Who’s got the bars? What about the pride of growing up in the nostalgic snapshot of kwaito rhythms and getting down to pantsula culture immortalised by timeless soundtracks from the likes of TKZee, Brown Dash and Mapaputsi? To whom can one go in search of a modern-day student who has been faithful enough to preserve the street teachings of kasi science, translating the everyday realities of the hood into musical narratives of being Black, hedonistic hymns that shake windows, and stories about the average Jabulani and Jabulile of Mzansi? Rapper and singer-songwriter Nomfundo Yekani is the answer to these pertinent questions of identity, of historical pride, and of quality music that appeals to the hearts of ordinary people in South Ah.
Yekani’s latest extended play, iStyle Sami, is a dense yet groovy pack of original records, which see the facile wordsmith straddle the lanes of consummate bar-spitting and the unfamiliar territory of hook-writing. Sprinkled with classic samples from kwaito fossils and modernised with flows crisp enough to teach linguistics with, Nomfundo spoke about her record.
Nomfundo Yekani | SUPPLIED
“The crazy part about making iStyle Sami is that I recorded the entire EP in three weeks. With this one, I wanted to tap into my sound and the kind of music I grew up with and the type I listen to even now. Before, with my previous EPs, I was trying to showcase my rapping abilities because you can’t come into the rap game and not prove that you can rap. You have to. Once you’ve proven that you can do that, you can then move on to making music. But everyone must know that you are not the one to mess with lyrically.
“With the first EP, it was me telling people that I deserve to be here. With this one, the intention was to tap into the sound that I want to make my own. I want to make music that I can listen to when I’m chilling with people. Do you know how boring it is to sit with people who, while your song is still playing, will ask the DJ to put on something else? That thing just demoralises me. So, with this one, I wanted to give people fresh music. A new sound. Something that can be played any day,” she said.
“I’m proud of where I am as an artist because “iStyle Sami” shows a lot of maturity. From the things I speak about to the way I deliver songs, I see growth when I compare it to how I did my previous EPs.”
– NOMFUNDO yEKANI
She spoke about the importance of calling back kwaito heritage to craft the matrix of the EP and giving the people a blast from the past with a new-school twist-nyana.
“I wanted to inject a bit of kwaito flavour into the music because I think we’ve lost that. A lot of artists are tapping into the American market too much, and we end up losing our roots. Kwaito was our hip-hop, the way that I saw it. And I’ve always felt it was a dope sound. So, I started to question why it was so overlooked because even now, when I listen to popular kwaito songs from back in the day, I feel like some of them would be doing well commercially. Because of that, I decided to sit down and study what exactly made kwaito so good, and I realised that it was the originality of the genre, and everybody being familiar with it. So I decided to slide in some early 2000s R&B, went with rapping for the verses and easy hooks to sing along to,” she said.
Nomfundo Yekani | Credit: Sipho Magosa Media
Nomfundo spoke about the concept behind the title of the album, serving as an introduction, and how, to her, looks and her type of music were two things that were inextricably linked. She also talked about the purpose of making era-specific music with the EP: conjuring the good old days and memories of a simpler time.
“If you look at the way I style myself with my outfits, I like the old-school stuff, but I do it my way. So, I wanted to go with a concept that would go well with my image. As much as my previous EPs were dope, I feel like they were not me, though. I wanted to give people a piece of me with this one, the real me. Like, when you listen to this EP, you’ll instantly know what I’m about. Just by listening to the songs and catching the vibe, you can already imagine how I look and my aesthetic would make sense to you as well if you stumbled upon me in real life. I won’t even lie to you, I feel like I should’ve been born in the early 2000s because those were the best times of my life. My mum was still alive and life was nice in general. So whenever I listen to these songs, they bring back the good times; and that’s the kind of thing I want my music to give to people,” she said.
Nomfundo Yekani | SUPPLIED
Yekani talked about the dilemma of the shortage of authentic music that people could run to for a good time. From Mzansi hip-hop becoming too Americanised to genres like amapiano backsliding into decadence, she decried the issue of people not having too much music that is relatable.
“When I think of hip-hop in South Africa, I’d say I’m okay with it. Happy but not too much. I hate that a lot of people are following that American sound a lot. They’re not tapping too much into the Mzansi market. It’s all about trying to be international. That’s why people ekasi even leave amapiano and people hate on that on some, “But piano is boring.” Let’s give people options because they no longer have any. You can’t be playing “All I Do Is Win” for people. It’s 2025! “Kiss Me Through the Phone”? It’s insane. You can’t play TikTok songs at Makubenjalo either. You can do that in the North, but not in other establishments unfamiliar with that taste. People will just stare at you playing that music. People like flavour and something original as well as variety. If they get tired of piano, then you give them hip-hop that they can relate to still. Nobody ekasi will tell you that they have three Rolls Royces, and there’s nobody who will sing along to music about how my coochie is wet,” she said.
Nomfundo Yekani | SUPPLIED
The kwaito-influenced lyricist expressed the need to stay true to herself and to be a champion of the people in order to continue growing her craft.
“I think it’s important to stay true to yourself and to also remain open-minded. Don’t follow trends and try to imitate what other people are doing and even going as far as copying their sounds. I don’t think that’s how you should do things. Do what you do because you feel there’s a gap that needs to be filled, a space that people didn’t even know existed. By doing that, you create your own lane and before you know it people start following you. I mean, if you’re doing what everybody else is doing, what’s going to be so different about you?
“It’s also important to relate to people. People love things that are relatable. For example, when you listen to Boohle in amapiano singing about being borrowed a thousand, do you know how many of us out here actually relate to that? There’s many of us going through that kind of thing,” she said.
