TKZapping the music charts

South African kwaito pioneers TKZee are set for next weekend’s second homecoming to Nairobi, almost a decade later, writes PETER NDORIA

Pioneer kwaito music group, TKZee, are set to visit the country next weekend as part of the Blankets and Wine concert slated for June 3. The group will be touring the country for the second time having been here first in 2000. They visit at a time when they are working on a comeback plan — as a group — after each of the three members embarked on successful solo careers.

The group is made up of three college friends; Tokollo ‘TK’ Magesh Tshabalala, Kabelo ‘Bouga’ Mabalane and Zwai Bala. Their passion for music during their days at St Stithians College, a Methodist church school in Johannesburg, South Africa, brought them together.  

Zwai is a classically trained musician who met the two aspiring rappers Kabelo and Tokollo.

They were at the forefront of the then emergent genre of music known as kwaito, which surfaced in South African townships, during the 1990s. Though erroneously associated with gangsta rap or hip-hop, kwaito evolved from house music and encompasses the local styles that range from guz, d’gong, isgubhu to swaito. It is association with the ghetto life in the Soweto townships and the overtone from the Afrikaans word amakwaitosi, which means gangsta. Perhaps this describes the relationship between kwaito and gangsterism as music revolving around ghetto life.

Defined by some as “slowed-down garage music”, kwaito became very popular among the black youth of South Africa at the time that the country was experiencing its transformation and has been referred to as the music that defines the generation who came of age after the fall of apartheid.

Historical success

The three lads honed their skills in this era and their music is a mixture of hip-hop, classical, house, and gospel beats. That deadly combination had Mzansi’s  (South Africa’s slang derived from Xhosa uMzantsi, meaning ‘South’) youth jamming to an avant-garde new and exciting beat since the late 1990s.

TKZee shot to prominence in late 1997 and early 1998 with their smash hit singles Phalafala and then Shibobo. Phalafala became an instant hit, with the Phalafala EP going multi-platinum.

In June 1998, they followed it with Shibobo, which featured Bafana Bafana legend and then Ajax striker Benni McCarthy rapping on some of the lyrics.

The song, which featured the iconic beats from The Final Countdown by Swedish band Europe was an instant success.

The Shibobo EP went on to rewrite the South African history books by selling over 100,000 copies in one month, a feat that made Shibobo the fastest and biggest selling CD single by a South African recording artiste in history.

Here in Kenya, the band is known more for the hits Dlala Mapantsula, Mambotjie and We Love this Place, which featured in their third album Halloween, released in October 1998. Having established themselves not just within South Africa but across the globe as well, this album easily went multi-platinum.

Back at home, the album earned TKZee five South Africa Music Awards (Sama) in an eventful night — for Best Kwaito Album, Best Duo or Group, Best Single, Best Kwaito Single and Best Video for the smash hit single, Dlala Mapansula.

New reunion album

To date, that record haul of five Samas in one night has not been surpassed.

They then formed the recording stable TKZ Wreckords and signed upcoming acts such as Gwyza, Loyiso, 2 Shot and Dr Mageu.

In 2000, they formed the TKZee Family and did a compilation album Guz 2001 before going on a hiatus during which Zwai, Tokollo and Kabelo took the decision to pursue their solo careers.

Despite being away from the limelight, they remained active, finding time to record three other albums and performing at the opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Undoubtedly, their place in South Africa’s — and the continent’s music history is cemented.

They recently regrouped and are working on an eighth studio album.

They describe their latest album Coming Home as “modern and futuristic but still with enough Guz flavour to keep it unmistakably TKZee and is nothing short of a celebration of the lives and musical journeys of three of South Africa’s most gifted artistes.”