They are certainly not your typical modern musicians. This duo is not out for TikTok fame or challenges, they still believe in creating emotive music and when they perform, they're clear crowd pleasers.
Inkabi Zezwe released one of the most anticipated albums of the year, Ukhamba, and gained a new crop of fans who fell in love with the offering.
Then they took it a step further.
They've packaged the making of the album into a docuseries that aired on SABC for the first time recently. It was so well received that it trended on social media for days.
The artful docuseries was created with the help of a filmmaker who loved working with both artists.
Malope Makola was roped in by the rappers to help craft this glossy behind the scenes documentary.
“Originally, I am from Mamelodi, east of Pretoria and I have been applying my trade in the film and TV space for the past 16 Years, first as an editor then moving on to Producing and Directing," says the 37-year-old.
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Malope says this opportunity came about with his work for Warner Music Africa, who at the time had signed The Inkabi Zezwe project.
“They asked me to shoot a short, behind-the-scenes content piece. Instinctively I proposed the Warner Music Africa team that we expand the scope and vision and turn the content into a full realized documentary owing to the fact how epic this collaboration was going to.”
The label saw his vision and supported it, and this documentary was born.
Working with talents of this magnitude was an experience Malope won’t soon forget and his creative prowess clearly shows in the final offering.
“Working with Sjava and Big Zulu was a breeze, I have worked on similar projects before with many top South African recording artists, so the process and work environment was solid.
“The story approach was for us, the film team, to be a guests and observers in the world of Inkabi Zezwe. Everything we let flow organically to capture the raw emotions and process of the album making in its purest form devoid of any filters,” the astute filmmaker from Mamelodi explains.
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He couldn’t be happier to have had this documentary air on national television. “It is truly a blessing to air the documentary on SABC as we all know the SABC is an important public institution. To have the documentary air on SABC secures the fact that the 6-part documentary will be viewed by the majority of Inkabi Zezwe audience.”
Bringing this vision to life was a painless process for Malope who found working through any niggles a pleasure as all that did was add to the overall offering.
“The process was unbelievably smooth, because everyone was committed to the telling of this important story. The only challenge I think we really had was artist availability and aligning schedules for the other shooting sections.”
The first episode aired on Monday night and people seem to be gripped by the presentation which should inevitably open more doors for the director and maybe coax other artists, even beyond the parameters of rap or rap inspired music, to think about doing more than a couple of radio interviews when presenting their latest work to the world.
Malope also has high hopes for what he would like for you to glean from this project, “I would like viewers to take away the importance of knowing your culture and roots and also being proud about your heritage and where you come from.”
The remaining five episodes The Making of Ukhamba will air on Mondays at 9pm on SABC 1.
