Their home in Northcliff, Johannesburg was always filled with hymns and instruments, but rap duo Major Steez never thought that one day their music would play on national radio and TV stations.
Being raised by parents who were both musicians, Sandile and Sihle Mabena’s mother was in the same gospel group as the legendary gospel singer Rebecca Malope, while their father was a member of the band called Roots, which means music was always part of their life.
Sihle remembers how their parents would sometimes take them with when they were out performing. They enjoyed it but saw it as their parent’s job.
“We were in our teens when we took an interest in music. We used to watch a lot of MTV music videos, we loved kwaito and South African music was starting to wave internationally. But it was the rise of artists like AKA and Cassper Nyovest that inspired us to produce and record our music.”
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Sihle says that it is crazy how they watched both AKA and Cassper on TV and they now have songs that feature both artists. Speaking to Drum on the day of the release of their new single called Smooth Operator featuring the late award-winning rapper AKA, who passed away in February, he says they have been waiting to release the song.
“We met Kiernan when we were working with Costa Titch. We were working on the single that officially made us mainstream artists called Lies. We formed a relationship, he was rooting for us behind the scenes and always invited us to his show, then gave us a time slot to perform our music. He was like our big brother in the industry because he wanted to see us win. He always showed us support and encouraged us whenever we bumped into each other on shows.”
He says they started working on the song around the same time AKA was working on his latest album, Mass Country in December 2021. He says the song’s concept came about while they were listening to the beat, AKA put on Micheal Jackson videos for inspiration.
“The smooth criminal music video came up and we started freestyling and putting the flow together. Kiernan and I wrote the chorus together that evening, the main context of the song is somewhat of a love song, about chasing after a girl that was illusive and highly in demand.”
He says dropping the song eight months after Kiernan’s passing was hard and they had to speak to the family first before releasing the song.
“We consulted with his family a month and a half ago before releasing the song. We had been discussing it in detail before coming to the decision. It was important for us to talk to the family because we knew that he was huge on family. That is why we also made the family listen to the song before releasing it and we got a good reaction from Uncle Tony, Stefanie, and Nadia who connected us to the family. Uncle Tony and Stefanie had meetings with Kiernan’s mother and DJ Zinhle because we were not the first people to ask for permission to release something that was recorded with Kiernan before his passing.”
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Sihle, affectionately known by his stage name Steez, says they are the first ones to get a nod and a blessing from the family to release the song. For him and his brother, it feels like an honour because they have his family behind them.
“We finished the song in January 2022. A month after finishing the song he called us in the middle of the night offering to buy the song. We hesitated. He offered us 100K on the spot, but we respectfully declined. He told us that it was testing us and said he thought that the song was something special. He was that person, loud, and charismatic, and when he made that gesture it assured us. We thought if he felt this way about the song, we might have done something right. It was supposed to come out last year, but he asked us to hold on to it until he released his album first.”
This single is a taste of what the album that they are planning to drop next will sound like. He says they are working on an album that will have elements of Afro beats, R&B, and hip-hop which they are known for in the streets.
