Could Tyler ICU's Mnike replace Sister Bethina as a national groove anthem?

In just two weeks, his song had one million plays on YouTube, Spotify and iTunes.

Ever since its release, it has been leading across various music charts.

On the Official South African Charts, it has been sitting in the number one spot for over four consecutive weeks.

As it holds the same spot in Apple music's local top 100 and Billboard charts, many have called for it to replace Sister Bethina as the national groove anthem.

Mgarimbe’s Sister Bethina has been the anthem since its release in 2005. 17 years later, Tyler ICU is ready to be crowned the next official hitmaker of all time.

Real name Austin Baloyi, Tyler ICU says the past few weeks of craze about his song – Mnike – has been heartwarming.

“It’s been very hectic; I haven’t gotten a chance to rest but it’s been very exciting about what the song is doing.”

Ever since the song dropped on 28 April, Tyler has been doing back-to-back gigs and not only on weekends. In fact, it took Drum about a week to finally pin him down for an interview.

Although it was unexpected, he says he understands why there is an overwhelming demand for him and his song.

“I have to keep it up as I had already started [accepting these gigs at] the beginning of this year so people wanted the consistency of them seeing me coming out properly as Tyler ICU, just alone without being shadowed by bigger brands.”

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For the first time since he ventured into music at the age of 18 years, the now 26-year-old has creeped out of the shadows of music giants such as DJ Maphorisa, Kabza de Small and Riky Rick.

Whenever he performs Mnike, “it’s wild, people climb on top of tables, couches and whatever they can climb on. People say it’s laced with cocaine that’s why they go crazy.”

He wouldn’t trade the wildness for anything though because these are the moments that he prayed and fasted for.

Elaborating more on these prayers, he says he was going through a rough time last year.

“I was just going through some stuff, I was depressed, I was just done; asking myself if this (music) is even worth it to continue doing this thing. I also had family problems and my [romantic] relationship was going down.”

During the dark phase and heartbreak, he had little to no hope for the future.

But now a few months later being the mastermind behind the two biggest hits, Mnike and Ngimoja Ngawe, he is glad that he didn’t give up.

“I was going through that [phase] of just losing everything that I thought I would have forever kante God was just taking me up to a different place, just that everything that were heavy on me needed to be taken off my shoulders,” he says.

He tells Drum that Ngimoja Ngawe in which he features Tumelo also, is what gave birth to Mnike.

After sending the beat for Ngimoja Ngawe, Tyler waited out for Tumelo to send it back with his touch and when he finally did, it had been just a week and a half since Tyler’s break up.

From his first listen, he related to this song that Tumelo had also worked on from a place of heartbreak.

“He was going through his own breakup also. The stories kind of came together at that very same time. I [felt] like this song is relatable to everyone because everybody goes through some stuff especially in terms of relationships,” he tells Drum about the moment he decided to release the song to the world.

The song then blew up first on TikTok with a video he had taken in Tanzania and the reception gave him the green light.

Three weeks after Ngimoja Ngawe’s release, Tyler had been playing around in studio when he cooked up Mnike’s beat.

When he first played the instrumental beat at a club called Rockets where Pearl Thusi was hosting, he says, “I saw her go crazy. You know, when you see people lose their morals on a song that they don’t even know, it means something.”

That night, he left Tumelo work on the song in studio the very same day and from then, he knew that “this song is the one”. It was an intimate process for him.

Even though people were not in favour of dropping another song only a month after Ngimoja Ngawe which was making waves, he didn’t fear one bit that momentum would be lost. And he was right.

Now the two songs are battling it out on the charts and are the most played songs in clubs.

For those who may have not known Tyler ICU before these two hits put him on the spotlight, he started off as a rapper, before he became a producer and internationally renowned DJ.

The first mainstream song he worked on was Riky Rick’s ‘What It Is’ featuring Dr Peppa, LucasRaps and Cheng Cello. Shasha’s ‘Blossom’ EP followed then it was the ‘Money Heist’ EP with Nicole Elocin.

He then shot up the sky with Riky Rick’s ‘Ungazincishi’ in 2020, Cassper Nyovest’s ‘Good For That’ and DJ Maphorisa’s ‘Banyana’ EP.

In the past four years, he says he has made the 10-year-old Austine proud. When he was that age, he got his first computer, and his cousin would visit often to use it for his music production projects. Curious Tyler would watch and wait for his breaks to get a chance to work the same magic and figure his way through the keys.

By the time he was 17 years old, he knew the music production programme like the back of his hand.

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From as early as he can remember, music has always been a consistent feature in the Baloyi household.

“At home, they play music every day, that’s their way of living. My dad told me that even when I was a baby, they would let me sleep to the sound of music and wake up still listening to music. So, it’s been that my entire life, I’ve been surrounded by music.”

Because of this, his dad was neither shocked nor doubtful when Tyler ventured into music. In fact, he wanted to do music in his prime years himself but because there was a lot going on in his life with breaking free from apartheid, doors for opportunities weren’t as wide open.

After matric, Tyler did not even attempt to apply to tertiary institutions because he knew exactly that his next step was.

Now every time his dad goes out and he hears one of Tyler’s songs, he calls him to say “I am so proud of you. Every time I’m out, I’m just seeing people going crazy over your music. I am amazed by what you have accomplished. I always knew that you were going to do something, but I never thought it would be this big.”

Even with all the pride he has brought his parents, his greatest accomplishment was finally building his mother a house.

Ending off the interview, he says he is ready to replace Mgarimbe as the king behind the country’s national groove anthem.

He reminisces on his days of jamming to the song and says, “we’ve lived our Sister Bethina days”.