South African music and art is getting love from all over the world. With each new genre, a new crop of artists flood the industry.
Making sure these new talents are well equipped and prepared for this moment is something that Ziiki Media looked to achieve when they hosted a three-day music camp in Johannesburg called the ZiiBeats Recording Camp.
The ZiiBeats Recording Camp has been positioned as a place for collaboration between artists, producers and songwriters from across the African continent.
“Our aim was to create tracks that take influences from each individual’s and country’s distinct sound but are pushed to combine sounds and create music that resonates with the global trends,” says Managing Director Ria Nagar.
Ria has been working in the music industry for three and a half years now and she studied music which she has had a passion for since a young age.
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This initiative aims to bring global attention to all genres represented in this camp and mitigate the distinction in global markets between African Music and mainstream music.
“The artists who attended this camp had the opportunity to work with several talented creators who purely had the aim of creating good music. The Ziiki artists who attended ZiiBeatshad the opportunity to work with other artists from within Ziiki, as well as creators from outside the Ziiki roster. They got to work on new styles, sing in new languages, and build new relationships.
“The central focus is to help young talents to broaden their current markets, for newer or upcoming artists, this may mean growing beyond their township or city, and for established artists this may mean becoming mainstream in new countries,” she explains.
Beyond incubating talent, this first camp has also yielded a collective album which will see the rising musos get some much needed exposure upon its release.
“I think every artist who attended the camp has been successful in creating music. Through ZiiBeats, we have ended up with strong pan-African album with all the music having global appeal which we look to release in early 2024.”
There are plans to have more camps of this nature in other parts of the continent with the next one to be held in India.
“We plan to take our African artists to India to work with Indian musicians. Since India is such a large market, this camp will open new horizons for Ziiki’s artists.”
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This was the first incubation and so a few procedures are being ironed out and tweaked. This involved artists from the Ziiki roster acting as the main vocalists for the camp.
“We then selected producers from across genres and countries – Blaisebeatz from Nigeria, Ceebeaats from the UK, and Yumbs and K-Zaka from South Africa - who we were confident could deliver some great beats.
“We also engaged songwriters both locally and remotely to assist with writing in various languages as required by our artists. We will also be sourcing featured artists from across Africa and Europe.
“Importantly, Ziiki gave these young artists the chance to work with an abundance of resources as they took care of the travel of all the artists, local hosting, production, video shoot and marketing costs related to all content created in ZiiBeats.”
While ZiiBeats contributed to the South African music industry in several ways, its strongest contribution is fostering connections with and bridging the gap between all African countries.
It was a long journey to get to this point, but it did bear fruit on the form of some memorable moments.
“Some of my highlights from the camp include seeing artists who initially started off rather hesitant, blossoming and becoming more confident throughout the camp and seeing the joy on everyone’s faces when we know we have a hit song.”
