“South Africa… there’s no place on Earth like it. People party, yeah... but like, we live it, we breathe it, the music, everything! It’s ingrained in our culture. You have to come here and experience it to really feel it,” says DBN Gogo. She was in the artists’ arrival section fresh off of her historic back-to-back with friend and collaborator Tyler ICU – the first time this has ever happened. We’re about four hours into the multi-stage multi-genre event showcasing some of the world’s most innovative artists on local stages. It’s a year-long programme consisting of ten in-person and broadcast music events around the world with Johannesburg being one of the first stops on this journey.

Here in South Africa, there is an illustrious history of sound from Brenda Fassie to Tyla and Black Coffee to Lucky Dube. Not to mention the most recent viral success of Amapiano, reaching the diaspora and beyond across continents and borders. The night was a celebration of local sounds and the talents championing them, as well as a mix of global genres and DJs with varying set lists. Over the past decade, Ballantine’s True Music has been at the forefront of this and 2024 marks ten years of its journey in pushing music culture forward. Across this time over 800 pioneering headliners and emerging artists, as well as local scenes from over 30 countries across six continents, have been represented.

Backstage, Tyler ICU was just as keen to tell me about what makes the sound, style and movement in South Africa so unique. “It’s the spirit of how kind we are,” he begins. “Our warmth creates the sounds because if you listen to a lot of our music, it’s always spiritual and it has this warmth in it.”

SIO’S SIGHTSEEING TOUR OF SOWETO AND BEYOND

Sio, the Johannesburg-based storyteller and singer-songwriter arrived in a full Thebe Magugu fit, greeting us with a smile. She took us on a tour of Johannesburg, telling us all the tales and cultural histories in the city’s characteristic tongue-rolling accent. “Soweto is a people and a consciousness. It was a place that housed the working people,” she started before going into further detail about its “sinister architecture” and it being the “hub of culture”. Winding through the roads and seeing the historic township up close was an experience. Seeing the birthplace of genres such as Kwaitoo as well as the political campaigns aimed at overthrowing the apartheid state. She spoke of the Kid Funke vents she frequented, going past venues that have both survived and long gone since the pandemic. Pointing towards a store she says, “It used to be a club, now it’s a KFC.” 

A VISIT TO DOWNTOWN STUDIOS & MR VINYL

At Downtown Studios, we were taken on a tour of the three studios and the Museum of Music History in the basement. A melting point in culture and people, it was a safe space during the apartheid era and to this day is known as Jozi’s own “hit factory” since 1979. Our host greeted us in an “Africa your time is now” emblazoned t-shirt as he went through great detail and storytelling concerning the music being made in the space and the legends that have passed through in their time. From new-age Amapiano artists to traditional musicians, it’s host to them all with a 70s-style wooden interior. At 44 Stanley, a garden courtyard and complex housing several independent stores, we visited Mr Vinyl and collected a few records as mementoes for the trip.

THE MAIN EVENT WAS HELD IN AN ABANDONED WAREHOUSE

Hosted at 1Fox, an abandoned warehouse in the south of the city, the True Music 10 event was four rooms of Amapiano hits, Gqom sounds and genre-bending sets from talent from across the African continent and world. Names that took to the stages included KMAT, Scorpion Kings, member of Nyege Nyege collective, Kampire, Nairobi-based Coco EM, queen of the Spanish club scene, Toccororo, Venezuela-born co-founder of Classicworks record label, Safety Trance, and Nigerian star Seyi Vibez.

TYLER ICU & DBN GOGO GO B2B 

Tyler ICU and DBN Gogo went B2b for a historic set for the first time early on in the night. Just before the set, we caught up with Tyler ICU, the mastermind behind earworm hit, “Mnike”, backstage who told us about his goals for the year ahead. “Right now, I'm working more and just uplifting more young artists,” he starts. “At this time we need a lot of young artists coming in because most of us are getting older so we need to at least leave some knowledge behind. This thing is growing and will reach more places than this and I’m one of the people that wants to elevate.” Just before she rushed off, DBN Gogo was equally as pumped about supporting the next generation of talent after recently establishing Zikode Records, her label imprint. “I think new talent is something special. You’re not going to be the mover and the shaker all the time,” she begins. “You only find something new once, so you have to listen to the kids, support them, and put them on because they are the next generation.”