Coming up straight off their collaborative project Suffer for Beauty, Cape Town-bred rapper YoungstaCPT and record producer Shaney Jay have released their first visuals from the album titled ‘Benni McCarthy’. Aptly named, the Mzi Xander-directed music video pays tribute to the man the song is christened after while paying final respects to the slain musician AKA.
“People say that I was overrated. I was fired from Cape Town City, and that I was gonna fail,” Benni McCarthy says in a 2021 footage while still serving as the head coach of Amazulu FC. This opening to ‘Benni McCarthy’ introduces the theme of the underdog-cum-outcast, the story of YoungstaCPT evolving from the fringes of Kaapse life to being one of Mzansi’s most acclaimed and respected rappers. Rapping in an empty stadium with a beanie on and in the company of young kids, he raps: “I’m repping the city, takin’ it with me wherever I go like Benni McCarthy”.
Throughout the music video, vignettes of Benni’s old highlight reels crop up sporadically, rolling the hands of time back to the now-mythical days of Benni in the eighteen area (TKZee also make a cameo with a sliver from their ‘Shibobo’ music video). Fragments of Benni’s past days range from his brief time overseas in the Netherlands with Ajax in the late 90s and his stint with the English side Blackburn Rovers to his time with Orlando Pirates in the primetime of his career. The visuals also feature a window into his Bafana Bafana days.
The intimacy of the music video hits its peak with the inclusion of old snapshots of the late hip-hop star AKA from their 2019 single ‘Main Ou’s‘. Not only is the posthumous invitation to Kiernan Forbes something of a double homage, but it’s also an unofficial reunion between two old friends, as Benni and Kiernan were in each other’s good graces. A thoughtful gesture.
Although Benni makes no real-time appearance in a music video that is practically a musical shrine decked with pictures and highlights from his glory days, the visuals do justice to the legacy of one of the country’s sporting icons while simultaneously retelling the classical underdog story in song format.
Watch “Benni McCarthy” here:
