South African hip-hop star Boitumelo “Stogie T” Molekane has pitched his flag in the rap game with his latest single ’80’s Love‘. Featuring American singer-songwriter Brittney Crush, the song heralds the pending advent of his forthcoming EP, and with it, Molekane rolls back the hands of time, reminiscing on old-school love and the good ol’ days.
Produced by a member of his live performance band, Shane Cooper, ’80’s Love‘ is a rustic hip-hop song formulated from an understated bass, sinew-thin guitar strings, and a lo-fi-esque aesthetic that pays homage to the fringe landscape of the music. Sonically, the former Tumi and the Volume lyricist deviates from his Stogie brand glistening with the glory of mainstream appeal, chart-climbing singles, and the charm of club-friendly rap. In a sense, the sound of “80’s Love” not only is a tribute to romance from Apartheid-era Mzansi, but also a fond revisit of Tumi, the alternative voice in rap.
Lyrically, the song is centered on theme of olden-day love, romance predicated on the existence of growing together and altogether untainted by the influence of social media, which can be poisonous in certain instances. “See I ain’t with all the things that they be doing now baby / Ain’t no internet sneak dissing, posting status, liking pictures / we loving like the 80s,” Brittney sings in the chorus, encapsulating the core of the song.
With two verses, Stogie sounds like Tumi more than ever. He touches on the subject with deft-tongued wordplay, quick punchlines, and a smooth flow while lacing the song with slick references of Winnie Mandela and US rapper Raekwon. His lyricism is simple, the sentence length between each rhyme digestable enough for one not waste their energy thinking about the previous ten seconds, thus missing what’s being said in that moment.
“80s Love” is an organic piece of work that looks back at love with a sense of fond nostalgia. The song mirrors the lack of pretense that it speaks of when talking about the love in question, and it’s enough to make one who has never had that kind of love wonder if it was just that close to perfection.
Watch “80’s Love” here:
