Kwai House:
Kwaito refreshed by
Cape Town duo the Ruffest
As we mentioned in an article earlier in the year, Kwaito has been losing ground to the more international sound of South African House music since the middle of the decade. Kwaito was created after DJs started chanting call-and-response lyrics over slowed down House beats, but of late Kwaito producers have had to start speeding up the beats again to get more play from DJs who are more inclined to play House than "traditional" Kwaito.
So we're talking "new" Kwaito, if you will, and in addition to the artists we mentioned in that piece now add Cape Town's own the Ruffest, the latest stars of Kwai-House. The duo consists of Sello Mangwana and Andile Stemele, best friends who started out (separately) as pantsula dancers but teamed up to form the Ruffest after Andile was left wheelchair bound after getting shot in 2004. (The pantsula dance has been around for decades — here's one crew — but most people around the globe became aware of it when Beyoncé used pantsula dancers in her Run The World (Girls) video).
Anyway, the duo's funky beats and clever kasi lyrics (kasi is township slang; language and dialect are a key part of Kwaito) has seen then go, in the space of three years, from performing in small taverns deep inside townships to sharing the stage with some of the biggest names in Johannesburg and Durban House, and bringing some overdue credit back to Cape Town.
The video above — shot in in one day in Nyanga, where the guys are from — is for Siyabenzela (which loosely translates as "for the people"), and is from their 3-track debut EP, Cape Town Ses'fikele.
The Ruffest by Red Bull Studio CT
These guys have only just begun. Join then on Facebook. Also download and enjoy the Kwai Step remix DJ/Producer Steve Elsworth aka Audiophile021 cooked up a few months ago.
Ruffest - Siyabenzela (Audiophile 021 Kwai Step Remix) by Audiophile021