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  • THE DEVOLUTION OF GAMING:

    THEY GET PAID, WE GET PLAYED

    Board games, arcade games, the 100 games in one TV Game, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, PlayStation 1, Gameboy, Gameboy Colour, PC Games, Internet Games PlayStation 2, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, PSP, Xbox 360, Mobile Games PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 5. Everything mentioned, I’ve owned, played, broken, sold, lost or given away in my 32 years of being alive. That’s a whole lot of consoles, technology, software, hardware, gaming and development in 32 years. I’ve seen green and black 2D pixels to the most advanced 3D, 4K open-world graphics and through its evolution, I’ve been able to witness the devolution of gaming.

    It’s said that gaming advances technology more and faster than any other industry and as someone who used to be a devote and passionate gamer, I can believe it. Gaming has always had artificial intelligence (AI) embedded in it even at its earliest stages with having to fight bosses and pass stages that you would have to adapt to or try figure out their patterns. The processors, RAM, graphics, storage and hardware needed to keep evolving gaming but still have portable consoles that you could comfortably carry and fit anywhere inside your house. The growth from 2D to 3D animation we saw in gaming was unlike anything else. Even the quality of the graphics where we saw pixelated icons and figures, to see our favourite sports stars features coming through realistic with face scanning and body movement tracking technology. I remember Eye-Toy on PlayStation 2 (PS2) where we had camera and motion sensors track you, your siblings and friends from your living room into the game itself. The first-time virtual reality became physical reality was through gaming. Drive and flight simulations showed us just how complex and interact these professions can be.

    Looking at PC gaming we saw how the world can be connected via internet through ethernet cables with all the online gaming that was going on and how friends could interact with each other in the comfort of their own homes. In 2002 we saw how advance technology could be when Sony introduced online gaming on the PS2 and you look at where we are today and it’s basically online gaming or nothing. We saw portable gaming and technology with the GameBoy & GameBoy colour, then Sony came and should us the PSP which became a pop culture revolution being used for more than just gaming but for videos, internet and overall entertainment. With so many years of growth and development gaming has brought to the evolution of technology, it’s a shame to see how gaming is devolving. It’s mainly because as much as gaming is technology, the heart and soul of it comes from the human emotions and bonds that it helps to evoke and create in us. Now…now, it’s taking the human out of gaming and left us with nothing but soulless and heartless 1’s and 0’s that hold value mathematically but not in our hearts.

    That felt like information overload so I’m going to slow it down like dial-up internet and start from the beginning so you can understand why I call it a devolution. In the beginning there were arcades. We would all beg our parents for some money and to drop us off by the arcade or go walk to your local corner store, where there would usually be one or two arcade games, and we would use our parents hard earned money to have the time of our lives playing and competing with our friends. It didn’t just provide us with entertainment but created communities and friendships amongst us as kids. It became a lifestyle. It became a second home to some. This feeling really came to life when the gaming systems came into our homes. Consoles like ATARI, Nintendo NES, and Sega SG-1000 were on the market and changed how the world and society saw video games. Now, I’m not that old that I can say I had these consoles, but we can’t appreciate the now without the past. I want it to be known that during this time PC gaming had already been around and had multiplayer game but there’s a difference in sharing a keyboard and having to compete against each other and having your own joystick while you compete against or play with each other. It made it feel as if the arcade was in our house, creating a second home for many of us.

    I’m not going to do a deep dive into the evolution of consoles but just wanted to give a representation of what it meant to be able to go outside and play video games with your friends and how it changed our worlds when you didn’t have to go outside to do that. We would go to each other’s homes, interacting with each other’s families and even sleeping over. These moments created bonds between us where we started to feel like family and our families would adopt our friends and vice versa. It became bigger than gaming. We would play against and with our siblings, even if they didn’t like gaming but there was always that one game that could bring you together and have you sit for hours playing with each other. The TV game was our centre of gravity. It pulled us all in and we couldn’t help but revolve our lives around it. As time advanced so did the technology and the multiplayer games. Split screen went from just 2-player to 4-player. Consoles started making joystick extensions so you could add more controllers and when controllers became wireless you could have up to 8 players with games like FIFA, Madden & 2K. It made so that you could have more friends sharing not just the game but same space and experiences with each other. It all changed when consoles started focusing on online multiplay.

    I remember the first time I could play online with a console, because the old dial-up with PS2 was too expensive, was on the PS3 and the game was Call of Duty World at War and FIFA 08. It was such a life changing and unforgettable memory and experience. Going to my best friend’s house and vice versa, going online either split screening and shooting people together or cheering each other on as if we are watching a real football match. What made it amazing was just that you were playing with your friend, but you were able to play against other people over the world and talk to them through our headphone and mic systems we had. It genuinely felt like you can travel the world without travelling the world. We were so into the online multiplayer game we even had our own friend’s group, where we would all set a time to login and play with and against each other online. It felt like a cheat code for the days and nights when we couldn’t hang around together. In hindsight we should have seen it as one of the factors that would be the downfall of gaming.


    I say this because what we were doing in 2008 has now become the norm in 2026 and yes, as much as it does keep us connected in these expensive and what feels like ‘always-in-a-rush’ lifestyle and society, it feels like it has separated us from coming together and enjoying these experiences. The proof lies in the fact that there is a declining in split screen being developed in games. I understand the cry of software and hardware struggling to render the 4K gaming graphics simultaneously, but I believe we want the experience over the graphics. There must be a way to compress it for the split screen. The real reason is just because online gaming has become the norm so much so that financially it doesn’t make sense for these developers to make the split screen but now think about being at home with your siblings and knowing that you can’t even share and enjoy a game together at the same time.



    Another problem that came with multiplayer online gaming is that developers have focused more on the open world then the actual gameplay. In the beginning it was fun to be able to interact with the multiplayer-universe and go more in-depth into the worlds that the games and developers had created for us. It was like a fun extra bonus surprise, to be able to explore and interact with players outside of gameplay and especially at the time when it felt like game prices were on the rise. At some point though the focus became more on the open world then the actual gameplay, game storyline, challenges, defeating the bosses, upgrading levels and playing the game. It feels like nowadays more games give open world play and not game play. I feel this was influenced by mobile gaming. You probably thinking, “How did mobile gaming influence such a big shift in gaming overall?”. Well, the answer is simple. In-game purchases.

    Group of young friends having fun while playing video games together at home


    When the iPad came out and games such as Angry Birds, Candy Crush, Subway Surf and etc. came to our screens, it was also the first time we really saw in-game purchases for level-ups, clothes, rewards, etc. instead of creating challenges and tasks that we had to complete in order to get these rewards. The in-game purchases were so bad on mobile gaming that they had to put laws in place to stop little kids from being able to purchase because they were running up the bills for their parents. Some even putting their parents into debt. Console gaming saw this and decided, “Hey, if people are willing to buy instead of play. Let’s see how far we can take it.”, and boy did they take it far. Games like Call of Duty and 2K would release and in the same day you would see players who already have all the accessories and attributes within hours of the release, and you think to yourself, “How?!?!?”. Only to find out that people were just paying exorbitant amounts of money on all these and skip the whole point of playing the game. Game developers also stopped caring about storyline, gameplay and, making challenges and tasks. It was no more about playing but more about paying now. You want to go into the multiplayer-verse open worlds to show off and keep up with everyone else on there. Before we used to want to compare and show our friends that you could master the game by completing all the missions, side-quests and even finding some Easter eggs.

    The final straw that broke gaming’s back, and not just gaming but multiple industries within the entertainment space, is the removal of physical technology. With the gaming industry switching from physical CDs to buying and downloading your games, we thought that this would work in the favour of gamers. Only to be proven wrong years later. Games are now being hosted on servers and with that it means that if a server shuts down, closes, has a technical difficulty or anything of the sorts, the user doesn’t have access to the game that they paid for anymore. How ridiculous is that? You can spend thousands of your hard-earned rands on a game and not even own it. You’re renting it. Game developers have even started licensing games to gamers, so instead of buying and own the game, you are paying to use the license to play the game on that specific platform and server. You see this in the EULA & Terms when buying a game and the make sure that these games cannot be copied or shared. Gone are the days where you can lend games to each other or even swap them. Gone are the days of ownership. Gone are the days of gaming.

    It started off great but now it seems our relationship with gaming has taken a turn for the worse. Since the time of arcade games, we were always fine with paying to play because the value, the experience, the community that it helped build was always worth it and more. Today it feels like we are paying to get played with what we valued being taken and stripped away from us. The experiences aren’t the same. The community isn’t the safe space it once was. The games aren’t fun anymore. Gaming may have helped technology evolve but the technology has had a reverse effect on gaming. It leaves me asking, “Who’s playing who, and who wins at the end of it all?”.


  • Nahledi:

    A Rising Star On The Decks

    Since 2020 we’ve seen the rise of more and more women playing, taking up space and dominating the DJ world. While there are a lot of comments and stigma surrounding women DJs, such as, “they only get booked for their looks” or “it’s a feminist agenda” or the most disrespectful one of all, “the organiser/promoter is just trying to smash.” . All of these statements are disrespectful, degrading and disregards all the work and systems that these women have to fight through to get to where they want to be and live their dreams.

    Now, I could just write an article raving and ranting about how we need to kill this narrative and we need to do more but instead I’ll actually do more and start talking on the women making and creating waves in the DJ world. To start off, if you don’t know by now, this magazine is a big fan of everything Hip-Hop culture related so when seeing online debates of hip-hop DJs not bringing the heat or playing the same songs at every event or groove, I take that personally. There are a variety of hip-hop DJs who are carrying the flag and waving it high and proud for the whole culture to see and ride with. One of those DJs and who we will be spotlighting and interviewing in this article is the young and great Nahledi.

    Nahledi first came into my radar, I want to say, between 2022 – 2023 when she was still living in Cape Town and I had started seeing her on social media through the local hip-hop acts who would post her sets on their Instagram stories. Watching the stories and hearing her song selection was the first thing that caught my attention. Her song selection involved not just the regular hip-hop club bangers but the underground raps, the soulful raps, the neo-soul raps, the new raps, the alternative raps and most importantly the local hip-hop that she was playing. Just from that alone I could tell she was separating herself from the rest of the crowd and making a statement that she’s her to be stand out and give outstanding performances.

    I knew she would be making waves in the hip-hop and alternative scene and not just cause of her song selection but her technical skills as well. Her mixing, blends and transitions are things you can tell that she has worked on and practiced with dedication and passion. She’s not just trying to have dope song selection cause then if so she’d just be a playlist curator and not a DJ. You see this passion and dedication with the energy, vibes and fun she has when she’s on decks and how the crowd reacts to her sets as well. The fact she’s always willing to push the audience to learn and appreciate new songs that may not have heard before. Keeping the spirit of DJing alive, which was about getting and breaking new songs and records to the crowd and do it for South African Hip-Hop, R&B and Alt music was something that no one could overlook or deny.

    That’s why it came to no surprise that Johannesburg organisers, promoters and brands started calling and flying her out to play her sets at their events. She was creating a fan base and community of her own. A community of people who range outside of conforming to the norms and the usual but wanting and craving something new, something different, something with feeling. This community and demanding kept growing to the point that eventually she just had to relocate to Johannesburg because I mean Cape Town, you know…well, that’s a topic for another day.

    This allowed her more access to the entertainment industry and scene but a wider and diverse fanbase. This has led to her playing events like Narow-Bi, Soundset Sunday, Slow Cooked Sundays, Eden, Prime, Pantone Sundays, Ebumnandini, Good Morning, Kwa Gogo and more. She’s played for brand events such as Adidas, Garnier, Sportscene, Maybeliine, Spotify, Brutal Fruit and all the others I may have forgotten cause the list goes on. Her impact and influence has been so great that even Play Energy Drink had to sign her on as a DJ to their ShePlays campaign, that focuses on empowering and promoting women DJs and breaking the stigmas and barriers that I mentioned in the beginning of the article.

    I could go on and on about Nahledi and how she is a star both [Nahledi translated means Star] literally and figuratively but rather hear from the star herself so let’s get into with Nahledi.

    INTERVIEW WITH NAHLEDI


    What drew you to music?

    The thing that drew to me to music is that, I grew up in a family that really loved music. My dad had a huge cd collection and just being at home there was music constantly playing because of my dad, and my brother was also a big music fan, so growing up music was always around me and the sense of home and belonging drew me towards music.


    Where did you learn to DJ?

    So, basically in 2021 there was a P*ssy Party workshop hosted at the Waiting Room in Cape Town and a friend of mine knew I was interested in deejaying but not taking it seriously or whatever and she said, “We should go to the workshop.”. We went to the workshop, and it was eye-opening for me and one of the best experiences in my life. It opened my mind to deejaying as a concept. At the time I was working as a tutor so I saved up some of my tutoring money and bought myself a small controller, around the Black Friday weekend. From there I became best friends with YouTube and never looked back.

    What makes one a DJ?

    I think a deejay is a collector of music. I would even say an archivist of music. A deejay is someone who understands culturally the impact of the music that they are playing, the music that they love and know. They put people on to new music. I feel like basically a deejay is somebody who is a historian of music, to a certain extent, and somebody who specialising in having a lot of knowledge about the sound that they play, the genre that they play, the artist that they play. They have just a really big knowledge bank of music. Yes, I think that there are the technical abilities one needs to have like mixing, beat-matching, key matching, skills, effects and so on. There’s a whole bunch of technical skills but I think the thing that separates a great deejay from a good deejay, is that you can tell a great deejay from the level of research and knowledge they have on the music that they are playing and I think that what makes a really, really amazing deejay when you have a combination of the technical ability and the knowledge of the music you’re playing.

    What’s the difference between having great song selection and curating a moment?

    I think the difference is reading the crowd. I mean anybody can have great song selection and great song selection can take you very far, but the difference is being able to read, play and curating that moment to the specific crowd you’re playing to. That’s what makes a moment and makes it something special because if everybody in the room is resonating with what you are doing, having a good time, vibing to it and really enjoying it, it becomes something bigger than just playing their favourite song. I think great song selection can create those experiences, but when you really want to capture the moment, it’s about you and the crowd moving in unison with one another. You must really get into their heads and taking them on a journey with you. That’s the biggest difference in song selection and curating a moment. It’s about really involving the crowd in what you are doing.

    Favourite & worst stigma about being a DJ?

    The worst stigma about being a deejay is that we are all players. That is not true because I’m the biggest lover girl to exist and I know a whole lot of deejays who are lover girls themselves, so that’s not true at all.

    My favourite stigma is that deejays are supercool people. I, definitely, agree. Deejays are some the coolest people I’ve met, and nicest people I’ve met. We just got a really great vibe going on for us and I think everybody is so different and unique in or own ways. Deejays being cool people, has to be my favourite stigma because I’m the proof in the pudding.

    If you could be a DJ for an artist, which artist and why?

    Honestly speaking, I would not be an artist deejay and just be my own deejay. I always think of this FKA Twigs song [Which Way ft Dystopia] and there’s a line in it that says, “I’m not the accessory to the rockstar. I am the rockstar.”, so I feel like I am the rockstar. I like being the deejay that is the artist instead of the deejay to the artist. I have a lot of respect for artist deejays and the chemistry and relationship that they have to build with the artist. For me I think of your Pinky Girl, Kaytranada, Jyoty, you know the deejays where they are the rockstars, they are the artist, the ones people want to see. I think of DBN GOGO she is the rockstar deejay! My goal in life is to be the rockstar deejay and not be an accessory to the rockstar. I prefer to be the main act in the performance that’s happening.

    As a woman hip-hop & alternative DJ what’s one thing you wish the industry and fans would just shut up about?

    I think the one thing I wish the industry would just let go is the concept of “one size fits all” and telling people, who they should be, how they should play, what they should do with their craft and how they should go about it. I honestly believe everyone is unique and that everybody has their individuality and that’s the thing that separates you apart from every other deejay. As soon as we start creating this system/machine of having a mould or formula of how people should be, it becomes monotonous and we all start sounding the same, which is not the goal or the point of deejaying. I feel like it stifles creativity and it holds people back from reaching their full potential. I think of an Uncle Waffles; if you love dancing and dance music, and you put those together it becomes something unique, amazing and beautiful and it works but I don’t think necessarily that will be the formula that will work for everybody. Some people are great at mixing or mashups so telling them, “No, mashups don’t work, you should be dancing.”, that could stifle them when they are brilliant at it. I think give people the creative license to do the thing that they do, as best as they can, and let them work on their craft and build their craft. Lt them explore and experiment without trying to copy and paste someone’s formula onto them. I don’t think it’s necessary. In my experience, I had people telling me, “You should stick to one sound or genre.”, and I’m glad I didn’t listen to them because I’m really good at having multiple genres in my repertoire and if I took their advice I would have stifled my own creativity and limits to my progression and evolution not just as a deejay but as an artist, so I don’t agree with the “one size fits all” ideology.

    The 5 albums that changed your life?

    The 5 albums that changed my life in no particular order are;

    Sango & Xavier Omar – Hours Spent Loving You

    Frank Ocean – Channel Orange

    Lil Wayne – The Carter IV

    Mac Miller – The Devine Feminine 

    FKA Twigs – Caprisongs

    Honourable mention to J Cole – Born Sinner (Deluxe Version) and Doja Cat – Scarlet

    Tag Tuesdays, what was the inspiration behind it and do you consider yourself a hoarder?

    I have been really trying to work on my content, on social media, and being more consistent on posting and more consistent on giving the full landscape of who Nahledi is, outside of just being a deejay. Outside of being a deejay, I really do like being outside even if I’m not working and Tag Tuesdays came out of the concept of me trying to show more aspects of my personality but still aligned with my profession of deejaying, love of music and something I can do consistently. I realised that “Oh I have a tag jar and there are tags from everywhere and anywhere, that I kept my tag from.”, so it was just like a really great way to practice storytelling and a consistent story that can build into a series because the audience already know what to expect but waiting to hear what the different experiences that were had. It makes for a great way to share content from things that I’ve been to or done that I never got to share without it being a random throwback. The fact that it also doesn’t just revolve around me deejaying but going to concerts as a spectator and fan myself but also other tags like…well I can’t leak those tags to you right now [laughs]…but tags from activities and trips, and it was cute and nostalgic to look back at those moments. The fact it has resonated with other people who have tag jars and who keep their items such as souvenirs or memorabilia, has also been a gift and creating a safe space and community for us to share these keepsakes with each other.

    Now, to answer your second question. No, I’m not a hoarder. I would say, yes, I am a memory hoarder but not a hoarder in general. I’m very okay with letting things go. I give away clothes and things. Like I do be clearing out my closet and stuff, every now and again just giving away items and such. For me memories are so precious and it’s what I hold dear to my heart. I have lots of photos. Like lots and lots of photos. Too many photos [laughs]. I’m so close to paying for the Apple storage, that is way too much money but yeah, I have a lot of photos and tags. The tags have memories and are attached to specific times, events, and situations in life. I’m definitely not a hoarder in the general sense but a proud memory hoarder because they are precious and it’s my way of having a photo album without having an actual photo album.

    THE END.

  • Don Toliver’s Puts Pedal to the Metal as OCTANE Races to No. 1

    Don Toliver’s Puts Pedal to the Metal as OCTANE Races to No. 1


    Don Toliver has always made music that feels like movement. Not the kind you sit with, but the kind that pulls you forward late nights, blurred lights, engines humming under city glow. On Octane, he leans fully into that instinct. This album prioritises atmosphere, velocity, and feeling. Octane is less about reflection and more about immersion, designed to be experienced in motion rather than dissected in silence.

    The moment also marks a major milestone in his career, with Octane becoming Don Toliver’s first number one album a clear signal that his sound, once cult-adjacent, has fully crossed into global mainstream dominance without losing its edge.

    From the opening moments, the project sounds engineered for speed. The production is glossy, expensive but aggressive, balancing trap foundations with futuristic synths and low-end that feels physical. Don Toliver’s voice remains the anchor stretched, warped, half-sung and half-slurred drifting through the mix like exhaust smoke after a hard pull. He understands exactly how to use his vocal tone as texture, letting melody carry emotion where lyrics stay deliberately minimal. It’s indulgent, hypnotic, and unapologetically vibe-led.

    Throughout the album, Toliver stays in his comfort zone, but that’s not a weakness here as it evidently intentionally done; it’s a choice. Tracks like “ATM” and “Tiramisu” glide effortlessly between club energy and late-night luxury, while “Secondhand” featuring Rema introduces a softer, more melancholic edge without disrupting the album’s momentum. The features across Octane feel intentional rather than crowded, serving the mood instead of hijacking it. Everyone involved understands the sonic language of the project: keep it sleek, keep it moving, don’t interrupt the ride.

    That said, Octane isn’t trying to be a confessional or a narrative-heavy body of work. At times, the themes blur together; wealth, speed, detachment, excess; but that repetition feels almost purposeful. This is lifestyle music. The kind of album that doesn’t ask you to overthink it, just to lock in and go. Don isn’t chasing reinvention here; he’s refining a lane that already fits him perfectly.

    What made Octane hit even harder in South Africa was how the album moved beyond streaming platforms and into the real world. To celebrate the project reaching number one locally, Warner Music Africa turned Johannesburg into an extension of the album through a car meet activation that felt culturally fluent rather than imported. OCTANE-branded vehicles rolled through the city in convoy, transforming the album’s themes of speed and motion into something tangible and lived-in.

    The activation began in Braamfontein, a nucleus of youth culture where students, skaters, creatives, and streetwear communities shape Johannesburg’s sound and aesthetic. From there, the convoy moved through Melville’s 7th Street, capturing street-style visuals against one of the city’s most recognisable backdrops, before concluding at Pantry a familiar meeting point for Johannesburg’s car scene. Along the route, the convoy touched key car culture hotspots, pulling in petrolheads, custom builds, and everyday fans who experienced the Octane energy up close.

    With engines roaring and Don Toliver’s music blasting through the streets, the activation blurred the line between album rollout and cultural moment. This was an acknowledgement of Johannesburg’s relationship with cars, sound, and movement as forms of expression. In that moment, the city became part of the Octane Donny Womack world.

    Taken as a whole, Octane feels exactly like what it sets out to be. It’s smooth, fast, immersive, and confident in its identity. Paired with a rollout that respected local culture and translated the album’s energy into real-life experience, Don Toliver’s South African moment felt natural and earned. This is music for the night drive, for the long road, for the city when it’s wide awake. No brakes, just momentum.

  • RAGE AGAINST THE STREAMS:

    BUY YOUR MUSIC. DON’T STREAM IT

    Just because they’ve digitalised music, doesn’t mean it should be owned by the machine [both figuratively and literally]. It’s 2026 and it seems like the concept of buying music is now a long-lost ancient art that we get to tell our kids about as we reminisce about the old days and that’s exactly what these streaming platforms were built to do and, dare I say, “They’ve won?”. Well, the battle isn’t over until they’ve killed our hope, and the hope I have in us is strong and live so let’s fight back and Rage Against The Streams.

    It’s been 10 years since one of the three, Tidal, major music streaming platforms was launched in South Africa on February 18, 2015, which was followed by Apple Music on June 30, 2015, and finally Spotify in March 2018. Since then, we have seen the eventual and slow death of the South African music industry, especially in the Hip-Hop/R&B/Alt space. If we take a look back in history at CD sales and how they would work, it would be that artist would get about 10% off the sale of a CD. Now, this seems low but when looking at the accumulation of sales it adds up to a hefty number. There was a study done on Afrikaans singer Theuns Jordaan who made R1.7m from selling 210 000 copies of his album Vreemde Stad. From the 210 000 copies sold he approximately took R8.33 off each sale. The logistics of CD sales were that a majority go to the retail outlets for stocking and selling the CD and to the record labels, distribution, publishing, VAT etc.

    People will claim that the model of CDs was cheating the artists but really what cheats the artists is the systems that have been placed in the music industry for decades. This narrative around CDs was being pushed, I believe, to make it easier to introduce the system that really is stealing from artists. This narrative helped with the downfall of the CD, and it didn’t help that more technology was being manufactured to make the CD obsolete with cars and laptops not including cd drives in them anymore. This alone caused CD sales to start declining by 30% annually from 2012. When looking at when music streaming platforms came to South Africa research shows that in 2016 physical sales made up 39% of sales, from 52% in 2015, while downloads and streaming accounted for 33%, from 28% in 2015. It’s important to note that in this time digital sales had been available during this period but weren’t as prominent and are still available now yet the promotion of buying digital was never pushed like streaming and we will get into that as well. 

    Let us now look at what music streaming services pay by the number. First when counting what the value of a stream is, we must ask ourselves what is the value of the stream and how is it measured? To be honest only the streaming services and the major labels who are in bed with them have access to the streaming data and what value they carry. It’s said that in 2023 music streaming services had a value of $36.7 Billion and that globally the streaming industry brought in a revenue of $100 Billion in 2020. This doesn’t show us the value of a stream but just how much value they can bring in. Now, look at those numbers and let’s look at the fact that there is no clear or standardise pay out amount for  Spotify and Apple Music to artists and therefore no real way to calculate what artists are getting paid or meant to be getting paid. This means that there is no real way to track the cost and value of a stream and everyone is just going off of hearsay and rumours. There’s no real tangible way to know what the value of a stream is.

    It gets trickier because streaming numbers are so absurd they had to find a calculation to how many streams is equivalent to single release or download and the same for an album, and the maths is that 150 streams is equivalent to a single download and 1500 streams (10 singles) is equivalent to an album download. Therefore 1 000 000 streams are equivalent to 666 album sales or 6666 equivalent single sales. Even the charts have adjusted to this by crediting equivalent album sales into their systems and why album sales have now become secondary with people just more worried about how many streams you have or monthly listeners. To put it in perspective RiSA (Recording Industry of South Africa) has declared that for an album to be certified gold it needs 25000 sold copies = 30 million streams and for platinum 50000 sold copies = 60 million streams.

    Now if we compare this to digital sales on iTunes, where 30% of the slae goes to Apple as the retailer and 70% to the artist [if independent] or the label, we can do the maths and see how much money can be made. If a million streams is equivalent to 666 albums and an artist is selling an album for R100, that means they would be taking R70 of every sale and would bring the total revenue earned to R46 620. Making R46 620 off 666 albums isn’t bad money at all especially when considering that the conversion is an equivalent and not exact equal amount of how many people streamed your album. It could turnout to be that an artist has 30 000 people not just listening to the album but willing to buy the album as well and that suggests there could be a profit of R2 100 000 to be made but again because the data is not open to the public we still wouldn’t know and why it would be great practice for artists to promote the cause of digital purchases so they as well can have more accurate statistics and analysis of not just their sales but fan base as well.

    MUSICA THE LAST MUSIC RETAIL STORE CLOSED ALL ITS BRANCHES IN 2021

    I know looking at all these numbers and what they mean can get confusing, but what the numbers basically show is that it’s cheaper for the labels and streaming services to promote streaming because they get ridiculous results while not having to payout ridiculous amounts to artists. This is also why they have started pushing out more singles than albums because with more people streaming, it’s easier and more profitable to get 10 million streams on one song than try to push to make an album that will do 500 000 sales. It means less money spent on studio, production, artist development, promotion, marketing, publishing, distribution and etc. while being able to exploit the most out of a song. In the same regard this has disheartened artists from wanting to invest their time, energy, love and passion into creating albums because the payout isn’t worth it and people will stream it for a week before moving on to the next project or demanding for the artist to drop an album a year later.

    The value of a stream because it is intangible doesn’t hold that much weight on the consumer as much as the value of money does and that’s why we still hold the things we pay money for with high regard. We need the same value put back into music because we see with all this access to music with streaming services fans allow albums to come and go just like the wind and it feels like people don’t value the music and albums how they used to. Everyone is so quick to go listen to all the album drops that take place on Friday at midnight and get their opinions out within hours of listening to an album before jumping on to the next one, it makes one wonder did you even listen to it and how valuable is your opinion. I remember new CDs coming out and saving up to buy your favourite CD and sitting listening to it the whole month and taking time to see if it was worth your hard-earned money. We cared about the value it bought into our lives. We relished every minute, every lyric, every beat, kick, snare and melody. It meant something.

    Talking about money and value of albums and singles. The biggest brainwash that was achieved was making us think that music is expensive. I will say that, yes back in the day spending R160 (max) on a CD seemed a lot. Even though it was yours to keep forever, the issues of CD scratching or getting lost maybe felt like it came at a high cost but also it made us realise how much care we had to take. Making sure not to misplace your CDs or leave them on surfaces where they can get scratched and keeping them clean. The funny thing is with the introduction of digital purchase it made albums cheaper because now you didn’t have to account for the cut you had to give retail stores for distributing and stocking your album into the selling price. If you look at iTunes, you’ll see that EPs go as little as R25 and albums go as high as R150 but on average both local and international artists are being sold at R80 an album. That’s equivalent to a shot of alcohol when going outside and even cheaper than a cocktail. Plus, with digital purchases you can download them direct on to your laptop and store them on your hard drive or cloud if you want to. There’s also Bandcamp which is another great digital music store to buy from.

    The best part about buying digital music is that it’s yours. You own it. You’re not renting it out from these streaming services. They can’t just remove songs or albums from their services and now you longer have access to that song or album. If you don’t have data you can still enjoy your music without having to pay for an extra cost to enjoy it and if you’re like me you’ve probably asked yourself what happens to all the music the day that one of these music streaming platforms crash or die? Are we then just left stranded in a music-less world because we became so reliant on these services? I do also want to say as much as fans should be buying music, artists need to start selling us their music again. They need to make it an effort to tell us where and how to buy their music and market their product for sales. This will also help fill in the gap of artist development and the recent trend of fans going to shows and not knowing the lyrics or artist not being able to sell tickets because why would I buy a ticket to your show if you can’t even sell me on the music that you’ll be performing at the show.

    I’m so passionate about this topic, I could go on and on and talk about how the streaming of music it even lends itself to the promotion and building of AI music and artists, but I believe that this is enough for now. The point has been made on the power of buying vs renting and the true value it can bring to us as fans, the artists who make the music and just the music and entertainment industry as a whole because the more money artists can make from their music, the less they can charger event organisers and promoters for booking and therefore making tickets cheaper for fans and music lovers to afford and go support. I wrote in my last article in order to be raised by the village you must be an activate villager so buy your music and participate in building the economy of the community and making it a sustainable and stable industry yet again.

  • HOME: THE BASIC NECESSITIES

    Growing up as a kid every holiday we would drive back home to both my father’s and mother’s homes in Mpunzana (a village deep within Mthatha) and Queenstown respectively, both based in the Eastern Cape, and besides the 8-10 hour drive I used to dread coming back home for several reasons including; forfeiting the pleasures of privileges of staying in the suburbs but more importantly as a kid I always felt left out or didn’t fit in because my Xhosa before in tongue and ear wasn’t strong and I was teased about it.

    Now being the kid I was I fought back by removing myself from being connected to the people but as I grew older I started to realise that they too were new to a lot of things as well and there was a common place of misunderstanding and being someone who always took pride in their culture or heritage I soon came it to just forgive them but forgive myself for feeling inferior and not good enough and that bought me closer to understand that it really does take a village and the understanding of home and the privilege of having a homeland and that’s what we’ll be diving into in this article.

    A SUBURB OF JOHANNESBURG

    When they say, “It takes a village to raise a child.”, it’s to emphasise the impact of having a community and not only how the environment around you affects your growth but as well as the people who co-inhabit with you. It’s also important to note that in order to be raised by the village you have to be part of the village and a willing, participating villager who also wants to help better and add value to the village that is meant to support you and grow you because as Isaac Newton stated, “Everything has an equal or opposite reaction.”, basically you receive what you reciprocate and vice versa. Being raised by a village means being part of something bigger than yourself and sharing in everything with everyone being good or bad. In Johannesburg we don’t even know or see our neighbours about 90% of the time where back home ezlaleni, everyone knows each other from the family clan names to the children, cousins and everyone related. You’d think there’s an unspoken of Yellow Pages everyone is issued with. For the 2000s, Yellow Pages is a phone directory where every landline was registered, and you could literally find someone’s number if you had their name and surname or registered business name. Yes, I’m that old.

    Anyways, back to my point, which is that the people in the villages are more connected not just with the land and animals but with the humans around them. You don’t just know your neighbour but their parents, grandparents, kids, grandkids, the kids’ teachers, the extended family, the dog, the neighbour 10 houses down, the drivers, store owners, basically every human being residing within that village and whoever they bring inside the village with them. It’s a great reminder that you are not alone and a beautiful experience to not just witness but live when everyone comes together to gather in celebration of your achievements or whether to be your comfort in times of sorrow. If your child has eaten, then it’s almost as if your own child hasn’t eaten and that’s the unwritten law of the villages.

    I’ve heard a lot of people in the city claiming that the spirit of Ubuntu is dead but that’s not the case and maybe it because it lives in places where we still are connected to our ancestors and living in the ways and principles of what we as a people used to hold dear and cherish. Whereas living in the city things become more westernised because of the way we are living and that also changes our mentality and perspective on things because in the city we all have the fear that someone is trying to gain ahead of us by any means necessary so it’s better to not greet and keep to yourself. It’s better to not be a part of the village but rather live adjacent to the village. This is what got me thinking that maybe being home is more about having a shift in mindset more so than a bragging right. It allows you to connect with people back at a human level because you all are living within each other, trying to survive off the land. A literal sense of touching grass and breathing fresh air. Waking up early to garden, herd, build, wash and just do the necessities of being alive with a group of people that all have the same goal and making space for each other, it brings a refreshing since of the human spirit back into one’s reality.

    Now, as great as it sounds, I don’t want to ignore the negative and uglies that are riddled within the villages as well. When I see, people are working to survive in most cases that is genuinely all that they are trying to do. Survive. In what the villages have in ubuntu and the human experience, they lack severely in the material and monetary aspect. You see it everyday in the lack of necessities that plague the villages. The lack of clean running water and pump systems with people still living off Jojo tanks and having to use water in fear of it running out and hoping for rainy days to help keep it at liveable usage. In some areas people still must go and fetch water from the rivers and filter it before being able to drink or use for cooking and washing.

    You see it in the lack of clothing for both children and adults. With little children wearing hand-me-downs that are sometimes been passed down by 4 people prior and even then, sometimes they are either too big or too small but at least it’s better than nothing. You see adults repeating the same clothes because that’s all they have and the other clothes they have are saved for days like umgidi or going to town for school or looking for work. You see people going without socks because again save them for better days or because they already have holes in them and fear of damaging them further. Those with shoes are either wearing shoes that have not just gone past their life but past their soles. The things we take for granted such as snacks and treats are bought on special occasions and seen more of a privilege than a pleasure. The fact that there are no bin or trash sites in the villages and the closest dumpsite is in town, which is 40 mins away, so litter is scattered around the land and animals because even if thrown away properly who will come to collect and transport the trash away

    I look at it and sometimes and it confuses me and pains me so much because in the same community that is so tightly bound together it feels as though the modern world has disowned them and casted them away. Where people want to be seen as useful, intelligent and apply themselves and skills to make a living aren’t even given the infrastructure let alone the opportunity to do so. People who could make a living off farming, herd, garden, maintenance, providing services like trash collection and more are just left in the dust, left in a forgotten world that only recognises their voices when it’s time for elections. Kids are going to schools with no classrooms and books. You start to see why one can lose hope and turn to the temptations of alcohol and sex to find pleasure somewhere amongst the pain they live with every day.

    This is why it’s important to go home because you realise that maybe the world and society isn’t home, we are merely just visitors living in the house that the white man has build and kept our family out of. To get back in touch with the people of this land and hear their struggles, challenges and issues besides just what we see on TV & social media. To find your heart and reconnect with humanity because home is where the heart is and to be housed is a human right. Home is not just about the place itself but a state of mind of who we once were and the principles that make our foundation. Take care of your heart, take care of home.

  • GUNNA HAD SOME MILK AND COOKIES THEN RAN JOZI

    There’s something powerful about a global artist choosing Johannesburg as a meaningful stop on a world tour and Gunna did exactly that (because the music gods know that some artists like leaving africa out of their world and atlas). His appearance at the second edition of the Milk and Cookies fest felt intentional, well-timed, and deeply in tune with the city’s energy (plus he had a nice trial run when Heineken brought him last year). Taking place early in the year, the festival is fast becoming one of Joburg’s most exciting cultural reset points a moment where music, lifestyle, and community align to set the tone for what’s ahead.

    Big props have to go to Milk and Cookies for not just building momentum with a sophomore edition, but for anchoring it in quality experiences. The festival’s growth signals confidence and this year’s lineup, headlined by Gunna, proved they’re here to stay.

    Beyond the music, what stood out most was Gunna himself specifically his fitness journey and the discipline he’s been vocal about embracing. In an era where artists are increasingly transparent about personal growth, Gunna showing up committed to wellness felt refreshing. That commitment was brought to life in Joburg through a collaborative moment that blurred the lines between touring and local culture.

    Shoutout to the Warner Music South Africa team and Milk and Cookies for making sure Gunna didn’t just pass through the city, but moved with it, literally. Ensuring he completed his 5km run in Johannesburg alongside the Vault Strength Club was a powerful gesture. It wasn’t performative (he actually runs); it was participatory and inclusive . A global star running Joburg streets with a local run club is the kind of cultural exchange that matters health, community, and authenticity all wrapped into one moment. Of course online engagement seekers had some cute comments about participants paying to run the 5KM. However all one has to do is research on run culture and it would register that runners pay to participate in runs and races so this didn’t fall out of the scope of a runner. Plus some got to run with their favourite artist and got some Under Armour x Gunna merch too.

    Then came the performance, and Gunna delivered. The crowd erupted as soon as the opening notes of “Fukumean” rang out, turning the venue into a sea of movement and energy. “Again” also rang off with a different kind of smooth yet rage like vibe. Gunna’s ability to balance raw trap energy with melodic finesse was on full display.

    And of course, when WGFT dropped, the atmosphere shifted. The ladies went absolutely crazy , voices louder, phones higher, and the connection between artist and audience unmistakable. It was one of those moments that reminded everyone why Gunna’s music resonates the way it does: emotional, confident, and made to be felt live.

    Gunna’s Joburg stop was fire and from the reviews, it seems Jozi showed Cape Town how to rock. Milk and Cookies continues to prove its vision, Warner Music SA showed what thoughtful artist experiences look like, and Joburg showed up running shoes on, hands in the air.

    If this is how the year is starting, the city is in good hands.

  • DROP THE BACKTRACK & PICK UP THE WORK:BRING BACK REAL HIP-HOP PERFORMERS

    In 2025 it feels like the route to becoming an artist and superstar has become easier and easier but with that being the case it does make me one wonder what does it mean for the quality of artists and superstars? Yes, it might have been harder to crack the mould back in the days but that’s because the barriers to entry weren’t just an access and proximity bound but also the need for quality control and development and honestly, we need to run it back.

    I say this because I can safely say for the last 8/7 years I’ve made it my priority to watch as many local live hip-hop and r&b performances and it breaks my heart to say this but majority of the acts and artists just aren’t ready to be on stage and not because they lack the talent but they lack the work ethic and passion it takes to be a great performer. This may come off harsh but it’s just the truth and a part of me sympathises with the artists.

    In this digital and social media age artists and performers have been seduced into focusing on growing their online presence and “brand” more than their actual work and product. Creating trends and dances to their songs so that they can be popular trends and spread around social media. I mean it’s gotten to the point where you can hear a song just through social media without ever actually looking it up and going to search for it, which has presented a separate problem for artist but in true Fratpacked World fashion, “That’s a topic for another day.”. This leading to the prioritisation of perception over practice. The impact of social media and how there’s been a new emphasised importance of it in the overall art & entertainment space has shifted things and some for the better, but it feels like it’s been more for the worse.

    I say that it has been for the worst because social media is a short-term goal, lifespan and experience for everyone involved. It is common to be viral today and gone tomorrow. Labels and fans have started centring the conversation around numbers and views, and we know most of those come from being a personality, recreating trends, building your brand, becoming viral, all the things that have nothing to do with music. I know being born in 1993 I’m an Unc and come from ancient times but I remember when superstars were created by developing the talent and building the personality around it and not how we do it today where superstars are created by developing the personality and building the talent around it.

    More time and thought is put into look the part instead of being the part. Artists need to look at themselves like they are athletes or sport professionals. You have to practice your craft every day and as much as possible, so you’re always prepared for the big game day, instead of learning and making mistakes on the field when it’s time to perform and fans are expecting you to be at your best. It’s mental and physical preparation at the same time. Understanding how hard you have to work and push yourself to be a great perform and especially if you want to be a global superstar.

    Coming from a generation where we were exposed to the fact that talent wasn’t enough, but you needed hard to be the best, it really did elevate the musicians of our time. You see your Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Usher, Breda Fassie, AKA and more you see years of hard work, rehearsal, vocal training, singing coaches, dance lessons, choreography, watching and rewatching your favourite music videos, listening to songs over and over again until you can sing the melody off by heart, learning and memorising lyrics to the point that you can recite them from heart without any instrumental or beat, running making sure that you can work on your fitness for your breath control, reading books to help better your writing, standing in front of the mirror seeing yourself on stage in front of thousands of fans as the spotlight hits you and it’s your time to shine. I could go on and on about all the ways, techniques, strategies, methods and more on how to develop this but ultimately none of it matters unless the passion is there.

    As I mentioned when I started this article, I’ve been attending our South African live shows, from the smallest underground shows to the biggest mainstream festivals, and one thing I’ve noticed is that people have more passion for the fame, glory and lights and less for the actual art and craft. I’ve the smallest and biggest names come on stage and commit the most heinous live performance crime and cardinal sin by performing with a back track. Now, if you’re going to have your adlibs and back-up vocals on the back track to add to your performance, cool but the whole song, what are we doing?

    Backtracking ruins the performance for everyone. Firstly, as the performer you lose track of your lyrics and timing because now, you’re focused on trying to keep up or hear yourself on the track and either stumble or miss your lyrics but the sad part is that most cases backtracks are used because people haven’t rehearsed enough to know their lyrics. Secondly, it ruins it for the fan because we can hear the backtrack louder than your mic and that the timing is off, you’re getting your lyrics wrong and frankly if I wanted to just hear the song, I would have played it off the speaker at home and saved myself some money which is always a bonus in Cyril’s economy.

    It’s not just the backtracking but even just the performance overall. I don’t see people putting emphasis on the choreography and you don’t have to be Michael Jackson but just know what small movements go along to your lyrics or the beat. Knowing how and where you going to move on stage is important because you get to move the people along with you. Production factor and especially on these big stages that have the option of having LED screens with your visuals on it. Don’t just get some cool graphic design or artwork. Put together a showreel of your moments and videos so that people can watch your experiences and journey while you perform so that they can build a bond with you. Even if it’s there first time listening to you, they can appreciate what you’ve had to go through to get to this stage (excuse the pun) in your life.

    What I advise people on, instead of using a back track, get a hype-man. When last did you see someone on stage with a hype-man? They are so important. I’ve been too many shows where I see the artists trying to do some crowd engagement and control, but it fails on flat ears because they aren’t that confident in themselves as of yet and then hearing a cold reply is even more disheartening and that’s where the hype-man comes into play. They are your energy guide for the crowd so that they set the tone for how the crowd should react and respond to you. They add the extra spice to every adlib or rhyme and even sing or rap along when necessary. When you want to do a back and forth they are the first respondent and the crowd follows after. They are your partner in crime and need to be in the trenches with you from rehearsal to till the lights switch off and the mic cuts.

    There’s so much I can say and dive into because I just really want us to live up to the potential of being the best and greatest artists and performers in the world but it won’t happen unless we put the blood, sweat, tears and soul into it. Don’t just go and looking to have a moment or go viral but go looking to provide memories and life changing experiences for the fans, your team and yourself as well. It’s bigger than just a live performance, it’s a spiritual connection and we can tell when the soul is missing.

  • YOUNG JONN LIGHTS UP THE BLUE DISCO

    Young Jonn is in a great space of  becoming. This is that rare space where personal evolution meets artistic elevation, and suddenly the music starts to sound deeper than the dancefloors it’s built for. His recent interviews and music have that energy. He is still jiggy, still hit-heavy, but also fully aware that life has pressed him, bruised him, matured him  and sharpened him.

    When he speaks about grief and the loss of his mom, he doesn’t romanticize it. He frames it like a recalibration. Losing people, losing pieces of himself, grieving chapters that can’t reopen all of that forced him to sit still and look at his life with uncomfortable clarity. And somehow, instead of closing up, he opened up creatively.

    We are watching transformation in real time with him. There’s a beautiful duality to Young Jonn’s journey. For years he was the architect in the background crafting beats that shaped an era. Now, with the spotlight fully on him, he’s learning how to inhabit the center stage without losing the producer mind that built his reputation.

    He has spoken on how he has learnt to strike a balance and has found the sweet spot of how to achieve virality without being consumed by it. How to stay true to his sound while still feeding the algorithm. How to build hits without losing heart.

    This brings us to his chart topping new album, Blue Disco.
    raising his voice. For years, he lived in the shadows of artists he helped build — a quiet sniper with a production tag that guaranteed chaos on any dancefloor. But Blue Disco, his newest album, is where everything finally clicks. It’s the moment he stops being “the wicked producer who can sing” and becomes something bigger: a global-minded, emotionally layered artist who’s done playing small. It seems as though Jiggy Forever was him testing the waters, Blue Disco is him diving straight into the deep end confident, calculated, and fully aware that the world is now watching.

    The album lives at the intersection of two energies The coolness and infectious vibe of Lagos at night and the glitter of an international dancefloor. It’s Afrobeats with a jiggy twist, shiny synths and sprinkles of log drums in the right places.

    He’s not abandoning his core as he doesn’t stray away from his signature sound but there is a progressive sonic evolution to it songs like 2Factor are an indication off this (Shout out to Asake and Fopcalistic for the fire contributions). To give a brief vibe summary, one can say that there’s bounce, but there’s reflection. There’s shine, but there’s story. There’s groove, but there’s growth. It’s the duality that makes Blue Disco feel like a turning point.

    What hits immediately is the ambition. Twenty-plus tracks is no small statement especially for a sophomore album. It’s evident that used the space to experiment. You can feel the producer brain at work, shaping transitions, sculpting textures, making sure every song is its own universe. The disco influence is subtle but intentional: glossy basslines, shimmery pads, electronic sparkles, and an atmospheric cool that lifts the project beyond Lagos. It’s Afrobeats for the global ear not trying to imitate anything, just expanding the palette.

    The collaborations are strategic. Not overcrowding the record, but sharpening its edges.
    Every feature feels like an accent, not a distraction. Each feature shines, from Foca and Asake in log drum heaven to Shenseea on the dancehall coded “Accelerate” and of course Wiz Kid gives that lavish feel on Cashflow.

    This is someone who understands range without losing identity. Blue Disco carries emotion and its positively charged. A song like “Strika” showcases this as he spells out love in the jiggiest way. It’s by no means a sad album.

    Young Jonn doesn’t force vulnerability; he weaves it into melodies, into chord choices, into the quiet corners of the project. It’s an album with a lot of light, its indeed a blue afro disco. Like he says on the outro “in the wreckage where we found our glow, all becomes light at the blue disco.

  • FRAT’S RnB CORNER: KEHLANI KEEPS FOLDING THE RULES

    R&B’s never been short of heartbreak anthems, but few artists have grown with the genre the way Kehlani has. From the days of You Should Be Here and SweetSexySavage, she’s evolved from the Bay’s restless soulchild into one of R&B’s most emotionally fluent narrators. Each era, she’s sharpened her pen, peeled back another layer of self, and blurred that line between pain and peace. Kehlani has mastered the craft of creating emotional ecosystems with her music and collaborations.

    What makes Kehlani so captivating is how she’s turned self-work into sound. Her catalog reads like a timeline of therapy sessions set to neo-soul chords. She went from asking questions in It Was Good Until It Wasn’t to offering answers in blue water road. The growth comes through in her sonic treatment it’s intentional, grounded, and confident. She’s the rare R&B act that leads with vulnerability yet moves like a boss.

    I am saying this to double back on “Folded” — a record that feels like Kehlani’s entire journey folding back into one song. It’s spacious, clean, and soaked in that late-night honesty that made us fall for her in the first place. The track floats somewhere between heartbreak and healing, carried by her feather-light vocals and that vintage-meets-modern production.

    The writing is razor-sharp: she’s reflecting, forgiving, and releasing all in one verse. Sonically, it’s a masterclass in balance. The drums knock just enough to move, while her tone glides through layers of synth and silence. It’s R&B stripped of all gimmicks just feeling, clarity, and Kehlani’s golden voice.

    And because she’s Kehlani  she didn’t stop there. After the song caught fire and everyone with a voice tried their hand at interpreting the song in their way, Kehlani did something super cool. She dropped a short project titled “Folded (homage pack)”, a lush re-imagining of Folded that doubles as a love letter to the genre itself. The project feels like walking through a gallery of R&B’s eras with each remix. She enlisted  legendary voices such as Toni Braxton, Brandy, Tank and more to give their spin on what is possibly the song of the year from the RnB genre. This was a beautiful way to pay homage to fellow RnB artists.

    What’s special about Kehlani right now is that she’s not chasing the mainstream but redefining it from within. While others sprint for chart positions and stream watching, she’s building a home for emotional transparency and sonic integrity. Folded is proof that pure vulnerable RnB resonates with audiences and artists alike.

    The creative  way in which Kehlani paid homage , is an example of how one breathes more life into the art through strategic collaboration that hands wins to creators and consumers. The song’s title may be folded but RnB definitely won’t.

  • DIVERSITY:

    THE CURSE & BLESSING OF SOUTH AFRICA:

    It’s October 2025 as I write this and it’s that time of year that three words get to steal the spotlight and shine to the fullest. Those three words being year-end fatigue.  Now the reason why I mention year-end fatigue is because 10 years ago around this time we saw what was known as the ‘Fees Must Fall’ protests and strikes that sent thousands of students out on to the streets fighting the government for reduced university fees and being a student at the time and involved in the movement it made me think that was one of the last times a group of South Africans all came together no matter their background but also reminder of how many South Africans thought it wasn’t a worthy cause or energy that should have been redirected to different causes and led me to a question I’ve always had which is; if South Africa is a rainbow nation and there are 7 colours, which piece do we eat first off the plate and what do we leave for last?

    I’ll start at community. Now they would tell you that the word community originates from Latin and so forth, but I would imagine that it comes from having a COMMON goal that UNITES us and therefore making us a COMMUNITY. Having a shared goal or vision really does make it easier for a group of people to move and stick together because even if we may have different approaches, reasoning or strategy on how things should be done to achieve this goal, the fact we all have the same goal allows for us to listen to one another, trust in one another and come together to take from each other to build our ideal world. When we are not united in a common goal it creates a separation of state within that specific community or group of people. Allowing for miscommunication, disconnection, lack of support, lack of respect and internal fighting so instead of fighting for a cause or goal, you end up fighting each other.

    When we look at our beautiful country of South Africa, we do have a strong community in which we all believe that everyone has a voice and space within this country to be themselves. We have a culture of not just tolerance but acceptance as well. Having different cultural ethnicities like Xhosa, Zulu, Tswana, Sotho, Venda, Tsonga, Coloured, Afrikaans and more. Each having their own unique practices, foods and beverages, music and languages. As a country we’ve found a way to create space for all of us to integrate with each other and share these beliefs, traditions and various aspects of the different cultures with each other and create new experiences and memories. It’s more common to be multilingual in South Africa just because that’s how much we believe in being one as a nation and people and trying to make space for everyone.

    The Different Cultures of South Africa

    Now as much as we are united now, we can’t not forget about our segregated and horrific history. With Jan Van Reibeeck landing on the shores of Cape Town in 1652 with the mission of establishing a permanent settlement and fort for the Dutch East India Company. This started a continuous terror of colonisation by foreigners placed upon the natives and black people of South Africa with the British following and then trying to implement their own system and fighting with the Dutch, all while both trying to take over the land from the indigenous people of South Africa. This back and forth kept happening while they were fighting for political and governmental control of South Africa. In 1948 the National Party were the ruling party and introduced a new system of segregation known as Apartheid, that had placed inhumane laws and rules that were meant to disempower, belittle and take advantage of black people and people of colour until 1994, when due to the sacrifices and courage of our legendary freedom fighters and parties fought against this tyranny and gained us our freedom and independence from the racists state and government.

    The only way we as a country were able to defeat and rise above Apartheid was that we had to come together as a people for one goal, one mission as one mind, body and collective. This is when we saw true unity as a country and what built us to become a nation that can be united even through our vast diversity. All cultures and groups had to come together to overthrow and bring down the government and systems of Apartheid. Now no one wants to be united because of tyranny rule but having a common enemy does provide as a foundation to unite people in having a common cause to fight for.

    Looking at our past and where we are today, it sometimes feels like maybe that was truly the last time we were united as a country and that’s where the cure of being so diverse comes in. As much as we boast in pride about our diversity it can also be our flaw because with having so many different voices and every voice needing to be heard, the question then becomes, “Are we speaking the same language?”, not literally but figuratively. Do we all have the same goal? Even within our own history as indigenous people if we really exam the story of Shaka Zulu, was he a hero or a villain? To the Zulu culture and nation, he can be seen as a great king who was trying to create unity and one nation by bringing everyone into the Zulu nation. To the other cultures in South Africa, it feels more like he was a villain trying to colonise other cultures only to expand his power and reign over the Zulul nation.

    A Drawing of Shaka Zulu

    In trying to create one nation and common goal Shaka was extinguishing and killing the voices and heritage of the different cultures and people. His intention may have been pure, but the execution was far from it. I look at this past because it makes me question, “How do we unite such a diverse country and people?”. Throughout history in the world, we have seen time and time again that strength in numbers is a real thing and that the more people can come together for the same desired outcome the better the chance you have of fighting and winning to see that result happen. How do you do that in a country that has various groups of cultures and ethnicities?

    Now, let’s look at it in modern terms and besides that culture and ethnicities we are now dealing with political, religious, social, mental, gender, sexual, financial, emotional, schooling, living and so many more beliefs and opinions that we face every day and must confront. We must first figure out individually what we believe on each of these topics and try figure out what they mean for us before even being able to then try and find the community of people who have the same views as you. It’s even more difficult now with the capitalist systems that we live in where we see huge gaps in terms of those with wealth financially and those who are poverty-stricken.

    I look at this poverty gap and how just because of it, it creates a barrier to unite for a common cause. As someone who has been privileged to grow-up in a middle-class lifestyle but still be in-touch with my parents’ roots; having to visit my dad’s village [Mpunzana found in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape] and having to live and witness the lifestyle they were living, I’ve seen the vast difference between the two lifestyles. You don’t even have to go all the way to the villages to experience this when we have townships like Alexandra, Soweto, Khayalitsha, Guglethu, Umlazi, Kwamashu and many more scattered through-out the country that are still poverty-stricken and disempowered because of Apartheid. You go to these areas, and you see that the people in those communities are focused on surviving. Trying to figure out where their next meal is coming from, having a roof to sleep under, clothes to wear, water to drink and wash with, just the necessity to live and feel like an actual human-being. Then I live in my reality of middle class where we have internet and social media and people are fighting for things such as sexism, gender politics, politics, public figures, and many topics that can be labelled as first world products.

    When I look at these two different lifestyles and analyse them, I always question, “Do you think the person having to wake-up at 3am to go fetch water from the river that they still need to filter so that it can be safe for washing and consumption. You think that person is worried about Twitter topics such as pro-noun identification?”.

    South Africa The United Rainbow Nation


    I believe it’s important to ask ourselves these questions because we must try understanding each other and the challenges we are facing to try and get to a common point. Right, now we are in a country and state where we are all divided by the issues we face, and we all want to have a voice and be heard but not only that have our voices prioritised. The sad truth is that for us to come to a common goal that some of us are going to have to put our issues and cries on the back burner and put the others above so that we can have a focused and united front. The main issue here is that how do we agree upon what should be prioritised and ensure that is to the benefit of the majority (75%+) of the country and people. Where, when and how do we have and hold this conversation with and within each other without causing offence and conflicts that separates us more?

    This article wasn’t written having answers in mind and a way forward but to bring the conversation to the table so that we can dissect and discuss it amongst each other instead of ignoring the elephant in the room that creates a quiet hostility and divide amongst us as people. Yes, we are united in acceptance and diversity as a people, but that same diversity makes it harder for us to come together for a common goal, vision and fight. I pray we find the answers and find ourselves before we lose ourselves and the battle.