Superfly never was and to this day is still not afraid to experiment with new sounds. He has a way of predicting what would years later and to this day be genuine Cape Town club anthems. Many DJ’s who were new to the scene in the late 80’s would partly build their record collections on what they heard Superfly was playing.
The ability of DJ’s to record live sets to cassette tape also meant that a Superfly cassette became a commodity in itself and so many who have never been to Le Club could experience a DJ Superfly performance, and what a performance it was!
Superfly would and still does incorporate playing percussion like a tambourine or a shaker into his set as well as blow a referee’s whistle to the rhythm of the songs. He is also well known for using echo and voice effects to their full potential working up crowds with his many unique tag lines and sayings like “Educating the media on an international basis”.
Wait, before you say “What?” It actually had a lot of meaning to it.
This was his way of saying that he was not afraid to play music which was technically banned by the Apartheid regime, and that he was not only educating patrons with all the international club music styles that were not available to South Africans but he was also using the lyrical content of these songs as a broad anti-Apartheid and anti-censorship message. He was being the international media for the dancing masses.
Superfly who was notorious for his drug use and specifically for his addiction to Mandrax, reached a point in the late 1980’s where he became disillusioned by the Cape Town DJ scene and realised that besides being poorly paid, all he really got out of the industry was that people were always eager to buy him his drug of choice.
Being the great Superfly, he did not ever really need to spend any money on having a ‘good time’ but Rayyaan realised that for his level of skill he was not earning nearly as much as he was worth.
When he was offered the opportunity to take up a residency at the Zoom nightclub in Durban he was on the next available flight out of Cape Town.
He spent almost a full decade plying his trade in Durban taking up residences at different clubs including Zoom at first, and then later moving to Palladium and Genesis among others. It was also while based in Durban that he started entering national DJ competitions and in the process earning himself invitations to perform at clubs in Johannesburg and other cities across the country.
A Man Transformed
In the late 1990’s he returned to Cape Town and Superfly took up residencies at various clubs including The Arena, which was located near the V&A Watrefront. Superfly was still a drug addict but that was soon to change.
Rayyaans life was in turmoil. He suffered from severe emotional instability and he was going through a lot of personal difficulties including the break-up of his marriage. He decided to seek spiritual guidance and a greater understanding of his religion of Islam. Though he does not count himself as one who devotedly sticks to all of the stringent rules and traditions of his faith, and admits to questioning a lot of what others merely accept at face-value, Rayyaan is a changed man.
Through this he had managed to kick his drug habit but was still not making any progress in finding any real inner-peace until a mentor helped him come to the realise that he was doing all of this for the wrong reasons. His only aim was to change the appearance of his lifestyle in order to get his wife to take him back into her life and he believed showing her that he was capable of change was all that he needed to do.
Once he understood that what he was doing can only work if he did it for himself, for the sake of his own humanity and not for the sake of anyone else, his life started to make sense. He also came to accept that his marriage really was over and that in spite of that he could go on living his life in a higher state of consciousness.
He is now clean for 16 years, healthier than ever.
He follows a healthy diet and works out daily with at least three full gym sessions a week.
He still takes regular spiritual retreats which serve to strengthen his new lifestyle.
After many years of great residencies all over the country, from the year 2000 onward, Superfly started a long stint at The Gallery in Cape Town which was essentially a Rave club. A long residency at Club Images followed and also he re-introduced strictly vinyl sets during his residency at The @tmosphere.
Though he still does take bookings at regular clubs, he has essentially become a freelancer who plays mostly huge events and festivals.
One of the big festivals and events he’s been booked for in 2016 is the Cape Town Electronic Music Festival.
Superfly gave bruinou.com a glimpse into what his #CTEMF2016 set will include and we know that patrons will be taken on a two hour musical journey through time, heading bravely into the future.
He will not only be playing timeless gems but as he has done throughout his career, he will be relevant to the here and now while taking big leaps into the future.
After four decades of entertaining people he is not only an inspiration as a DJ but is now also a role model to those who have to overcome their vices in order to live life to the fullest.
We asked him what advice he has for aspiring new DJ’s.
“In everything you do people always say that you should be yourself.”
“Being yourself means bringing your own personal energy to everything you do and as a DJ that translates to sharing your own positive energy with your audience.”
“Besides learning all the technical aspects of your equipment and becoming really good at mixing, all that will mean nothing if you do not learn to understand how music affects people on every level of their being and how your selection will affect the people you are entertaining. Your job is to entertain them, so be an entertainer.”
After his interview we spent some time hanging out listening to some great music and then joined The Real Rozzano for a genuine Cape Flats lunch of having a Gatsby while sitting in a park.
Superfly then in a moment of philosophical pondering and as a parting shot gave me his personal view on life.
Life depends on you. You are the only one who can live your life.
How it turns out depends on every decision you make.
Every decision comes with a package deal.
You have to live it with the responsible awareness that you took The Whole Package.
DJ Superfly at Le Club - 1987