Audio Therapy Sessions With Jarry Pitboi
Images Shot By @vuyopolson / Instagram
The enigma that is Jarry Pitboi is a virtuoso who has been on our radar ever since the birth of VERVE.
I remember tapping play on his enchanting 2024 release, titled “Samsara”, alongside LEE3x3i. As a Hip-Hop lover, there was just something so unique about Jarry’s approach to his sound. I was introduced to a fresh sound of rawness and honesty through Jarry's powerful storytelling abilities.
While many other lyricists tend to speak on topics like their “flashy” lifestyles or experiences in tough environments, Jarry would use his approach to talk to the listener on a more personal level. I can think of only a few other poets who choose to tackle this approach, and it’s a style of Hip-Hop I genuinely adore.
After some time, I was fortunate enough to get the invite to Jarry’s personal studio, where I was lucky enough to grab a sneak peek into his 2025 EP, “CAN’T CHANGE”, before its release. We then spent the rest of the afternoon kicking back and speaking on his rise from messing around with his homies to taking his sound to the next level, the reason for choosing this particular style of Hip-Hop, and a whole lot more.
So Jarry, could you tell us a bit about yourself?
“Well starting music to me was like a natural process. But I'd say one of the core reasons I started was to actually be funny.”
“My friends and I were just trying to make each other laugh. I remember the Fridays after school we would smoke up, lam by my house, and we'd play soccer on the pitch around the corner.”
“But we'd also bring instrumentals, and we'd just freestyle over them. But it was just to see who could be the funniest. It got to a point where me and my one homie Jason, the guy I started BODHI with, we both realised that we were actually decent at doing this thing and that we should consider taking it seriously but at an easier rate.”
“At that time, I didn't even know what it meant to record a song. I just knew I could download an instrumental and say words out of my mouth and that's as far as it goes.”
“But yeah, we basically just started rapping from that point. We were still in Grade 9 at that point, so we were just messing around. It wasn't that serious back then. We were just having fun with it.”
“The more we were doing it, the more we would invite the brasse over to join our rap. We were so unserious about it that we were going to start a group called “Teenage Pregnancy” … You understand the mindset we had? We would've definitely been cancelled for that and I'm glad we didn't go through with that.”
“But as time went on, I got to the point where I realised, I actually wanted to adopt this dream. After school, I was studying. I didn't know what I actually wanted to study at the time, but my mom made it clear that I was fortunate enough to have the privilege to study so I did.”
“However, I wanted to do music. I just didn't know that studying music was a thing. And I thought actually studying music meant I had to be playing instruments and such. I remember doing so badly at my Bcom and I just knew it wasn't for me.”
“I remember having the conversation with my mom telling her I couldn't do BCom. And she understood me but she also assured me that I had to study something. She advised me to do some research and to find something to study involving music. That's when I was shocked to find out about sound engineering.”
“I went for that after we found it was a legit career path and that I'd be safe financially wise. Now being in that sound engineering world, my mind suddenly expanded. I had an idea of how music was made. I saw what was behind the process. I started listening and seeing music differently. Before, I just knew of the final product. But now I had a clearer understanding. It's like I was stepping into the song.”
“But yeah, that's basically how I started getting into music.”
Did You have any early music influences while growing up?
“I never really had a musical background. Maybe in the grand scheme of things, my earliest memory could do with my late uncle.”
“When I was super young my grandpa had a vinyl player, so a lot of music was always playing in the house. And what my uncle would do is always turn it right up! And he'd shout for us to come listen. The song he'd always start off with was “Who Let The Dogs Out” (by Baha Men). That's the first song I remember.”
“And I would come in and just start dancing and I think that was my first moment when I started liking music.”
“But my dad also had a lot of CDs. I can't remember which 50 Cent album it was, but it had all the music videos, and I'd use to play that and rap the songs back. Those were the core moments that made me fall in love with music.”
It's no debate how passionate you are about being a musician. To you, what's the best part about being a creative?
“Recently I've been loving performing. Like…I don't even wanna make music anymore. All the songs I have out now, let me just go perform them.”
“Especially because I'm not like the biggest “artist”. There's a lot of performances I can pull up to and I'll be performing in front of a completely new crowd. I like that! I like that they're hearing something completely new.”
“Recently I've been performing with Broken Telephone, and they're very tapped in with the Punk crowd. The spaces we performed were more open to experiencing new sounds because they're not really tapped into Rap music like we are. I mean they probably are, but the Punk and Rock scene is the kind of genre they're more into.”
“So now I come into these shows with my full-on Rap influence with their sounds. Yoh bro, Neil and Mark from Broken Telephone are super talented man. The amount of stuff they can do is mind-blowing.”
“And working together wasn't something I had planned. I guess they had more of an intention behind it.”
Jarry with Neil & Mark From Broken Telephone - Image Sourced From @broken_telephone / Instagram Shot By @erindeswardt.photo / Instagram
I know I am, but for those who maybe aren't familiar with your discography, how would you describe your sound?
“I think my sound is of course specifically rap with trippy samples and chops. I think that's what a lot of people like hearing me on.”
“However, I still consider myself very much experimental. Those are the sounds I'm most comfortable with.”
“But I'm willing to do anything. There are no sets of boundaries for me.”
Cover Art For “CAN’T CHANGE”
Listening through your catalogue, you tend to focus more on speaking about personal topics. I would describe listening to your music as like having a therapy session. Why is it you chose to take that approach?
“I think a big thing about me is that I try my best to be the most vulnerable as I can be. I try to be as open as I can.”
“Even to a point where some stuff I say might sound corny but I'm just trying to unlock the different levels of openness with myself.”
“I think that's where my sound initially stemmed from. I don't know about you, but when it comes to rapping, I think the American Rap influence is so heavy here that it's easy to fall into that kind of ideology, whereby you feel like whatever they're doing is the standard, you know?”
“So, I had to unlearn that, especially in the way that I speak, and the way that I rap. When I started rapping, I was doing the whole American accent. There's nothing wrong with that. It just felt like I wasn't being myself and I wasn't being open.”
“When listening to my music, it should feel like you're listening to a real person. Being authentic at the core and building around that is the best way of just being myself.”
“And in a few songs, I'll reference therapy. Going to therapy, I realised that opening up to someone else was difficult…but when I rap, it's much easier to open up. I guess it feels like I'm not really talking to anyone but myself. But in reality, I'm opening up to everyone because obviously the song gets released to the public and it’s all out there.”
“People start to perceive me in a way after they listen to my music, so now they already have an understanding of me, you know? That's always interesting to me.”
What are your personal thoughts on the Cape Town creative circle?
“I think two truths can exist at the same time.”
“I think there's still very much of that whole cliquey thing happening in Cape Town. But at the same time, there is a big network of community in the city. They're both coexisting at the same time. It's just about which side you're wanting to feed your energy to.”
“I feel like the more networking and open community is younger than the gatekeeping. I think we're now at the stage where things are shifting. That's personally what I feel. It's at like an in-between point.”
“And I feel like now we're at that point. There's going to be an influx of artists that bring their own raw ideas to the scene with their music and their visuals.”
“Cape Town is now at that tipping point.”
Power words man. To close off this chat, you mentioned “BODHI” earlier. What is the idea behind that?
“BODHI is like a movement.”
“For the longest time, I wanted it to have it associated with me, but I wasn't sure how to clearly define it.”
“Essentially my homie Jason and I started using it as the name for the collective or movement. Bodhi is the name of the tree that the Buddha found enlightenment under.”
“At the time we were heavily into Buddhism and Eastern philosophies and ideologies. We'd spend a lot of time reading up about it, and we'd even meditate. It was kind of a phase.”
“But the movement is called BODHI the people, which is enlightenment, community, and freedom to the people. That's the point of what I'm doing, and I feel like the people around me are all still moving with that intention.”
I’ve been fortunate enough to witness Jarry shake the room with his spine-chilling live performances and it’s something he’s assured us he’s been planning on doing a lot more this year.
I recently did a review of his stunning five-track EP, “CAN’T CHANGE”, which dropped in February of this year, and if you have yet to peep the tape, what are you even doing? I highly recommend you immerse yourself in that listening experience.
The young musician has had an impressive come up within the realm of South African Hip-Hop, and I honestly feel like he’s only really just getting started in his ascension within the community.
I look forward to what else he has in store for his many admirers and keep an eye out for his upcoming shows around the city. For now, check out his EP, now available on multiple streaming platforms.
