Tykoon Suit is a Hip Hop outfit from Cape Town.
The band consists of Digger Barnes ( ex Moodphase5ive front man ) and Bang Bang on rhymes while MRMO ( Mofunk ) is djing, beatmaking and producing.
They have been together for 3 years and have between them released more than
20 tracks independently or as the band.
Best described as escapist blue collar hip hop with funk and jazz influences,
the 3 piece have been working hard to perfect their live appearances.
They have played the following venues: Baraza, Eclipse, Ivory Room, Rhodes House,
Die Mystik Boer, Zula Bar, Manga Rosa with upcoming events at The Portlands Civic, Oppikoppi, as well as the Splashy Fenn festival in Durban.
Tykoon Suit is a breath of stale strip club air. With lyrical terrorist ‘Bang-Bang’ coming along for the ride on the old-skool dancefloor thriller ‘throw the bones’ barely clothed ‘bebe pleez’ on the hooks and background vocalistics, twin cousin of Bollywood porn director ‘Neon Don’ Mr. Digger Barnz on the mic device and Uncle Benny on the boards, this is one of the most exciting groups to come out of Cape Town.
With titles of tracks like gigolo lounge, office girlz, earthling bitches
You are bound to start thinking …LSD ghetto pimp trips that never
really let you come down properly, especially when you are living the dream 24/7.
Their first release was charted as nr 1 for 7 weeks on Radio Toulouse in France,
with the track charting for a further 8 weeks.
Tracks are available on
‘The Cape Of Good Dope’ compilation vol.1,
the Silvertab Harambe Dope sessions
and the net for 4 unreleased tracks floating in the matrix.
Look out for " Matchbox" the new release from Tykoon Suit,
available on Cape of Good Dope vol 2.
After 3 years of continual work, Tykoon suit are finally ready to disturb the entire backpacking hip hop community with the release their independently released debut album:"Smart Casual" on the 7th of July 2006 in Cape Town.

Tykoon Suit -Smart Casual 2006
Photographer :Yasser Booley for Impi

It seems Digger could not actually piece together what he was hearing through the door.
It had been six days now, and the hallucinogenic Kalahari Khoi-San roots were finally wearing off. The slow drone of bass earth frequencies, and broken beats that had been playing on his mind, had somehow become his reality, his escape, his refuge.
Digger pushed the buzzer, holding on tightly to the last package he had to deliver for the Academy. It had been a long week, and the African heat showed no signs of letting up.
The smell was the first thing to hit Digger.
The smell of hydro skunk, expensive whores, Jack Daniels and something else he just could not put his finger on.
The apartment was large, open plan, mirrors on all the ceilings. Expensive up in here, thought Digger, pulling out his Dunhill lighter.
Smoking was one of the things he promised himself to give up,
But the odd cigar every day would surely not get the better of him.
Benny Wong took the package and headed back to a large glass table surrounded by a group of exotic women.
The beats were still kicking, the basslines still melting…
That Kalahari stuff rocks thought Digger, making a mental note to hook up with
Bebe Pleez later in the week. Failed exotic dancers have to make a living too, and Bebe was a leader in the field of hallucinogenic entertainment, and background vocalistics.
Benny was pleased, new porn from his cousin Neon Don in Malaysia.
Good stuff was hard to find, and Neon somehow always had his finger on the pulse.
The Academy was living up to its name and with Don in charge, life was good.
Benny the art dealer, Benny the pimp, Benny the beat-maker, Benny the hustler,
or just Uncle Benny, to his friends.
How few they were now, ever since the day that he started making beats.
Sounds strange, but after the new samples came, he had never looked back.
Searching for the holy grail of beats and samples, trying to outdo even his hero’s.
Sampling old tunes, new tunes, looking at structures. Trying to find the perfect combination.
And somehow he had done it, after 3 long years with all the music in place it was finally time to find the perfect rappers to finish the project.
It was then the unexplained happened. Digger started flowing over the sound of the beats.
Like a frame on a Monet, Benny saw the last 3 years fall into place.
It was art, it was fun, it was poking fun, finally escapist –hop had a home.
And so…Tykoon Suit was born.
With two official releases firmly tucked under their snakeskin belts through
African Dope records, the world is now starting to ask questions…

Tykoon Suit press pics 2006:
Photographer :
Yasser Booley for Impi
Suits courtesy of :
Never on a Sunday
Long Str, Cape Town

PAID IN FULL
"Benny Wong, saw Back to the Future when it first came out long time ago on betamax…very good video!"_, words from the yellow man mellow.
What is the "Tykoon Suit"?
Digger Barnez: It’s a separate reality, that’s why the music is called "escapist hop". It’s the negative and the positive us…the light and the dark!
And when is the album dropping?
Digger Barnez: It’s being mastered right now, it’s just waiting behind another project that has to be kicked out of the studio. We’ve already put two records out though, Friday Jones on the Harambe Dope Sessions and Gigolo Lounge on the Cape of Good Dope CD…and that was number 4 in Toulouse.
Benny Wong: We’re releasing a 4-track collectors-only, limited edition picture disk vinyl EP…I want to call it Peep Show. I like smutty shit!
Tell us more about the album?
Digger Barnez: We also have a couple of people featuring on the album, Neon Don’s on two tracks, Bang Bang rhymes, Bebe Pleez does all the female vocals.
Musically, where does Tykoon Suit fall in?
Benny Wong: We’re just having fun!
Digger Barnez: We always get together on Friday afternoons, a lot of weed, a lot of beer and he goes, "Check this beat I just made", I’ll be like, "Yeah, that’s Tykoon", so we pop it in the Tykoon folder. We’ll get more weeded out and we’ll edit and chop it up then I’ll get on the mic and kill it.
Benny Wong: It’s either the vibe is there or it isn’t, most of it happened where D was just like, "Okay, that’s the one!"
What smacked me over the head, seeing you live, was how well presented and staunch you’re shit is. The beats are bevok, the rhyming is on point, clear…it’s sad but most MCs out in SA don’t know how to rap yet…
Benny Wong: You must realise that D’s been doing this for 16 years…
Digger Barnez: I’ve been Mcing for 16 years, I come with a long past in the ART OF MCING, doing live shows. When I go out there I have to bring it! I can’t do a wack show! I talk about it in one of my rhymes, Weekend Warriors, whereas a lot of people aren’t really taking their shit seriously enough. Kids get too deeply involved in playing with language instead on focussing on rocking a show! There is no balance, those dictionary, breathless fuckers get shit boring if they’re not rocking the stage or a tight show! The media has pushed that standard as the ceiling, but I was rocking like that in ’88, when I was shy and shit!
Tykoon right now is very much the studio project and we haven’t fully planned the live show.
Benny Wong: If we were to do a real Tykoon show it would actually be quite ridiculous…we’d need all sorts of gimps, showgirls…
Digger Barnez: Midget bitches…
Benny Wong: How latina bitches from Athlone or Mitchells Plane.
How do you stay "Tykoon"?
Benny Wong: To stay rich and to stay Tykoon is two different things…
Digger Barnez: Tykoon is a level of acknowledging street style and smarts…where you go, "Wow, that motherfucker’s tykoon, he knows what’s going on. It’s not about being rich or famous, it’s a level of being smart. It’s kind of pimp smart…
Benny Wong: But along with that pimp-smart stuff is the undercurrent of things that people don’t really want to see, midgets and retards.
Digger Barnez: There’s a lot of different stuff on the album, there are some harder tracks, some Gigolo Lounge type tracks, some filthy strip club songs…not the whole album is vocal either! I decided, why make another full rap album, fuck that, I’d like to hear some breaks because I like to uprock and freestyle dance…
Benny Wong: And Have Fun!
Digger Barnez: And I know that a lot of other people think like that and so there are those instrumental break tracks. But there are hard "boomBoom-klat!" tracks like Death Ray Booster Rocket, Kangaroo Court and Friday Jones, they’re all on a level of, "You cannot fuck with us!"
On the SA Music industry
Digger Barnez: We’re not really concerned with the South African market, which is so small already for our sound, which is fairly international. We aren’t just looking to get our stuff out to that market. I’ve been doing this thing long enough to say that I don’t give a fuck about what’s going on out there in terms of who’s supposed to be the shit-hottest MCs or whatever!
Benny Wong: We’re just going to get it out there for people who are going to enjoy it…
Digger Barnez: There’s a lot of witty shit in there, there is some stuff which is purely for people who take certain substances…on certain levels it’s also a bit more mature! It’s not for the 15 year-old kids at all, because we’re into their moms!
As far as the South African "industry", we’re trying to rub it the wrong way and break all the rules.
I know that a lot of people will love and feel what we’re doing and people will get where I’m coming from but I also know that it will go over a lot of people’s heads, but we’re internationally on par with whoever the fuck is out there. Tykoon is about staying super-fresh…
Tell us about the role that soul music and funk play in the Tykoon sound?
Benny Wong: I love the funk! It’s something that moves us. When I’m making a beat, once I get the sample that I’m looking for, the rest just falls into place!
Digger Barnez: I won’t touch it if it’s not funky! We’ve been developing this over the last two/three years, crafting and moulding this. We’re not just busting verses over beats…
Benny Wong: It’s been three long years of sourcing stuff and crafting…if you were to look at the amount of Vinyl that me and D have gone through!
Digger Barnez: There’s also a lot of really good stuff that we haven’t used, all the beats for the next album are done already!
Who was the most Tykoonest cat in your neighbourhood when you were growing up?
Benny Wong: I was the most tykoon…
Digger Barnez: For me it was my uncle, he was a DJ! He had a mobile DJ unit and that’s how I learned about…they had it in the yard, but he also use to DJ at the Galaxy in the late 70s, early 80s. He was all collar open, tight pants, neat ‘fro, platforms, driving a sheepskin Datsun, with bitches all over him when he’d step in the club, so I always look up to him for that shit!
Finally, what do you have to say to the kids?
Digga Barnes: To the kids: wear condoms and buy the fucking album or else we’re going to turn your mamas out for tricks. You better not let your friends burn the album or we’ll have to get their mamas too.