Johnny Wxlf

Not many people can claim to have had a song composed about them by a world-famous musician. Gugulethu Mngoma had that honour bestowed upon him at only age 19.

Now at age 27, Mngoma is a musician in his own right, and a sought-after producer among up-and-coming artists. Although he has released dozens of singles to wild acclaim in the past few years, he is only dropping his debut album titled Zion’s Door later this year.

With a famous opera and jazz singer for a mother in Sibongile Mngoma, a world-renowned diva for a grandmother in the recently departed Sibongile Khumalo and a celebrated classical music composer for a great-grandfather in Professor Khabi Mngoma, the young Kimberly-based artist could not escape his destiny, even though he tried.

The track titled Gugulethu appears in Sibongile Mngoma’s debut album A Glimmer of Hope, released in 2013. Like his mother Mngoma says great things take time, and he did not want to rush his album. He is currently negotiating a distribution deal with an independent label because he wants to keep ownership of his music.

To carry the Mngoma surname has been both a blessing and a curse for the artist. “For most of my young life I tried to avoid music. There was just so much pressure. I played rugby and even indulged in competitive swimming, but music always tugged at my soul, calling me back” says Mngoma.

It was only in Grade 9 that he realised he couldn’t avoid music forever, it was in his blood. “I was always listening to music, and I loved how it made me feel. It was an escape for me because I was going through a lot at home,” Mngoma says.

He played the violin at Primary school and later changed to piano when he started high school. His favourite uncle Linda Mngoma later introduced him to Deejaying. “I got into tribal-house and deep-house, and ran with that till college. It is there that I discovered music production,” says Mngoma.

He started producing his own music because his peers thought his sound was weird. His music can easily be categorised as world music and even alternative music, but never conventional. He says his music comes from the universe and the spirit world. “I don't follow convention because I don’t like being boxed and I value my freedom of thought and creation. Well-composed music heals the hearts of the listeners, and that is my goal with my music,” says Mngoma.

A free spirit who values freedom in its totality, Mngoma’s birth in 1994 seemed like a good omen, symbolic of the turning of the tide in the history and politics of South Africa. He took his first breath in the year South African blacks got their freedom, and a new all-inclusive democratic government was formed, and led by the first president of colour.

Mngoma’s fresh take on music inserts fearless fragility in a world which is ruled by conformity, where the majority of artists seek...