With open arms: Keabetswe ‘KB’ Motsilanyane has been a driving force in the South African music industry for nearly three decades. Photo: Supplied
She stepped onto that Joy of Jazz stage in a red, regal number, standing with the immaculate posture only a trained dancer and choreographer is able to hold.
Keabetswe “KB” Motsilanyane sang her heart out on the Mbira Stage, illustrating the musical prowess known to her peers as well as those who have followed her talent throughout the years.
Out of the entire annual festival’s programme, she was among the few African artists whose presence brought back a flurry of memories with her dance moves and magnetic energy on stage.
She had a sensual subtlety, comparable to that of Folasade Helen Adu (popularly known as Sade), in how she chose to travel with the audience, mesmerising everyone with her rapid costume changes, her infectious smile and creative, musical flair.
Motsilanyane has mastered live music performance and it showed with each and every song she belted out, from her previous albums, as well as her latest release Keabetswe.
The 2023 album is self-titled, as is the debut track, which sets the tone of the direction Motsilanyane is moving in.
Similar to her debut album hit song Beautiful Vibrations, the song recalls a time when South Africa’s music industry pulsated with sounds of hope, restoration, reconciliation and celebration.
Her music and songwriting ability have not changed since 2002 but the pace has slowed down, taking on the rhythm of a mature piece of art, admired repeatedly throughout time.
In 1995, South Africa’s democracy was just a year old and Motsilanyane was a teenager, with grand plans to be an excellent artist.
She started out in the complex, fast and vibrant hip-hop outfit, Crowded Crew, and with the encouragement and support of her parents, she cultivated a rootedness in the power of education and independence.
With hits such as Inna da place, All That I Want and the club banger Zero, Motsilanyane and her fellow group members cemented themselves as one of the kwaito groups to emerge out of 1990s South Africa and go onto build a legacy for genres such as amapiano, Afrohouse, dance and Afrotech to be what they are today.
With over 27 years as a singer and songwriter, the multi-talented and award-winning powerhouse has completed a bachelor’s degree in business administration, with Regenesys Business School.
She is also a technically trained musical theatre practitioner, with a qualification from the Tshwane University of Technology.
Juggling motherhood, her career and the uncertainties of the music industry, she embarked on a journey to secure ownership of the masters for her albums, in addition to working on her latest release.
She sees Keabetswe as a journey back to herself, as well as a statement of full creative and artistic autonomy and agency. She describes it as part of a comeback from a tumultuous struggle to gain control of her own career, as well as the inner voice that served her as a young performer.
The name Keabetswe means “I am gifted” in Setswana and, in addition to being named after KB herself, it accurately encapsulates the sound of her future.
It is rewriting KB’s history of producing timeless music for a generation of South Africans who grew up to her multitude of colourful beats and lyrical content.
She’s two-stepping to a stronger ethno-musicological feast, reflecting the many cultures she’s drawn inspiration from over the years.
Songs such as Champion (Mofenyi), Music On Our Side and Armour My Soul present a wave of texture related to what this generation of young people would deem “private school Amapiano”, a subgenre of South African emergent sounds, reminiscent of a 90s aesthetic.
In the same body of work, Motsilanyane reintroduces us to her vocal range in the title track, Keabetswe, written by Amogelang Radibeela. The young composer is from the same village — in Bokone Bophirima, North West — as KB and has been fortunate enough to enjoy her guidance and mentorship.
Motsilanyane describes her status as one of the few artists in the country to have acquired the full rights to her first three albums as a huge battle won in an industry that is fraught with difficulties, particularly for female artists.
It’s an industry in which women are often sidelined in making business decisions. She now has full ownership of the masters of Beautiful Vibrations (2002), Rock Lefatshe (2003), and El Musica (2005).
Through her company, Mamosadi Entertainment, she was also able to produce Keabetswe in her own time, without the pressure that comes with artist deals.
“Keabetswe is so layered,” adds the muso, who produced the album under her own label and worked with an array of seasoned collaborators, such as music producer Wiseman Nkululeko Sithole, on the upbeat Young Love.
From the first song to the last on Keabetswe, one is able to ascertain the subtle differences in the production Mostilanyane speaks of as an independent artist.
She paints a solid image of the kind of music she looks forward to performing — a shift from the good, old signature KB dance hits, to a more settled adult contemporary catalogue.
She’s managed to rebrand effortlessly, hinting at the break she took from the spotlight as a necessary intermission to recalibrate.
Away from the eyes and lenses of her followers and fans she became who she was meant to be — an iconic personality with a triple-threat approach. As a living legend of house and dance, it is no surprise Motsilanyane worked with the likes of DJ Maphorisa, before the full rise of Amapiano in the world. She worked with one half of the famed Scorpion Kings, before her departure from the limelight in 2012.
In the past 13 years, she’s traveled abroad and experimented with various roles on screen but music always pulled her back to write more songs.
“I think I needed to allow myself to let go, to be human,” Mostilanyane says about the process of recording Keabetswe, which she can proudly say was done under her own custodianship.
A Tswana girl from Moruleng in the Bojanala district — a part of our country, rich in minerals, culture, nature and beauty — Motsilanyane has truly been gifted with the best.
The village where the artist grew up is not far from the Pilanesberg National Park. Ancient volcanic activity formed the landscape of the Pilanesberg Alkaline Ring Complex, which has been in existence for 1.3 billion years
It is no surprise, then, that Mamosadi is made of hard stuff — an embodiment of the rock she truly comes from.
“When I started, it was about the training. Training as a performer — this is what I can do — but it is only now that I am settling into this whole thing of being KB.
“It is the first time in my career where I am feeling comfortable, trusting myself more,” she says.
And Motsilanyane is not about to stop. Her mission is outlined in her intention to produce quality music, serving her diverse audience with authenticity through her Tswana heritage.
By preserving the language of Setswana through her musical repertoire, Motsilanyane will forever be flying the flag of South Africa high.
In a time, when South Africa’s future looks uncertain, artists like KB Motsilanyane remind us of moments that were kinder to us as citizens of this wondrous country.
And, as the feminist academic Professor Pumla Dineo Gqola wrote in her book A Renegade Called Simphiwe: “We all live with an untidy mess of contradictions. It is the human condition.”
Keabetswe Motsilanyane is a perfect example of the beautiful contradictions and vibrations that memorialise our lived experiences through language, culture and the preservation of our own stories.