Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-215)
Contents:
Looking back to the future / Esinako Ndabeni. Not 'South Africa's hip hop / Esinako Ndabeni -- Mapaputsi makes it darker / Sihle Mthembu -- Plagued by hypermasculinity / Esinako Ndabeni -- Arthur Mafokate: kwaito's most hideous man? / Sihle Mthembu -- Kwaito women / Esinako Ndabene -- On kombuistaals and tsotsitaals / Esinako Ndabeni -- I wear what I like: fashion and kwaito / Esinako Ndabeni -- TKZee: amapantsul' ajabulile / Sihle Mthembu -- Yizi Yizo: the poetry of dysfunction / Sihle Mthembu -- The gangsta movies / Esinako Ndabeni -- Durban kwaito's future, past and present / Sihle Mthembu -- Mandoza: postscript for is'gelekeqe es'focused / Sihle Mthembu -- Producers paradise: a paean for the men on the boards / Sihle Mthembu -- Looking back to the future / Esinako Ndabeni.
Summary:
"Born To Kwaito considers the meaning of kwaito music now. 'Now' not only as in 'after 1994' or the Truth Commission but as a place in the psyche of black people in post-apartheid South Africa. This collection of essays tackles the changing meaning of the genre after its decline and its ever-contested relevance. Through rigorous historical analysis as well as threads of narrative journalism Born To Kwaito interrogates issues of artistic autonomy, the politics of language in the music, and whether the music is part of a strand within the larger feminist movement in South Africa. Candid and insightful interviews from the genre's foremost innovators and torchbearers, such as Mandla Spikiri, Arthur Mafokate, Robbie Malinga and Lance Stehr, provide unique historical context to kwaito music's greatest highs, most captivating hits and most devastating lows. Born To Kwaito offers up a history of the genre from below by having conversations not only with musicians but with fans, engineers, photographers and filmmakers who bore witness to a revolution. Living in a place between criticism and biography, Born To Kwaito merges academic theories and rigorous journalism to offer a new understanding into how the genre influenced other art forms such as fashion, TV and film. The book also reflects on how some of the music's best hits have found new life through the mouths of local hip-hop's current kingmakers and opened kwaito up to a new generation. The book does not pretend to be an exhaustive history of the genre but rather a present-active analysis of that history as it settles and finds its meaning"--Page 4 of cover.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.