Acclaimed South African DJ and record producer Prince Kaybee has forged himself a strong and still-evolving legacy as one of the country’s premium bets within the house and dance space. Expanding his catalogue of hits, which include bangers such as “Charlotte”, “Bonamoya” and “Club Controlla”, the Free State-born sound master has released “Heno Babayo”, his first single after signing with PLAYY. Records.
“Heno Babayo” is a hard-hitting house song that extracts signature instrument selections from Kaybee’s sonic playbook. Uptempo in nature with pace-making bass thumps and nostalgic piano loops working in tandem with soulful guitar riffs, the SAMA-winning star’s offering doesn’t see him leaning towards the sounds that have dominated the airwaves in the 2020s. Instead, his predilection for traditional house pushes his creative direction towards musicianship that packs the song chock-full with a medley of raw instruments and with the hypnotic mantra of “heno babayo” as the song’s grounding metronome.
Prince Kaybee | SUPPLIED
Although the song is devoid of substantial songwriting, consisting only of the cyclic loop the song is named after, it’s the busy composition that carries the cut over the line. Indeed, while dance songs risk feeling hollow for a lack of a vocalist holding a song down, “Heno Babayo” doesn’t tumble into this pitfall because the beat itself—the percussion, the emotive string instruments, and the interactive loop of the lone voice in the song—is kinetic and there is a clear interplay between these elements, enough for the song itself to be a performance without a designated front singing out the spirit of the song in real time.
Perhaps that’s the mastery that’s been missing all along, the simple ability of master-minding a song that not only can stand on its own but can also tell a story the way it wishes. Following years of silence, “Heno Babayo” is a pulsating earthquake from the force that is Kaybee, who could, with the record, be signalling that he’s about to make a dynamic return with his second wind.
Check out “Heno Babayo”:
