Dipping his toe into the amapiano music scene, Botswanan comedian and musician William Last KRM, born Bofelo William Molebatsi, has released his first visual offering for 2023 in the shape of ‘Peka Peka’. Directed by Last KRM himself, the offering serves as the first single for his upcoming five-track EP Let’s Dance.
William has never shied away from embracing his uniqueness. If anything, his quirky Instagram and Facebook skits, predicated on his weird mannerisms, way of speaking, and infectious laughter have been central to his rise as one of the most noteworthy funnymen in Southern Africa.
It’s those elements that have seen his most popular visuals, ‘Tinto’ and ‘iY-Yi’, rack up over three million views on YouTube individually. In ‘Peka Peka’, William calls upon the strangest powers of his muse as he positions the short film as a zombie-themed spectacle.
It begins with William and his date at the movies, embroiled in an argument that eventually culminates in her slapping the SAHHA-winning artist. After several more such provocations, the soft and docile William morphs into a raggedy, wide-eyed zombie who only has to turn and stare to scare off his date.
As simplistic as the intro is, it reeks of William’s comical nature. While it might have been distasteful in some other context, to see someone slapped around by their bossy partner, it’s the light-hearted nature and the comic relief before the transformation which William brands on the music video that elicits that laughter.
In a way akin to the King of Pop Michael Jackson’s timeless classic ‘Thriller’, William dances with a mob of dirty-clothed zombies. Garbed in tattered attire, the undead dancers look like full-blown ghouls in grey-faced make-up and their shambling, twitchy movements.
The Kalima-choreographed routine is predominantly pantsula and most notably features William’s protégé Victor, who’s been shadowing his master for quite some time now, trying to find his feet as a comical personality.
As William gears up and primes his fans for a dance-orientated switch-up, ‘Peka Peka’ finds common ground in his humorous soul to live with his other releases that make the change in artistic direction seamless rather than confusing. And the visuals for ‘Peka Peka’ are a soft enough introduction to William’s dance era.
Watch “Peka Peka”
