Kwaito (South Africa)

Bongo Mafin: Kwaito artistes

In each cultural system, there is a generation that spurns the music. In most cases the youth formulate the future musical direction. Disco, Rock, Jazz, Reggae and Rap were all offshoots of a youth culture. The pattern is that the youth borrow a strand of what they have listened to and mingle it with new elements and make it their own. As this generation grows older, these art forms not only get their own category of oldies but also start giving way for new forms created by their offspring. The new generation evolves its style from their neighbourhoods, party zones, dress codes, language, and other consumption modes adopted.

In South Africa, the urban black youth formed Kwaito in the early 90s. It arose out of a blend of diverse contemporary musical influences incorporating sounds from the previous local generation styles like Mabanqa and bubble gum house. The multi cultural layer of South Africa offered Rap, Soul, Jazz, Reggae, Disco and Soca from abroad. South African clubs and the media played these and today record stores still sell this music. Kwaito’s pioneers like Joe Nina, Oscar ‘Warona’Mdlongwa,Arthur Mafokate ,Christos Katsatis and Mdu Masilela took to the popularity of house music and modelled it to suit local tastes.

Most of these producers were initially club deejays who studied the preferences of their local crowd and actually started chanting over house instrumentals that were decreased in tempo. In clubs such as Gemini in Pretoria and Razzmatazz and The Base in Hillbrow (Johannesburg), deejays fostered a remix project with influences like Stock and Aitken, Frankie knuckles, David Morales and lately Roger Sanchez.This intertextuality especially of percussion combined with African lyrics inspired interest in the revellers. Sooner than later, Kwaito which means ‘its hot’ in Afrikaans was HOT.There was the linguistic hybridity of English, Zulu, Sesotho and the perennially modified iscantho (slang).

There also existed local house music that competed for attention with foreign house music. These artists drew from this in their brewery. Sidney, Chicco, Brenda, Pat Shange, Senyaka, Dr.Victor, Chaka Chaka, Danny Kamazu were influential in this scenario. As the youth movement progressed Kwaito names became synonymous with South African music.

Arthur Mafokate (aka Mr. Vuvuzela was particularly idolized as the King of Kwaito with a Midas touch). Groups like Jununu (of the serontabule fame), Aba Shante, Boom Shaka, Bongo Maffin, New School, TK Zee and Trompies were all of a sudden with successful recording careers. Surprisingly Kwaito inspite of criticism from the older generation realised massive sales unheard of before in the short time of its initiation.

The initiators of Kwaito at first only aimed at creatively pleasing their audiences. There was no deliberate creation of Kwaito as a genre. Producers had a different picture of what they were trying to do. Some called it disco fusion, others d’gong and some Guz. It evolved like many global styles. In fact Kwaito was also used in reference to Ghetto music and AmaKwaito as gangsters from the ghetto. This brought and ugly side to the music. Sex, Drugs and Alcohol found residence in the lyrical component of kwaito songs.

The media predictably developed this art form with regular coverage. BOP radio and T.V., Metro, Y fm and M-Net’s Channel O promoted the music. Channel O enhanced the evolution of Kwaito globally. In spite of the success of this genre, record labels that were run by whites before 1994 initially frowned upon it.

The producers went on to establish their own independent labels. Arthur started Triple 9 records, Christos did Wicked Sound, Mdu started Mdu Music. Don Laka of the Trompies fame started Kalawa.These were distributors of the genre. With time Sony, BMG and EMI joined the arena.

Kwaito producer Don Laka

Kwaito’s basic structure is mid tempo house beats, a vibrating bass line, a recognizable hook or chant with animation (exclamation), occasional samples of popular records, pop videos with skimpily dressed ladies and fast cars, bars and crowded streets. High-energy performances are the routine as Kwaito stars work the crowds.

The themes vary but revolve around relationships, party and the boast. The lyrics are usually minimal and easily catchy for the audience. Kwaito has a dance formation called ‘Kwaito’ in which the dancer leaps and occasional kicks forward like a footballer in one place. All these form the aesthetic of Kwaito and for now it is still THAT HOT THING.