New Groove for Kwaito Scene

By Lindile Sifile , 13 May 2009

Former king of afro-pop Ntando Bangani is set to prove that kwaito is not dead as perceived. The multi-award winning singer recently signed Slango, a kwaito-ragga duo from Johannesburg to his new record label Bonfire.

Slango which is derived from Shango, (real name Sandile Khoza) and Slash (Selebogo Meshe), performed their first East London gig at Rhythm Divine night club on Saturday evening, featuring Bangani on stage.

Speaking to the media yesterday, Bangani said he intended to introduce a fresh sound and to change the attitude of music buyers in South Africa.

“Slango is here to show that music can be taken to any direction, like I did when I first came and took …”

“South Africans need to stop themselves from being programmed. We can’t keep making music the same way it’s always been made. We are slowly reaching the roof and if we refuse to keep an open mind our music talents will hit the roof. Slango is here to show that music can be taken to any direction, like I did when I first came and took afro-pop to another level.”

Slango have already finished recording their album, which is due to be released in mid-year. Slash, the kwaito and hip-hop influenced half of the duo, described their music as a fusion of kwaito, ragga and elements of Motswako – a Setswana hip-hop group made popular by Stoan Seete in the 90s.

“…people don’t believe that kwaito is dead; it hasn’t been transformed to suit the…”

“We are bringing a different taste to music without taking away the roots generated by kwaito legends. We are simply modifying what has changed with the times. And to be given a platform by someone who is doing kwaito shows that a lot of people don’t believe that kwaito is dead; it hasn’t been transformed to suit the standard of today’s music and lifestyle. Our music is breaking cultural barriers as I sing in Setswana, and Shango sings mainly in isiZulu,” said Slash.

Shango, who has released a ragga album before this, said he didn’t feel threatened by the fact that not many SA ragga artists have hit the big time as solo artists – except for Stitch, way back in the late 1990s, before he faded from the limelight.

“people must just give it a chance like they did with kwaito when it was…”

“Ragga music has always been part of South African music if you look back at some of the popular pop or kwaito groups that were popular not so long ago. There’s a gap in the market for it and people must just give it a chance like they did with kwaito when it was starting out.”

According to Bangani, the fact that ragga artists were deemed as not being sustainable was killing the music.

“South African’s don’t have a backbone. They’d rather listen to R Kelly singing ragga on Wine for Me because he is from America and it’s a different attitude when a South African artist does the same.”

This article as originally published by the Dispatch (SA)