Nsikayesizwe: Nasty C
Nasty C’s new album opens with the line “This is how it feel like to be on top of the world.” His rise to the top of South Africa’s hip hop fraternity has been nothing short of a marvel to witness. Beyond the country’s borders, he has his eyes set on global domination. Beginning his […]
Nadia Nakai. The awakening of SA’s rap queen
In many art forms, the pursuit of legendary status is the North Star guiding the trajectory of the artist’s career. James Baldwin spoke about an aspect of this in his collection of essays, Nobody Knows My Name. Exploring various themes over the six years that it was written, he also spoke of integrity as an […]
Of Pandemics and Artistry
How many times have you seen “The New Normal” when reading anything COVID-19 related? It’s marketing’s newest catchphrase and the disposition of sometimes blithely indifferent politicians, but what is the new normal to you? For essential services providers it’s longer hours and heightened awareness, for a 9-5er it’s working from home and requiring a more […]
K.O: Defining a Decade
Image by Austin Malema of RTC Studios Styled by Cherné Africa Cover Design by Mzo Gcwabe
The Plug x Castle Lite present: 100 Most Influential People in Urban Culture
“There’s no argument. I am a hundred percent the reason why hip hop is drenched.” Part of his Utatakho Remix verse that shook up the fourth quarter of 2019, Riky Rick stakes his claim on the game boldly with that bar. Hubris is almost a cornerstone of hip hop, but who really got the block […]
Khuli Chana: The Blueprint
Khuli Chana begins “Endurance” – the opening track off his upcoming album, Planet of the HaveNots – with the lyrics “’Ha o tshwere Chana go ka palang?’/ the confidence was colossal, no sekala se se ka e kalang/ had to learn quick or hung out to be dormant/ flipped a couple of pages, learned all […]
Tarryn Alberts: Tenacious
She began dancing at four years old when her grandmother would put her and her cousin in a clown suit for the entertainment of the family at gatherings, and make them sing and dance for the aunties. She’s taken up the aunty baton, and her cousins’ kids now perform for her in what has become […]
Sne Mbatha’s Universal Language
There’s a reverence in the way that Sne Mbatha speaks about dance that is usually reserved for the church’s faithful when wrapped up in worship. Where the latter is swathed in dogma, Sne’s voice almost takes flight – as her body does mid-sequence – as she tries to describe the phenomenon to me. “I’m really […]
DJ Doowap’s Artistic Awakening
DJ Doowap has just performed at Afropunk in Brooklyn this past weekend. It’s hot on the heels of her performance at RoseFest on the 9th August, where she dropped an original track as part of her set. “Dude! At RoseFest I just dropped my own track, and I started performing it. I picked up the […]
Breaking Free
In choosing the the creative direction for Women’s Month, we wanted to feature artists on the cover who aren’t musicians but contribute to urban culture just as much as rappers do. Dancers, DJs, even fine artists shape the culture that young people are consumed by without necessarily being the focal point of it. We need […]
Dee XCLSV: Inspired
Musical idolatry is a fickle thing; faced with your role models in the flesh, the idea that you held of them in awe may turn out to be one cloaked in the emperor’s new clothes. Didintle Mothine joined the second season of the rap reality show The Hustle intent on impressing his rap elder statesmen, […]
Tony X’s Rising Star
The tale of the musician who began performing in church and graduated to the bright lights of the secular music industry is one as old as time. Their voices usually enhanced by the discipline and training required by the church choir, this is the back story to one of Punchline’s finest; Tony X. “My parents […]