Cassper Nyovest shares love for kwaito on Sweet and Short

6 Dec 2018 - 18:19

In the animal kingdom, commensalism is a relationship between two organisms in which one benefits while the other doesn’t and is not harmed in the process. You might be asking, what do birds and fish have to do with Cassper Nyovest’s platinum-selling album Sweet and Short?

Cassper Nyovest marries hip hop and kwaito in his latest release.

Hip Hop landed in South Africa in the late 1980s and cemented itself as a formidable youth culture – like kwaito – through the political voice of groups such as Cape Town rap group Prophets of Da City. But some cats felt hip hop was too American and couldn’t speak to South Africa's youth.

Kwaito artists such as Oskido and masked musician Mzekezeke felt it was necessary to release records dissing rappers for their apparent lack of regard for what it means to be South African. You can listen to ‘Amakoporosh’ by Mzekezeke as a refernece. The relationship was off to a rocky start.

The emergence of artists such as the late Hip Hop Pantsula (HHP) proved that the two genres could work together. At the time kwaito had nothing to gain and would not be harmed by the appearance of hip hop: commensalism. HHPs apprentice, Cassper Nyovest, also had this affinity for kwaito and has released Sweet and Short as a nod to his love of the genre.

On the 11-track album released on the eve of his #FillUpMosesMabhidaStadium concert, Cassper Nyovest raps on slow house beats, a characteristic that is the sonic make-up of kwaito. This can be heard on the opening track ‘Welcome Welcome', where he pays homage to Jabba:

This is the part we shift the culture
Jabba laid the foundation, this is the outcome.

Cassper further uses a sample from Jabba man’s hit song ‘Music and Lights’ in the same song and in doing so he takes listeners down memory lane. And the best thing about this is that it works!

In 'Hase Mo States' he uses vocal samples from Oskido's song of the same name as well as Kabelo's 'For As Long Ngisaphefumula'. In 'Who Got the Block Hot?' featuring Frank Casino, Cassper lifted a sample from TKZee’s ‘Mambotjie’. Kwaito has come full circle; Zwai Bala (the Zee in TKZee) once won a SAMA for best hip hop album – the only remark you can give to this piece of information is a resounding LOL.

Cassper Nyovest’s claim to commercial success is, in part, due to the song ‘Doc Shebeleza' dedicated to his hero, Doc Shebeleza. On Sweet and Short he features a rendition of Doc’s hit ‘Gets Getsa'. Cassper hasn’t forgotten where he comes from.

While Sweet and Short has an appeal in trying to balance kwaito and hip hop, the very kwaito that strings it together may be its kryptonite. Cassper is often drowned by the instrumentation and the focus is shifted from the rapper to the infectious kwaito beats. 'Who Got the Block Hot?' is a good example of this.

The most notable song on the album is 'Sponono Sam’ featuring iconic maskandi duo Shwi Nomtekhala. The song doesn’t compromise on typical maskandi guitar and basslines.

The weakness of Sweet and Short is its lack of synergy between the songs, which makes the album sound like a compilation of singles rather than a cohesive project. The offering would have made more sense if it were presented as throwback mixtape.