On his third album, SAMA award-winning artist, Bongeziwe Mabandla, offers up a collection of songs that trace the unfolding of love with pure sonic beauty, from the day of first meeting to the heartbreaking end.

Titled iimini, Mabandla’s offering presents a cycle of 12 songs, with a beginning, middle and end, and is intended to be listened to as a whole. It’s the latest from the artist whose singular repertoire has gained him the title of “the enigmatic spirit of African soul”.

Bongeziwe’s stunning new album has received applause from Sam Smith. Photo by Justice Mukheli

It’s also the first to be released with Platoon, a London-based artist services company that is playing a role in helping African and South African artists showcase their creativity to the world.

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“iimini starts off with meeting someone and how feelings evolve to love, and then the pain and heartache of being with someone,” says Mabandla of the album’s underpinning theme. “The last songs are about the end of relationship and the cutting of ties, and basically the separation of people who used to be incomplete without each other.”

Mabandla explains that his attachment to one-theme albums (the notion of marvelling and miracles drove Mangaliso) springs from a desire to make visible what is important in his own life. “But the difficulty of making an album about one thing is that you have to find the multiple stories within that single subject,” he confides.

In searching for these narratives, Mabandla drew inspiration from his roots – growing up in Tsolo, a rural part of South Africa’s Eastern Cape, and then moving to study acting in Johannesburg. “I’ve always loved listening to lyrics. South Africans love storytelling in a song and I am led by a desire to be part of that tradition when writing.”

With a repertoire centred around 2012’s Umlilo, the award-winning Mangaliso and now iimini, Mabandla is building his audience, both at home and internationally.

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The latter part of 2019 saw him play Reeperbahn Festival (Germany), Lake of Stars (Malawi), five dates at Afrovibes Festival (Netherlands), Womex (Finland), and the Oslo World Festival (Norway). In November 2019 he performed to a sold-out audience at London’s 100 Club along with eight dates in France (including sold-out shows in Paris and Strasbourg), and his first sold out show in Zurich, Switzerland.

For the artist, there’s a natural progression from his first days performing his songs on just an acoustic guitar to his current standing as one of Africa’s most adventurous, engaging and essential artists.  “I started off as a folk artist, but my music is evolving and changing and iimini captures where I am right now just perfectly,” Mabandla concludes.

iimini is released by Platoon, seeing Mabandla join the likes of Princess Nokia, Victoria Monet, Maleek Berry, Mr Eazi, Santi, Odunsi the Engine, Kwesi Arthur, Samthing Soweto, Ami Faku, Sun-El Musician, Sino Solo, Msaki and The Word of Birds in releasing through the defiantly artist-centric music company.

Stream iimini here

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Rap wordsmith, Nasty C announced on the socials that he penned a deal with American hip hop label Def Jam Recordings.

The nitty gritties of the deal revealed that the contract is a joint venture with Universal Music Africa. To signal his new lease in life, he’s dropping new music on the label this evening around 10:30 p.m. CAT. The new record is titled There They Go and you can hear it first on Apple Music Beats 1 with Ebro Darden.

ITS OFFICIAL!!!!!!! U haters gonna see a whole lot more of this Ivyson shit I swear!!. Phalaza 🤮 #ThereTheyGo @defjam as’pheke pic.twitter.com/9GzCJUZQNy

— ZULU MAN WITH SOME POWER (@Nasty_CSA) March 26, 2020

The award-winning rapper has teased fans on Instagram about his collabo with Storm Hustle this week. The taste was enough to get critics riled up in anticipation of his upcoming third album Zulu Man with Some Power. His critically acclaimed sophomore project, Strings and Bling got him two continental gongs in the All African Muzik Magazine Awards (AFRIMMAs) and two South African Music Awards.

The music video of the new track was shot in Durban and directed by Andrew Sandler. You can get a peak of the visuals on Trace Urban music channel on DSTV this evening.

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The event organiser of the Scorpion Kings Live Concert announced a new date of the much anticipated event to be held at the Sun Arena. Originally, the 3-hour long show was scheduled to take place on the 11th of April. Following the terror caused by the Coronavirus, President Cyril Ramaphosa made a ‘State of Disaster’ announcement that forced organisers to postpone postpone the event.

Morning Sauta🙏🏾 No corona virus formed against us shall prosper, my good people we live on the 9th August only 2k tickets left u dont wanna miss out. #ScorpionKingsLive @sunarena pic.twitter.com/GyO1vJh1mD

— Scorpion Kings Live At Sun Arena 11 April (@DjMaphorisa) March 20, 2020

The show is now confirmed to take place on Women’s Day, Sunday the 9^th of August at the Sun Arena in Pretoria. While the government suggests we stay indoors, the show must go on. That’s why Kabza De Small and Dj Maphorisa will bless the streets with a series of live streams on their social media platforms over the next few weeks. Make sure you get your ticket soon, with only 2000 tickets left on sale.

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