Every genre is watermarked with a pervasive narrative which governs the framework of the majority – if not all – of its musicians on both songwriting and artistic fronts. While amapiano has come to position itself as a plinth enscribed with chants of present-moment celebrations and calls for sowing one’s youthful oats with hedonistic abandon, pockets within the genre do exist of sects dedicated to the pursuit of wholesome thinking and growth that can only be found through portals of hymns and devoted prayers. South African singer-songwriter Boohle’s latest single “Mhlobo Wami” falls into the latter bracket.
As the status quo of song length would have it, “Mhlobo Wami” lasts for six-minutes-and-fifty-six seconds, a slow-burning amapiano song tempered with elements of afrosoul and R&B. Rumbling with an ominous bass creeping at the beginning of the song, stalking the rest of the track at sporadic intervals, “Mhlobo Wami” maximises the complementary pairing of a relentless percussion and soft-hitting log drums to snuff out dead space. Boohle, true to her standing as one of country’s undisputed heavyweights on the vocal side of things, neither undercuts the soulful production by over-singing and expressing too many emotions at once nor does she get upstaged by the same sound that’s meant to paint her in a sombre light.
Amapiano, from its days as an underground genre to it being an international spectacle, has been blessed with a purple patch of fortune in unearthing vocalists loyal to the cause of using the sound as a medium of healing rather than that of furthering personal agenda. With the gold rush of genre-inclined songwriters seeing the explosion of empathetic singers such as Aymos, Bassie, Babalwa M, and Eemoh, amapiano’s evolved into more than just a space for entertainment. “Mhlobo Wami” is a textbook exhibit of this musical fact, with the song being an overt meditation of gratitude concerning divine guidance and other-worldly instruction.
“Mhlobo Wami” explores themes of spiritual safety (“”Izivunguvungu zingihaqile / Wakhetha ukuthi ungibambe isandla ungafanela / Kanti mina nginjani ukuthi ngibe nawe?”), Godly protection (“Ngikhala, wangithulisa”) and steadfast love (“Awuzange wangishiya”). Juxtaposing her relationship with God to that she’d have with that of a faithful friend humanises the companionship, not only giving the spiritual Entity a solid form but also imparting an iridescent quality to the song, causing it to change colours depending on where one chooses to look at things. From one standpoint, the song is exactly what it’s about: her relationship with God. Another level is unlocked once the ear and the mind are both privy to the implication that the figure being addressed isn’t necessarily called out by name, leaving room for the song to be an ode to some human friend or maybe even someone closer than that.
Listen to “Mhlobo Wami”:
As solemn as the message behind the lyrics is, Boohle dances well enough with the production to pre-empt the song from falling into a ditch of static self-sermonising. There’s enough interplay between herself and the beat through the exploitation of intermittent pauses, the registration of low and high notes, as well as the gradual swaying of her moods to create a sonic quilt worth bobbing one’s head to. In a way, Boohle as well as the kernel of the point she was trying to make with the song didn’t get lost in the seriousness.
With all roads leading to her third studio album as a solo artist dropping next month, “Mhlobo Wami” is a deliberate and unusually thoughtful offering that, through its mere existence, is already making lofty promises of ambitious and humble undertakings from the singer.
