Soshanguve house duo Black Motion has returned with a single from their forthcoming studio album, Rebirth of the Drum, due to drop on 1 September 2023. Titled “Please Stay”, the pair joined forces with Osaze and Mzansi’s doyenne of house vocals Bucie. The song is Black Motion’s first single since “Ngoma”, which they dropped in November 2022 with the help of Dr Moruti, Osaze, and Mazet SA. The single is also accompanied by another one called “Jabula”.
The production of “Please Stay” sees it take the shape of afro-house with an understated bass and subtle but relentlessly euphonic percussion drizzled with shapeshifting xylophones that hold their form as much as they scatter into fine fragments of musical stardust. Rising and falling with discipline, the sonics of the single are ambient, dancing to the sultry thrums of a trumpet and drowning with the undulating organ that swims beneath and surfaces every now and again.
The single explores the theme of love, much like a lot of other dance and house songs in the South African circuit. It is the universal language, after all. While the subject selection may be commonplace, it’s Bucie’s masterful crooning and sassy songwriting that breathe verve into the otherwise overused theme.
In the song, she poses a rhetorical question to her love interest, asking him if he is worthy of claiming her heart. “Xa undi jongile, undibona ndi ngulomntu okufaneleyo? / Hhayi kabi, ndiya buza,” she sings, the honey dripping from her vocals belying the punch of her question. She then follows up the question with: “I don’t want you to leave, understand this / Ndakukhetha kwaba ninzi,” a reassurance of sorts that puts the heart through a bungee jump of reciprocated love and the danger of not being good enough.
What makes the song work is the musical understanding between the duo and Bucie. Neither one is too laidback to get overwhelmed by the other nor too loud to the point of not making sense as far as chemistry is concerned. “Please Stay” is a textbook example of what a proper marriage between instrumental harmonies and vocal melodies should sound like over a dance beat.
Listen to “Please Stay”:
