Main Stage - Live at Rocking The Daisies 2010, South Africa

Ready D

Prophets of Da City, Cape Town, South Africa

Ready D aka The Black Battle Cat aka DJ X-Plode (known to his mother as Deon) - was born in District Six, Cape Town. At the age of 10 during the height of the Apartheid Era, his family, together with thousands of other so called "coloured" families, were forceably removed from District Six in the centre of Cape Town to the Cape Flats – a desolate township on the other side of Table Mountain. Growing up there, Deon was constantly surrounded by gangs, poverty and a lack of identity, before hip hop and breakdancing culture began to infiltrate the nation, and Deon started to take interest as a breaker and aspiring MC. Sponsored by a friend, he was able to visit Liverpool, England, where he got turned on to what a DJ was capable of. On returning to Cape Town, Deon acquired his first pair of Lenco turntables, and from his first DJ battles with the only four records he owned, this hip hop lover progressed to become a national champion and international DMC battle competitor - along the way, making music that helped to express the struggles and passions of his community. His most distinctive work on that matter was surely with the trailblazers of South African hip hop Prophets of Da City, with Ready D one of the mainstays of the ever floating collective throughout the nineties. Not one for the nostalgia trips, this set finds Ready D on top of his game at Rocking The Daisies 2010.