Sizwe Sibiya
On Friday, South Africa’s legendary rappers K.O and MA-E formally introduced Mzansi Hip Hop fans to a group of new and diverse talents with the album Welcome to the Planet.
The project is the first to be released by Skhanda World, and features artists who are signed to the label.
Skhanda World was founded after K.O’s previous recording label Cashtime was disbanded.
The first track on the album, titled “Homeground”, features only artists from Skhanda World and from the music video, directed by Kumba Jemba, one can get the essence of the album.
As the leader of the pack, K.O leads the song with the chorus before jumping to the verse. He’s characteristically “nasty with his rhymes”, constantly taking jabs at badly behaved women, as he has done in most of his verses throughout his 16-year career.
Durban rapper Loki catches the flow from K.O, adopting the Skhanda way of flowing.
“We are getting ready for the touring, samba nabo-dolly,” raps Loki before passing it to Roii who raps in SeSotho with a recognisable United Kingdom grime influence in the third verse of the 4:25 minute video.
Meanwhile MA-E shares the last verse of the song with Just Bheki who brings a different atmosphere to the song as he starts his verse with an afro-pop melody before closing the song with a few bars.
Contrary to the hype around the 11-track album which features artists including like Blxckie, Focalistic, Cassper Nyovest, Tshego, AKA and Nadia Nakia, the music video is still humbly sitting at around 24,000 views on social media four days after it premiered on YouTube.
Video source: YouTube
