trip was before President Obama relaxed economic restrictions against Cuba in 2016.
DJ EFN had to receive a letter of approval from the U.S. government before embarking on his highly controversial journey. Once he set foot on his native land, he connected with his roots and other Hip Hop artists.
"We met some amazing people and learned a lot about the scene, the country, and ourselves. We came back, we put together this independent film, and we didn't think anybody would care. Maybe some Cubans would care, some Latinos would care, maybe somebody that likes Hip Hop would care, but we didn't know who. It went to film festivals, and it got picked up by Revolt the year they launched in 2013," he says, noting that his film was the network's first original licensed acquisition.
He conveyed that the idea to create his film into a series was sparked when different people approached him at screenings saying they were interested in how Hip Hop has evolved in their country of origin—taking inspiration from the late Anthony Bourdain, who used his CNN show "Parts Unknown" to investigate different countries' socio-economic conditions based on their cuisine.
"I know Hip Hop is everywhere, I know this, and I felt that would be a great premise to create the series and be able to travel and explore these countries through the scope of Hip Hop culture. That's what we started to do, and we went to Peru, we went to Haiti, we went to Vietnam, and then the two new films are Colombia and South Africa," he notes that the film even allowed him to convince his mother to return to Cuba in 2014, she had not been back in the last 50 years and fainted.
While in Cuba, DJ EFN was aware of the food scarcity and the abject poverty many of his fellow citizens must endure. However, when President Obama had opened the door for economic expansion on the island until Trump became elected and reversed all of Obama's measures and reinstated the embargo.
Despite the political climate, DJ EFN said sojourning to different countries reinvigorated his love for the musical art form because of the raw passion of the artists. Yet, many non-American Hip Hop performers frankly pointed out that in the U.S., Hip Hop is now a business.
"To hear from their point of view and at the same time [I understand]. [Artists] wish that they could have an industry [to] sell and make money; they're also saying you guys no longer lead us because you no longer do it," he recalls, citing that the global artists he met still maintain the authenticity of Hip Hop.
He wants audiences to use the film to catapult them to dig deeper into how the urban art form has evolved in other cultures.
DJ EFN hit docu-series Coming Home.
He adds: "I want them to respect Hip hop in other countries; it would be dope if they ended up liking something they saw to the point where they would want to listen to it and download the music from these artists. What I want to do is inspire someone to say, 'man, that looks dope; I want to dig in deeper and see what other groups are out there.'"
Coming Home: South Africa premieres Monday, June 13th at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time and will be available on REVOLT's app. The first five episodes are available to view on the app.
