Bergville-born rapper and singer-songwriter Big Zulu’s journey has been one that followed the generic path of the hero’s journey trope. From introducing himself to the industry with his taxi boss persona on his debut, Ushun’ Wenkabi, to consolidating his place as one of Mzansi’s most commercially viable musicians with his follow-up albums, Ungqongqoshe Wongqongqoshe and Ichwane Lenyoka, uShun Wenkabi has risen to be the people’s champion as a down-to-earth songwriter and a gentle giant. With his latest album, Ngises’Congweni, the Inkabi Records head honcho has taken the time to stand on the summit of his life just to look down on all the strides he’s had to take to reach the peak of what it is to live.
The fourteen-song album is a co-mingle of maskandi, afro-fusion, and jazz, as well as the newly-formed subgenre dubbed Ushuni as pioneered by Zulu himself and BET-winning musician Sjava as part of the Inkabi Zezwe duo last year. The album features singers such as Makhadzi, Mlindo The Vocalist, and Mnqobi Yazo, poet Mfoka Msezane, and rapper Zakwe.
True to its title, Big Zulu’s fourth solo album, Ngises’Congweni, is about a man who has not only finished his climb but a victor who stands triumphantly at the peak of the mountain. The album’s thematic scope can be halved into two components: the celebration of victory and the grief of hard times, as seen in songs such as the titular track, whereas the latter theme is represented by songs such as “Kade Ngikhala” and “Ngicela Ukuphumlelela”.
Most fascinating, however, is Big Zulu’s ability to create kinetic interplay between the contrasting themes of triumph and defeat by submerging them in the pool of spirituality. By throwing in the imagery of pleas and prayers sent up with the smoke of impepho, the musician cleverly cleaves open the suggestion that one’s life, even after someone has done their best to fight and to stand thereafter, is still very much at the mercy of the higher powers that be. It’s an aspect that’s braided in the DNA of the first seven songs of project, with Zulu finding perfection alongside Zakwe on the uncharacteristically uptempo “Ngicela Ukuphumelela”.
Listen to “Ngicela Ukuphumelela”:
The second half of the album, which begins promptly with the mood-switching single “Awufuni Ukung’qoma” and flows down to the end of the LP, is a collection of ballads and love letters which introduce light-hearted themes of courtship, infidelity, and burgeoning romance. The finishing half of Ngises’Congweni provides comic relief and relieves that pent-up tension built within the first seven songs with songs such as “Ingulube Yam” and “Zehlise Makhwapheni” being the height of the comedy on show in the album. On the latter, Mlindo The Vocalist showcases his return to musical form with some of his most brazen one-liners such as “Angithi uyazazi ukhuthi umakhwapheni, side chick, aw’kahle”.
Ngises’Congweni is a body of work from a man who has seen it all – and then some – in life and has lived to tell the tale of what it is to pick oneself up after consecutive strokes of loss tempered with intermittent rays of hope that come through glimmers. With his deliberately curated feature selection, Big Zulu doesn’t gun for strobe lights and spectacular flares, instead, it’s all about getting the job done and being practical – a goal that was well reached. If the purpose of the album was to portray the height Big Zulu’s creativity and his life as a man outside music, then the output has remained true to initial blueprint.
