On Wednesday afternoon ZAlebs was invited to an exclusive listening session of local rapper, Zeus' new African renaissance album titled African Time.
Upon our arrival at the EMI studios (Rosebank) we were welcomed with a bowl of ama kip kip (multi-colour popcorn) which were decked on the table.   Do you guys also remember that Zeus was a contestant on Big Brother season 6?

Although we were a little late in arriving, we managed to hear the first ten seconds of a track titled Fast 5 which had an eclectic Nigerian feel to it. The track also features Rexx:

“I tend to feel this great sense of nostalgia whenever I listen to Fast 5, especially the arrangements of the beats, even when the song was still in it's skeletal phase it really took me back to my childhood days.  The Fast 5 sound  is a reflection of the songs I would hear in the background whilst growing up.  When home my dad used to play songs from the bongo Man and Papa Wemba so this sound was really just an extension of those songs as well as my childhood.”

During the listening session Zeus constantly emphasized the importance of Africanism and the amount of reference and research he placed in making this project a full African experience but also not taking away from the culture that is Hip Hop.

One of our favourite songs on the track is Kwela Man featuring Mzekezeke, Kwela Tebza and the Mahotella Queens, quite a random collaboration right? But the song sounds amazing with the eclectic sounds of Kwela Tebza’s pennywhistle beautifully arranged over the legendary voices of the Mahotella Queens.

Another track that stole our hearts was Love featuring Tamarsha who has managed to garner several features on many local hip hop songs such as Khuli Chana’s Konka and on Young Nations 2010 album United States of Africa

Zeus’s producer - Don Juan was also in attendance and gave us a synopsis of the track:

“Love is a very personal song to me and Zeus because I’ve witnessed him go through two very serious relationships.  And that’s exactly what this song is talking about, when you are so invested in a relationship that you’d even give your life to keep and make it work.  This song really speaks to the heart and I feel that many people will relate to it as much as Zeus and I did.”

Don also emphasized the importance of African unification, we were also pleased to hear him voice his opinions on the poor treatment local artists receive as soon as an international act lands on our shores.  Something ZAlebs discussed two weeks ago on our What's up with that S.A promoters article. Check out the video below to see what Don had to say.

A huge shout out to the people at Red Flag Agency for the invite.