Contest: Download Our Mobile App, Win a Pitch Perfect Package

We’re so juiced on our beautiful new mobile app for iPhone and Android that we feel like giving things away. Namely: the full set of limited edition Siggi Eggertson prints from our Pitch Perfect series (see them after the jump) plus a flash drive with all six Pitch Perfect mixtapes, featuring music from six continents. Carry the FADER in your hand, hang some amazing posters on your wall, listen to dope songs from around the globe—boom, life made. To enter, simply download the app here and send a screen shot to contests@thefader.com. (We will also accept digital photo shots, scans of a disposable camera pic, or any other type of visual medium documenting your new FADER app.) We’ll select a winner at random. Good luck!

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Nike Sportswear and The FADER Present Pitch Perfect Episode 10: Thank You South Africa

After a month of proving itself as a world class host, South Africa now simply returns to being a world class nation with world class citizens. While soccer fans may already be looking to Brasil, fans of music, art and culture continue a hopefully long relationship with South Africa. With the final episode of Nike Sportswear and The FADER’s Pitch Perfect documentary, we take a look back on our experiences there and say thank you and goodbye for now to all the great people we met along the way.

An extra special thanks to everyone who helped us make Pitch Perfect possible, from the mixtapes to the posters to the Youth Day celebration to the lady who let us crash on her shoulder on the flight home. You’re the best! See you soon.

And to the crew of the Pitch Perfect documentary, we can never say enough. Thanks for the seemingly endless work and commitment:

Producer: Peter Macia
Director: Natalie Johns
Editor: Dominic Whitworth
Second Camera: Mzu Nhlabati, David Bevan

And of course, to everyone at Nike Sportswear, thanks for helping make this possible and for all your support.

Nike Sportswear and The FADER Present Pitch Perfect Episode 9: Ballad of the Vuvuzela (I Need Tickets Remix)

You can probably hear it from where you’re sitting, the constant wailing drone of the ubiquitous vuvuzela. But what you can’t hear is the individual artistry: a hefty howl, an elephantine bellow, the farty wheeze of a new blower. One thing difficult to convey about the vuvuzela to people who only hear it en masse on television is that it is actually the single best noisemaker in the history of mankind. With this special penultimate episode of Nike Sportswear and The FADER’s Pitch Perfect documentary, we pay a little tribute to the plastic horn of plenty. Waaaaaoooooooowwwwwww. Enjoy.

For more, go to thefader.com/pitchperfect.

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Nike Sportswear and The FADER Present Pitch Perfect Episode 8: Durban’s Finest

After spending plenty of time in landlocked Jo’burg, we ventured southeast to coastal Durban, where surfing and heavy house music commingle comfortably with stiltwalkers and Zulu dancers. We drove up the coast to Ballito to meet with local waveriders before heading back down to city central to catch up with DJ Soxx and DJ Cndo of renowned house crew Durban’s Finest for a night on the town.

Catch the rest of Nike Sportswear and The FADER’s Pitch Perfect documentary series here, and find the rest of the goodness at the Pitch Perfect homepage.

Nike Sportswear and The FADER Present Pitch Perfect Episode 7: BLK JKS Come Home

Two years ago, we put South Africa’s BLK JKS on the cover of our Africa issue after hearing about them through a couple trusted sources. At the time, they were nearly unknown outside of their home country, but have since blown up bigger than we could have imagined and were chosen to represent SA in the biggest show of their lives on June 10th (with a little assist from Alicia Keys). In this episode of the Nike Sportswear and The FADER’s Pitch Perfect documentary series, we follow the band as they prepare for the show and then on to the release party for their new Zol! EP in Johannesburg.

For more videos, mixtapes and chances to win cool stuff, go to thefader.com/pitchperfect.

Nike Sportswear and The FADER Present Pitch Perfect Episode 6: Street Pop Rocks Soweto

Zothani Vilakazi and Mlungisi Gamede started Street Pop two years ago in the streets of Soweto. Today, they help spread underground music from Johannesburg to Norway to New York and beyond. In this episode of Nike Sportswear and The FADER’s Pitch Perfect documentary, we catch up with them, and a few dozen of their neighbors, at home for an impromptu concert by local metal band Reebirth.

To watch the rest of the documentary, download the continental mixtapes, or get a chance to win a few special prizes, visit thefader.com/pitchperfect. And stay tuned for the final four episodes the rest of this week.

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Nike Sportswear and The FADER’s Pitch Perfect Episode 5: Youth Day Concert and Workshops in Soweto

On June 16th, Nike Sportswear and The FADER celebrated Youth Day in Soweto with a rooftop concert culminating a day of arts workshops for local kids at the Football Training Centre Soweto. The workshops focused on DJing, screenprinting and video production, along with a screening in the centre’s clinic of the HBO’s The Lazarus Effect, a stirring document of the fight against AIDS in Africa.

As day turned to night, the roof filled with students and local artists and friends, and the lineup of DJ Cleo, Tumi and The Volume, Spoek Mathambo and Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 kept the hot music going until no one could dance another step. We then headed inside to blow vuvuzelas and watch events unfold on the big screen. It was an incredible, unforgettable day, and now you can relive a little bit of it with episode five of the Pitch Perfect documentary and several more cuts of the live performances.

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Nike Sportswear and The FADER Present Pitch Perfect Episode 4: Football Training Centre Soweto Tour with Mandla Masango

In this episode of Nike Sportswear and The FADER’s Pitch Perfect documentary series, we take a tour of the brand new Football Training Centre Soweto with Kaizer Chiefs attacking midfielder Mandla Masango. After making us dizzy with his fancy footwork, Masango, known as “Mzimba Shaker” (or “Body Shaker”), walks us through the facility, pointing out its many outstanding features, including an HIV awareness and free testing clinic. FTC Soweto is also a participant in the (NIKE)RED Lace Up Save Lives campaign, which raises awareness and funds to end AIDS in Africa.

Stay tuned for more episodes of Pitch Perfect in the weeks to come.

Nike Sportswear and The FADER Present Pitch Perfect, Episode 3: Rustenburg is Lekker

The Pitch Perfect squad road tripped north from Jo’burg to Rustenburg on June 12th to see how the quiet mining town would handle the onslaught of American and English football fans, and we ended up in a little pub called Castle’s Corner. Inside we found a handful of kitted visitors, but the crowd was overwhelmingly local and there to watch rugby, not soccer. But as you’ll see, the old boys were more than happy to host their new sport-loving friends and had a few enlightening stories to tell while we were there. Later that night, the American boys did well, setting up their eventual run to glory courtesy of Landon Donovan’s orange-heeled golden boot.

To view all of Nike Sportswear and The FADER’s Pitch Perfect documentary episodes, visit the Pitch Perfect homepage.

Nike Sportswear and The FADER Present Pitch Perfect, Episode 2: Dirty Paraffin Light Up Jo’burg

For episode two of our Pitch Perfect documentary series in collaboration with Nike Sportswear, we visit with Dirty Paraffin of Johannesburg, South Africa. The duo of okmalumkoolkat and DJ Spizee, originally from down south in Durban, bring the sounds of many childhood days spent listening to Zulu radio station Ukhozi FM into their genre-defying music. They also happen to be two of the nicest dudes we’ve ever met. Watch as they give a short history of SA dance pop and perform at the Pitch Perfect kickoff party in Jo’burg last week.

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