Kwaito

April 9, 2004 3:57 PM

Kwaito: post-apartheid South African music. What does a community of musicians do when the politics they are singing against finally collapse? They strike out in a new direction. Kwaito is a danceable multilingual hip-house, sort of, which has become not one kwaito, but many, during the last ten years or more. A history. The kwaito story. A kwaito tour tale, with more kwaito news in the sidebar. Audio samples 1, 2, 3 (click on the album covers). Full MP3s: Kwaito by KGB. Fabulous Day (Kwaito Mix), by Redd Angel. A couple more full songs here. A music video by Bongo Maffin.
posted by Mo Nickels (8 comments total)

[this is good]

I encountered some of this a day ago. Now I wish I'd have posted it :-(
posted by Wulfgar! at 4:00 PM on April 9, 2004

Kuato:Simply post-apocalyptic.

And gross, you may Totally Recall.
posted by Sinner at 4:42 PM on April 9, 2004

Start the Reactor!
posted by blasdelf at 6:00 PM on April 9, 2004

A MUFFLED CHOCKED SOUND comes from behind Kuato's neck. It's the Oracle
Head!
Quail instantly rolls Kuato's body over. The Head is still alive!

Quail bends closer, kneeling.

ORACLE HEAD (whispers) -- the vengence you seek... and the salvation of
Mars...
are waiting for you in the crown of the Sphinx. (sags, gasping)

The Oracle Head lets out a LONG SIGH and goes limp, a small trickle of
blood
oozing from the corner of its mouth.

Total Recall Script
posted by blasdelf at 6:06 PM on April 9, 2004

i like it! check out ghetto fabulous from link 1 : >
posted by amberglow at 6:17 PM on April 9, 2004

it'll take me a good (and entertaining) while to get though this. Must say thanks for the post now. [in other words: this is good]
posted by dabitch at 6:23 PM on April 9, 2004

Unfortunately the vast majority of Kwaito that used to be out there was complete kak. This is probably due to the fact that because Kwaito is so easy to make (House beats + Chanting/rapping = Kwaito) meant that record companies and producers made the most simplistic backing beats and got some teenager off the streets of Soweto who could string two sentences together over and over again and the result was predictably awful. Only in the past few years with better producers getting involved and the lyrics getting more complex than the usual two lines repeated non-stop has their been some cross-over success (This first to do this in a big way was Mandoza with 'Nkalakatha') but lately other artists such as Kabelo, TK and Bongo Maffin have been getting airplay on traditionally 'white' radio. The quality has been improving though even I'll admit as artists start getting more involved and not letting some faceless record company producer write all their music.
posted by PenDevil at 12:05 AM on April 10, 2004

I prefer Mafikizolo (who have sadly lost their lead male singer recently) to the shouty young men of Kwaito (pronounced kwyto).

I got M'Du 'Allways da case' when it came out, and I remember thinking:

This is an example of a kind of music which is better served by the 12" market than the album market, which results in record companies messing things up when they apply their album sales based business model.
posted by asok at 4:46 AM on April 10, 2004