Spinning an tribute to the legend who was Brenda Fassie, 23-year-old Nkosi X has released VoidTapeVol1: a 30 minute futuristic deep dive of a sonic project.
Honing as much into Fassie’s legacy as it does into Nkosi X’s own inimitable sound, the album finds its feet rooted in hip-hop and R&B undertones as a slew of alien synths wash over the top of it all.
The aim of this album is largely an addition to the tribute shows he has been putting together for the Black Madonna in recent months – creating a space where black artists are able to come together to create a dialogue about her life and legacy. Not only with regards to the music she so effervescently put out in the height of apartheid, but more so what she represented for black artists of South Africa.
The album is brimming in texture and substance, fleshed out and swimming through a multitude of synth forays and semi-tone beats. The tracks are busy, teaming with life and yet somehow still maintain an easy ambience which never overwhelms.
Fast-spat lyrics slips through “New Life”, meeting a static, playful beat – while “Waterfalls” favours a chiming synth and solid kick of a beat. Sliding, liquid hip-hop tangents are all over the place – almost always pivoted off a grinding beat undertow.
“Beautiful Corpse” is perhaps the most hard-hitting track of them all. Chiming, oozing, pulsing synth meets hip-hop in an ode to black geniuses, the rough-and-tough of life, and just what keeps you going. There are truths heavy on his tongue in this one.
He’s here to defend and move every inch of Brenda Fassie’s cultural vision forward with a gloriously paced modern touch.
