For his third album, seasoned South African dance producer, songwriter and artist Zakes Bantwini overtly went for a “futuristic” sound. “I was very clear in wanting to use a lot of synthesisers,” he tells Apple Music. “It was about matching EDM with tribal house music.” Those synths wheeze, screech and whir inside airy pads to create an immersive atmosphere for vocals from Skye Wanda, Nana Atta and Mthunzi, among several other artists.
After a decade in the game, Bantwini has remained grounded, and the album’s title comes from the streets. “I go to the township a lot,” he says. “Once, when I was there, the guys were like, ‘Phela wena, you are a ghetto king’. And, for me, that had a nice ring to it. So, I took it and ran with it, because I love the fact that it was coming from my peers.” Here, he breaks down the inspiration behind Ghetto King, track by track.
“Abantu” [Zakes Bantwini & Karyendasoul] (feat. Nana Atta)
“‘Abantu’ is a follow-up to ‘Amanga’. I wrote it with Nana Atta on the road in Joburg. I think ‘Amanga’ had just played on Metro FM; I was like, ‘We need to make a song that will follow up to this song.’ By the time I got to Fourways, we were done. We laid the vocals, I worked on the progression, worked on everything else, and then I invited Karyendasoul and said, ‘Let's just try and do this thing’.”
“Girl in the Mirror” (feat. Skye Wanda)
“I think it’s one of my most beautiful songs. Skye Wanda is a genius when it comes to songwriting. And she has such an amazing voice. I invited her to my studio in Durban when I was done with the instrumental. I told her I want pop vocals, R&B-ish. But I want the song to play on Ukhozi FM, and I also want it to play on Jacaranda and Kfm. She came up with the song, and I love everything about it. Then, I made arrangements and added a little bit of harmonies. But I think the genius of the songwriting was already there.”
“Bawo” (feat. Amanda Black)
“I did that track in Rotterdam while I was there for a gig. When I came back, I had forgotten about it. When I was just about to submit the album, the guy who works in my office, Lucky, asked, ‘Bro, are you telling me that this song is not going to make it onto the album?’ I was like, ‘OK, cool, I need to think of who will fit beautifully in this song,’ and I thought of Amanda Black. It had to be a spiritual, gospel-ish song, but it’s not supposed to mention God or Jesus. And then, she wrote the song. She was meant to sing the whole song, but then she called me and was like, ‘I’m not going to be on that song without you. I need your vocals as well’.”
“Uzalo” (feat. Nomkhosi & Olefied Khetha)
“I had the chorus in my mind. I invited a guy called Khetha and Nomkhosi to sing it. I told Khetha, ‘We need to come up with a song that’s going to speak about the dynamics and the love that we have for our parents, and the dynamics that we have with regards to our siblings. Be it a beautiful dynamic, or whatever dynamic, but it must also show love to mothers. So, it’s a Mother’s Day song. It talks about how amazing mothers are. It’s just us worshiping the womb that creates life.”
“2am in Space” [Zakes Bantwini & BlaQRhythm]
“Me and BlaQRhythm started making the song at 2 am. It took us about a week to finish it, but most of the time when we were working on it, it was always in the evening. And for me, I always want to challenge the status quo. When you think of space, you don’t think ghetto. When you think of king, you don’t think ghetto. ‘2am in Space’—because no one thinks that they can be in space at 2 am. Space is seen as [the] future.”
“Amanga” (feat. Nana Atta) [Da Capo Remix]
“I asked Da Capo to remix ‘Amanga’, a single I produced in 2019. It’s what I was going through then. Everybody has challenges, especially when it comes to them being talked about in their absence—when your name is mentioned in corridors where it’s not supposed to be mentioned. It was me just learning what the people that I considered friends really think of me. And the lies that they are spreading around my name. So, I wrote that song.”
“Osama” [Zakes Bantwini & Kasango]
“Lucky was listening to the instrumental, and I was like, ‘Who produced that instrumental?’ And then he says, ‘A guy called Kasango’. I didn’t know who Kasango was. I asked him for the stems, and then I tweaked it—put some new hi-hats and added some more synthesisers together with Karyendasoul. When the instrumental was done, I invited Nana to write. I told her, ‘This thing is very spiritual for me. I don’t want it to have a subject matter. And I don’t want it to be in any language.’ So, this is a melody-driven song. We are chasing the melody, and what it means to us, and let people interpret the song the way they would like. So, we’re going to go [speaking] tongues on it, and we are not going to have any words.”
“Dutywa to Kwamashu” [Zakes Bantwini & Drega]
“I walked into the studio while Drega was working on the song for his album. I was like, ‘This song is going on my album because the sound just fits.’ It just sits right in the centre of my album. Dreka is from Dutywa, and I’m from Kwamashu. So, I was like, “This song travelled from Dutywa and now it’s in Kwamashu’.”
“Lesson” (feat. DeetheGeneral)
“A friend called Zamani, who has a very good network of young artists, linked me up with DeetheGeneral. I was looking for a pop voice, but a black pop voice which has this kind of texture, where you can hear this is a pop voice, but it’s African, so it resonates. He wrote and then was like, ‘Brazo, I can’t have your song here without your vocals.’ So, I had to just sing the chorus.”
“Kumnyama” (feat. Mthunzi)
“‘Kumnyama’ is an improvisation song. We were working on some songs with Mthunzi, some songs for other artists, and then we worked on this song. He had about six or seven takes, and then I took the best one to create ‘Kumnyama’. It was such a tedious exercise, because I would like something on the first audio, and then the next thing I’ll take from the seventh or 10th audio. It was like piecing together LEGO blocks.”
“GOAT” [Zakes Bantwini & Skillz]
“This song was named by Skillz. We made the song on FL Studio, which I cannot use. So, I kept saying, ‘Give me this, give me that,’ then I play. ‘Give me another one’. So, he was like, ‘You are the GOAT, bro.’ And I was like, ‘I’m going to call this song ‘GOAT’: the greatest to ever do it, the greatest of all time. I think, after so many years, for me to still be able to work on an album that people are still anticipating—you don’t get much of that. By this time, when you’ve been in the industry for this long, people are no longer interested in what you do. There are [very] few of us that still have albums anticipated, and for me to be in this space, I’ve got to be the GOAT.”
Tracklist:
- Zakes Bantwini & Karyendasoul - Abantu (feat. Nana Atta)
- Zakes Bantwini - Girl In The Mirror (feat. Skye Wanda)
- Zakes Bantwini - Bawo (feat. Amanda Black)
- Zakes Bantwini - Uzalo (feat. Nomkhosi & Olefied Khetha)
- Zakes Bantwini & BlaQRhythm - 2 AM In Space
- Zakes Bantwini & Nana Atta - Amanga (Da Capo Remix)
- Zakes Bantwini & Kasango - Osama
- Zakes Bantwini & Drega - Dutywa to Kwamashu
- Zakes Bantwini - Lesson (feat. DeeTheGeneral)
- Zakes Bantwini - Kumnyama (feat. Mthunzi)
- Zakes Bantwini & Skillz - GOAT
Stream the full Album below.
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