Bonginkosi Ntiwane10/15/2018
A YEAR ago when Anatii and AKA came together for a collaborative album, one of the things which stood out for many was the latter’s rapping in isiXhosa in the song Don’t Forget To Pray.
Anatii’s latest project Iyeza is the Don’t Forget To Pray verse in the form of an album. The sound on the 10 track album is authentic, current yet there’s novelty to it. I remember over a decade ago when rap clique Jozi created the Motherland Crunk sound through Bongani Fassie’s sampling of Vusi Ximba’s rich African sound. Iyeza took me back to those days, difference is that Anatii manipulated the current trap sound and fused it with authentic African sonics.
It’s difficult to say this is a Hip Hop album, but rather a manifestation of different sounds coming together to be the backdrop to Anatii’s story. I loathe the Afro pop sound and I was welcomed by it on the tracks Wena and U Sangthanda Na? These love ditties are steeped in that sound, I swear I thought Robbie Malinga or Sjava was gonna belt a note on one of the songs. Anatii gave life to the lethargic sound by modernizing it and giving it his twist.
Another Afro pop-influenced song is Ehlatini, whose guitar riffs are Mbaqangaesque. But Ehlatini is a dope, easy listen about the hard life of the hustle and the bustle of Johannesburg.
Kids in the burbs know Anatii’s work fairly enough to formulate an opinion about his music, but I don’t see them having this joint on repeat. Anatii hasn’t etched his sound and music on the minds and hearts of ghetto and rural kids across Mzansi and Wena, is the joint which lubricates that awkward relationship the artist has with some black audiences. In fact the whole album will have mothers in the Township know who Anatii is and get coons in the suburbs feel more in touch with their Africaness, if marketed properly.
The song Ngozi has a dreamy psychedelic feel to it. It was like hearing the sound of spring water dripping in the spring of the Drakensburg. He sings about people’s relationship with money, which is tainted by bad decision making of most individuals.
The album is dense and concise, with a running time of just above 30 minutes. But the Naija-influenced Zion Interlude ruined the flow and feel of the album; he really could’ve done without it there. The song Ntloni is one of the freshest joints I’ve heard in South Africa in a while. It’s such a fun song; I feel bad listening to it as I type this in my working space. Songs like this should be listened to at a pool party somewhere, dancing with beautiful damsels from Ebayi who are infatuated with going to Dubai.
Thixo Onofefe has been the album’s single and it makes sense why. It’s a jam. It’s an authentic South African song which isn’t limited in our own sounds, but borrows from other parts of the world. I can hear it on a Black Panther movie as T’Challa kicks some arrogant butt.
Iyeza is a Xhosa word for medicine and Anatii has found a remedy for most South Africans sleeping on his sound. It’s like his reintroduction to the South African market which his sound was previously never able to stick on. Welcome home Anatii, welcome home.
