TNY-KS1 - American Toyi-Toyi Rap (1991)

Sounds of Soweto/Gaza, GAZA(K)003   
Producers: Leftie Rhikoto & Thabo Mosia, Gaza Executive Producers
Engineer: Ian Carmichael       
Recorded at: Toad Hall Studios, London

Very dodgy stuff  from electronic musician Anthony Horton and Keith Strickland (B-52s?) that tries to blend mbaqanga with stone-age house beats and over-the-top American hip-hop vocals, but without the same success as Malcom McLaren. Produced and arranged by Leftie Rhikoto and Thabo Mosia, who were behind local acts like Tiny Tots, Mordillo and Chukucha.

It's aged badly but is still notable as part of international musos' fight against apartheid and as a call for peace as ANC-IFP violence threatened to send the country into civil war. Titles include '1990 Free At Last', 'ANC/Inkatha Stick Togother', 'Street Wars in Townships' and 'A Prayer For Peace'. 

"We gotta stop it all,
We gotta make that government fall...
Who's wrong, who's right?
We're just trying to make them see the light."

GEORGE FENTON & JONAS GWANGWA - Cry Freedom (1987)

MCA/Tusk, LMCA 6224   
Producers: George Fenton & Keith Grant   
Engineer: Keith Grant       
Recorded at: Abbey Road, CBS & Twickenham Studios, London

Soundtrack to the 1987 film about Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko, played by Denzel Washington. Written by prolific British composer George Fenton and Mzansi jazz icon Jonas Gwangwa, who led the ANC's cultural arm Amandla in exile. Also featuring UK-based heavyweights like Lucky Ranku, Dudu Pukwana and Bheki Mseleku, as well as British synth-man Ken Freeman.

Nominated for a Grammy in 1988 as well as for Oscars for Best Score and Best Song for the title track, which Gwangwa performed live at that year's ceremony. The music is a powerful blend of Eno-esque orchestration, mostly mellow and moody, with some old-time South African jazz (on tracks like 'Shebeen Queen'). Highlights include a version of the then-banned anthem 'Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika' sung by Thuli Dumakude.

Director Richard Attenborough writes: "Jonas has brought to the soundtrack a veracity and vividly African flavour which conveys a unique feeling of place and mood. This George has transmuted into a music track which is wonderfully accessible to a non-African ear. Their collaboration has been remarkably successul, resulting in what I consider to be the finest film score George Fenton has ever written."

 

MALCOLM McLAREN with the McCLARENETTES - Soweto / Zulus on a Time Bomb (1983)

The Famous Charisma Label (Phonogram/Trutone), TOS 1 429
Producer: Trevor Horn
Execuctive Producer: Steve Weltman)
Composer: McLaren/Horn

 

MALCOLM McLAREN - Double Dutch (1983)

The Famous Charisma Label (Phonogram/Trutone), SV 0048
Producer: Trevor Horn
Engineer: Gary Langan
Composer: McLaren/Horn

 

British punk svengali Malcolm McLaren surprised the world with his first solo album, Duck Rock in 1983. Today remembered for being the first album to bring hip hop to the British mainstream, other tracks on the album such as “Double Dutch”, “Soweto”, “Jive my baby” and “Zulus on a time bomb” relied almost entirely on local mbaqanga sounds. To do so, McLaren visited South Africa in 1982 and recorded with local artists at RPM studios in Johannesburg.

  

"...McLaren’s enthusiasm for African music was aroused by recordings of the black township jive known as Mbquanga (sic). Trever Horn, who produced the album, listened to hundreds of hours of tapes in preparation for the project. McLaren, through Charisma Records, which will release the album in the UK, got in touch with its South African licensee Trutone, which in turn hooked him up with Phil Hollis, head of Dephon Records, an independent company here with a large stake in indigenous black music. The original intention was to record only one or two tracks in South Africa, but in the end enough material was taped … to fill a whole album, with Horn and engineer Gary Langan flying out to join the project and local black artists participating.” (Billboard magazine, Nov 20, 1982: (p.60)  

No songwriting credit was given to any SA musicians. Dubbed in some quarters as “the great rock & roll swindler,” Malcolm McLaren took the Boyoyo Boys’ hit single "Pule" (or  "Puleng" as it is sometimes referred to) and turned it into "Double Dutch", which reached number 3 on UK charts, his highest charting single to date. McLaren claiming songwriting credit for himself and Horn, refused to share the royalties with the song’s real authors. Only after a lengthy legal struggle did the group receive their dues.  McLaren, as manager of the Afro-punk act Bow Wow Wow, had also ripped off the Mahotella Queens when he stole “Umculo Kawupheli" for their track “Jungle Boy”.

Other artists who reportedly contributed to McLaren's success were  legendary Bayete vocalist Jabu Khanyile, and pennywhistle champ Aaron “Big Voice Jack” Lerole, though little evidence exists. Influential music critic by Robert Christgau wrote at the time, “I wish he'd thought to mention which specific Africans contributed to which specific tracks. Culture may be collective, but (in this culture) wealth ain't.”