Representing straat tsa Pitori will never come as effortlessly as it does to one of amapiano’s forerunners Lethabo “Focalistic” Sebetso, as he and fellow Pretorian DJ Felo Le Tee, merged minds to get piano off to a flyer in the new year with “Ka Lekeke”. For both artists, it’s their first singles as individuals for 2024, and features Massive95K, DJ MoTee, L4Desh and TurnUpKiid.
Since his breakout smash hit “Ke Star”, Focalistic has been gingerly in the way he crafts his songs, standing on lean but pithy songwriting, scintillating hooks, and his signature “Ase trap tse ke pina tsa ko kasi” watermark. On “Ka Lekeke”, the pair experience an even meeting of the minds, looking to the manuals they’ve been using to make hits. In the stew of heavy-set log drums, a sonorous bass line, and stupefying clanging anchoring the flow of the rhythm, Sebetso stirs the pot with easy strokes of his trademark short one-liners, flavouring it with an energetic drawl.
An admirable quality “Ka Lekeke” possesses is the understanding Felo and Foca maintain relative to the interplay between them. There’s musical wisdom embroidered in the tailored of the song evident in how much fun they seem to be having. Knowledge of each other’s strengths show in the placement of pauses, transitions, rising actions, and moments of descent which create a landscape stopping the song from being a soulless lump of well-arranged instruments.
The song isn’t just a collaboration, it’s two kids in a sandbox maximising the amount of joy shared between them. This can be seen in the accompanying music video, that goes as far as showcasing the duo engaging in tomfoolery even as they relieve themselves in urinals in the blue-walled toilet (as seen on the cover art). These are two men from Pretoria united in their shared experiences, their love for cars, and their pride when it comes to kasi life. And the chemistry bursts at the seams, whether received by the ears or perceived with the eyes.
