In the Eighties, back home in Kwa Dwesi, Eastern Cape, he dressed and swaggered like a pantsula. Like other delinquents in that area, he would play cricket in the graveyard, sometimes bunking class to smoke and chill with buddies while listening to the latest sounds. Today he is the prince of African R&B.
Mxolisi Lokwe, alias MXO, arrived in Johannesburg in 1999 and lived in a ramshackle house in Yeoville. There he teamed up with Rastafarians and other nomadic types, often resorting to what he calls the “holy herb” for meditation and escapism.
His opening line when we meet is straight out of an old Mafia movie: “The streets were my university. I’m a graduate from the university of life,” he says fiddling with a silver pendant on a chain around his neck — a guitar embossed with the letters “MXO” — essential pop star tack.
A couple of days earlier I had made my way to the rooftop of a nine-storey building on Johannesburg’s Commissioner Street. MXO was shooting a video for his track Zandiy’bone, the first from his latest album Peace of Mind. The crew was restless, trying to look busy or at least spark a dialogue with MXO, whose raspy voice is evocative of stars like Louis Armstrong and the late Mahlathini of the Mahotella Queens.
“It makes me feel good to see all these people investing their professional talents in my project,” MXO said between mouthfuls of yogurt. The crew were about to capture a shot where he appears to be flying above the city.
MXO’s album is the most heralded of the new batch that has been released in time for the party season. But as the music industry gears up for festive profits, more new names come to the fore.
Take 30-year-old Sowetan rapper Mr Selwyn, for example. His album, Formula, which recently hit the shelves, talks about local issues and mixes street lingo with American slang.
Mr Selwyn’s commitment to his chosen genre has come at a price: he has been frustrated, trying to make it as a rapper in a society obsessed with kwaito, has been called many things — from “coconut” to the “N” word — and he had already recorded most of the songs for his album by the time Gallo Records made him an offer.
“I called it Formula,” he tells me over a drink in Melville, “because I feel I’ve got the formula for success in this industry.”
Among township youth Mr Selwyn’s Tonite is one of the year’s top love songs. It features MXO in a style that makes the artists sound more mature than their years.
In a reconciliatory tone he tells us on the track I Finally See: “Yeah, whatever / blacks and whites /I guess we’re equal.”
Not earth-shattering news, but meaningful nonetheless.
RJ Benjamin’s Who I Am launched with a romantic touch — candles and rose petals dotted about SABC’s M1 Studio. The walls were festooned with posters of the young heart-throb who has bravely admitted to once having aspired to be like Michael Jackson.
Benjamin, who is operating as a white boy with a black soul and refers to his sound as “funkadelic soul”, is signed with Ghetto Ruff — home to Zola, Amu, Pitch Black Afro and up-and-coming producer Bongani Fassie (son of the late MaBrrr).
“I had written a lot of sad songs,” Benjamin told me at the launch, “but I had to change that after my producer told me to start making happy songs.”
Singing to an excited audience, Benjamin gave a splendid performance with his new repertoire that includes songs such as Restless, featuring Pitch Black Afro. “Pitch Black is talented, to those who understand what he talks about in his rhymes,” Benjamin joked.
Gauteng is flourishing with a number of new independent labels. Outrageous Records, linked to the youth site Rage, has recently released rapper Zubz’s latest offering, Listeners Digest.
The album, Zubz’s second, features 19 new tracks. His previous album, The Last Letter, was given to the public for free by Yfm and the rapper’s friends.
Zubz, who hails from Zimbabwe, said that having recorded the bulk of Listeners Digest, all the tracks were lost at the eleventh hour owing to a computer crash and he had to start from scratch. He wrote a whole new album for which, unsurprisingly, he thanks God.
The album was launched at the Songwriters’ Club in Newtown in late October and pulled in a big hip-hop crowd. Appearances by a list of Johannesburg’s finest rappers included Hip Hop Pantsula, Pro-Kid, ProVerb and H20.
Zubz went through a rough patch when he came to Jo’burg after completing his BCom at Rhodes University. “I was depressed for six months,” he recalled, “no job, no apartment, holding a BCom degree in my hand. It was heart-wrenching.”
Listeners Digest is constructive and thought-provoking, an essential purchase for this festive season. “I see myself as someone who is paving the way for others to follow. But of course, I have to sell records while I’m doing it,” Zubz said.
Kabelo, alias Bouga Luv, is some-thing of a pioneer. In a nutshell, this former member of TKZee has managed to celebrate kwaito’s marriage to hip-hop.
On his latest offering, The Bouga Luv Album, the multi-South African Music Award-winner likens his personality to that of a boxer, daring all opposition to approach.
“For me, Jay-Z has done it,” he said referring to the rapper from New York. “He remains my number one international inspiration — musically that is.”
Asked how he feels about the money he has made through the music industry, Kabelo said: “Well I have given it a lot of good songs, too.”
His response is different on the track Ngiyababonga Labantu (I Thank These People): “I thank these people / when they lent me money / when they lent me clothes / when they would let me sleep in their homes.”
In an industry plagued by thumb-suck lyrics and mediocrity, Kabelo uses every opportunity to celebrate his victory over his toughest opponent — himself. His songs tell how he mastered his drug-habit and turned to religion.
After the success of their past two albums, Skwatta Kamp remain the most envied group on the hip-hop scene, often having to explain what selling out really means. But they are the best and they know it. Besides, in hip-hop artists are often valued by the amount of enemies they make. Their latest offering, Washumkhukhu (The Shack is Burning), is bound to upset their rivals. The title track says it all — hot, anthem-like and smart. The song contains ample threats and verbal assaults on up-and-coming rappers.
On Van Tuka (From Way Back), a gangster-praising and passionately thuggish hit, Skwatta Kamp hark back to the Sophiatown-era, remembered for its defiance and ferociousness. Through their effortless tsotsi-taal rhymes they are able to reveal layers of meaning unattainable in English. The song is timeless and could have easily been included on the soundtrack to Zola Maseko’s retro movie Mr Drum.
After nearly a decade of juggling hip-hop and kwaito, and with four albums under his belt, Hip Hop Pantsula (HHP) has become a legend in his own right. On Omang Reloaded, his latest offering, HHP puts his lyrical prowess to the test — teaming up with Mr Selwyn, Morafe, Gabi Leroux and Kabomo, to name a few.
But it’s HHP’s honesty that makes this album soar. “I’ve learned to choose my words,” he said with pride, “because everything I’ve rapped about has become a prophecy. I once made a song about pregnancy and the next thing I knew I had a baby.”
Asked why he has always rapped in a combination of Setswana and English, he said: “If you speak to someone in a foreign language, you speak to their minds, but through their mother tongue you can speak to their hearts.”
But in Jo’burg, where Zulu and Xhosa are the spoken languages in parking lots and at taxi ranks, his use of Setswana has often worked against him, affecting his sales.
“I’ve learned to forgive the public,” he said. “It isn’t that they don’t like my music, they just cannot understand the language.”
This season the emphasis has been on collaboration, following international trends. Local stars appear on each other’s albums, lending credibility and leading to a crossover of styles.
At the same time barriers in society are breaking down. MXO, for example, has appealed to a white audience. As a result his songs Rebel Girl and Nina, incorporating rock elements, have enjoyed success on the historically white 5fm.
MXO hails the airplay as positive and comments that he set out to create a sound that can be enjoyed by a cross-section of the society.
As the good times roll on, so the music provides a backdrop. Hopefully this will herald further integration in youth culture.