A song in honour of Bafana Bafana has sent Ronnie Kasrils’s son on the road to ragga success, writes Charl Blignaut
Robert McBride may still be languishing in a Maputo prison, but his partner in promoting rap music, the Admiral, is about to release the first white ragga rap album on to the South African dance music scene.
Ragga Gong is the debut album of the Admiral, aka Andy Kasrils – the son of former Umkhonto weSizwe operative and Deputy Minister of Defence Ronnie Kasrils.
Due for launch through CCP records at the end of June, it contains work by some of the most accomplished star artists in South Africa’s mega-selling kwaito or d’gong (township dance) music.
McBride, a close friend and fellow ragga lover, co-produced an earlier album, Victory: Mission Accomplished, by an outfit called MK Platoon, with the Admiral.
Born in London in 1965, the Admiral has lived in South Africa since 1994, until now best known for the radio show he presents on Saturday afternoons on Voice of Soweto – and for his collaboration on Victory: Mission Accomplished.
Ragga is a term derived from raggamuffin – a style of rap accompanying electronic music. While the ragga style is huge in South Africa, the presence of a white boy on the scene has caused more than a few eyebrows to be lifted.
Slowly, through his connections at Voice of Soweto, Kasrils began to work with his South African musical counterparts, establishing what became affectionately known as The Mandela Crew.
The Mandela Crew is made up of of the Admiral, Appleseed and Speedy (ragga master and singer from smash-hit new band Bongo Maffin, who tore up the charts this year with their tune Makeba), Ras Teba (from equally big new arrival Skeem, who had a hit last year with Waar Was Jy) and Junior (from Boom Shaka, the original kwaito pop sensations).
These five young musicians developed a cult following with their live performances at the popular Tandoor night club on Rockey Street in Yeoville. One track they played received particular adulation – their tribute to Bafana Bafana.
It didn’t take record companies long to realise the potential of releasing a Bafana Bafana tune around the time of the World Cup, and a single was pressed.
Runour has it the tune was played to the national soccer squad on the bus to the airport on their way to France and they fell in love with it – particularly Jerry Skosana, who is mentioned in the track.
“When the record bosses heard the rest of the material,” says Kasrils, “they realised there was something more going down than just a soccer tune.” The rest is history.
The test tunes that have been released off Ragga Gong are already being lapped up by radio stations.
Kasrils seems surprised at the reaction and the reality that his debut album looks set to bust the youth charts: “Hey, we were just getting together on a Monday night jamming, just like I used to with a bunch of mates in London, except here it was with a bunch of South African dudes.”
What does dad think of the album? “He thinks it’s great, just great.”
And what about being a white boy on a black scene? “This is the global music of the working class, of the poor. I understand where these guys are coming from. Hell, I was raised in the East End of London.
“But mark my words, the new music of South Africa’s youth is going to go international and join the global market. There’s talent here like I couldn’t believe.”