Last year in September, Nkabi Records singer-songwriter and guitarist Mduduzi Ncube ended off 2024 on a high with the release of his smash hit single “Dear Ex Yami”, which featured an ensemble roster of artists including singers Fanatic SA, Caeser, Stallin Matsitsa, and poet Ayanda Art, collectively known as Empire. Fresh off the commercial success of the single and basking in the glory of surpassing six million views since the release of its visuals, they have linked up once again for another collaboration. Enlisting the additional help of Bergville’s finest Big Zulu, they have dropped a lover’s ballad titled “Ngeke Ngimyeke”, a tune bursting at the seams with confessions of love and professions of doing life together, true to the spirit of Valentine’s month.
Blitzing the beginning with quickfire and sublime poetry, Ayanda Art carpets the sparse string-influenced production of “Ngeke Ngimyeke” with a descriptive passage, rhapsodising the beauty of his love interest with sumptuous figures of speech and charming her with promises of everlasting love. Fletched with downplayed cowbells, moderated treatment of guitars, and tribal ululations to infuse the afro-pop song with a cultural feel, the preface of the song smoothly transitions to Fanatic SA’s chorus, which anchors the song in the theme of undying love and never giving up on each other despite weathering challenges, external or immaterial, which threaten the well-being of the romance.
“Ngeke Ngimyeke” Single Art | SUPPLIED
By the time the “Isiginci” hitmaker phases into the song with a verse, the song has already assumed a definitive shape as the man’s point-of-view in the relationship he has hopelessly already drowned in as far as love is concerned. Ncube’s verse rekindles the embers of “Dear Ex Yami” (“Ngithanda yena futhi ng’zizwa ngihappy”), with the Metro FM Award winner grounding his lover with affirmations of how much love he had to give her and that there was no woman out there who could offer him what his heart desired: her love and her affection.
Caesar’s verse is turgid with boasts of how his love story with his lover is a source of gossip and envy among those who wished for what they shared, doubling down on the hopeless romanticism of the single by telling his lover that not only did he approve of her using korobela on him but that she ought to spoon-feed him as well.
Mduduzi Ncube | SUPPLIED
Big Zulu’s contributions pumps comic relief into the levity of the subject matter, introducing the conundrum of struggling to get one of the uncles on his side, supposedly for lobola negotiations, only for him to get in the way with unreasonable demands. With strained crooning and resigned songwriting heavy with frustration, the one half of Inkabi Zezwe, he explores the difficulty of incorporating family into his love affair, representing the common struggle of seeking the approval of future in-laws who sabotage the love, whether consciously or unconsciously.
Stallin Matsitsa closes the song with a triumphant verse of having conquered the challenges he and his lover faced along the way, conjuring the old-age fantasy of sprouting wings and taking off into the sunset with his lover.
Listen to “Ngeke Ngimyeke”:
