Msaki

Msaki does not write songs, she catches them. The East London-born musician, composer, producer and curator has carved a lane all of her own making. Her determination to move in authenticity has seen her release independent work under her own creative entity, Oneshushuday Artistry.

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She released her beautifully fragile debut EP, Nalithemba in2013 and debut LP, Zaneliza: How the Water Moves in 2016. Zaneliza was nominated for a SAMA award and her Imfama Ziyabona was on the Metro Charts for 19 weeks. Msaki has always had a knack for effortlessly voicing our inner fears, hopes and desires. She found an unwitting god on the dance floor in-between, and has appeared on chart-topping four-to-the-floor bangers by a well-respected cohort of cats from the globally revered South African House music fraternity – from Mobi Dixon, to Revolution, Black Coffee, to Black Motion, to Prince Kaybee, with whom she created “Fetch Your Life” The song became a rallying call, a battle cry, a lifeline, an inspirational mantra. People took to it, and made it the biggest song on South African radio in the process with 3.1 billion impressions in 2019. 2020 has come with 4 SAMA nominations, and digital and radio chart domination with the serendipitous collaboration with Sun-EL for the motivational Ubomi Abumanga. Her Collaborations with Tresor also remain a highlight with her 2019 single Pearls To Swine, which she directed the music video for also received a nomination for ‘Best Produced Video’ and Sondela being highlighted as a nominee for Song of the Year. The accolades, while welcome, don’t distract her from doing the work of disrupting and asking questions through her art, positioning her words to hit where impact can be felt the most. She gave us ‘At Stake’ at the peak of Gender Based violence last year. ‘Blood Guns and Revolutions’ further reveals the activism in her bones although you would never catch her using those words about herself. She is a consummate artist whose creativity is a rarity finding expression in how she does community and business alike. She runs a publishing company, Oneshushuday Publishing, where her love for the craft sees her organizing songwriting workshops and co-writing happenings as culture. Msaki also curates spaces. She co-founded the Riversong Collaborative Arts Festival in the rural village/town of Hamburg; Eastern Cape. She also founded ALTBLK>> to showcase the diversity and complexity of African music (and music in the black diaspora) while assisting in shaping a collective identity for artists who straddle genres, referencing past heritage(s) while searching for future sounds.