This past weekend I went to the uMgaranto II listening session, a project recently released by K.Keed and Orish. Since Keed was the first interview I ever did, a year and a bit ago now, it kind of got me in a reflective mood about the state of Xhosa rap in Cape Town and how its grown in recent years. Orish and Keed, being part of the first wave that got me interested in Xhosa rap, have done a great job bringing into the fold those who are on the come up in their own right. Now, my earliest recollection of Xhosa rap if I can call it that, because it was called Spaza at that time, was when the song Magic Stick by China went viral in the hood (before we knew what viral would be).

Looking back at it we probably shouldn’t have been listening to it considering its lyrics and our age at that (I think we were 10 or 11) and just think about the name for a sec. Interestingly, last year while helping out on a shoot in Site C, the person I was helping pointed me towards the direction of China and life had not been kind to him unfortunately, which makes you think about how cruel this music or creative path can be at times and at the same time how far we’ve come.

The time in between China’s Magic Stick and 2022 (my first year in the scene), I steered toward American Hip-Hop like everyone else and during my high school years I added the U.K music scene to that, purely because I just didn’t have faith in SA at that time. Fast forward to 2022 and I came across what I would say is the first wave of the new generation in Xhosa Rap with the likes of Dee Koala, Bravo Le Roux (R.I.P), Keed, SimulationRxps, Lookatups, Greek and Orish. The ones pushing the envelope being Dee Koala and Bravo, now Keed. 

uMgaranto feels like an acknowledgement of the next wave of Xhosa Rap in Cape Town just by looking at the artists featured on the project like Mido Rsa, April Yung, Creed Oasis, Barblee, Zmowa, Gaffi and HENNYBELIT. Besides the features, the project itself is well executed from the production leading to a clean, hard hitting sound that keeps its energy till the last song that slows everything down and gets reflective, to the skits woven into the songs that help build the world and drive the narrative of the project and lastly everyone’s ability to drop bars on every song, there’s no way you won’t walk away with a quotable. 

Since this is a piece about Xhosa Rap in Cape Town, I think it would be remiss of not to mention the Make Boyz, a collective making waves in their own right and who have a project coming up with much anticipation. Collectives are a great way for artists to showcase their talent to multiple fanbases at one time just by mere association. 

I think it’s also important to discuss the fact that Cape Town currently has its limitations when it comes to the music scene, especially if your aims are national success. So these artists do have to make the move to Johannesburg at some point just for mass appeal, but my point here is that we’re increasing in numbers.