House music Heavyweight
At just 23 years old, Heavy K is fast approaching legendary status. The house producer took through some of the highlights of his second album.
Jazmee’s Sina on the other end of the phone. He’s not
lying.
EAVYK doesn’t know when his album
will be released because he keeps
making news songs and trying to add
them to the album,” exclaims Kalawa
When photographer Thuli Mbatha and I arrive at
Heavy K’s mini mansion in Midrand around noon, he’s still asleep. Sox, whom you might remember from this year’s Big Brother Mzansi, is under a
blanket on the couch. He, too, has been asleep. Wiping
what’s left of a dream from his eyes, he tells us Heavy
K and the boys didn’t get any shut-eye until after four
that morning.
The producer who was born Mkhululi Siqula was up all night making music. Will it appear on his second album, Respect the Drumboss 2015 ? Sox smiles
and says: “Maybe.”
After a while, the young gun who broke into the music scene with the hit, Wena, featuring Mpumi,
comes outside to meet us.
“I’m done with the album,” he says as he poses for
Thuli. “It’s a double album and as we’re talking, the
songs are being mastered in Cape Town.”
The album is meant to have 22-tracks, but “last
week, I did a song with Speedy and thought, ‘maybe
Riky Rick can do something here’. Even though I’m
done, it’s like when you’re cooking, but you keep
adding spices.”
Music is the food of life after all, and the song
featuring Riky and Speedy is probably going to play
on and on this summer. It’s about a fly chick shaking
what her momma gave her and the beat has a quick
drum pattern that borrows from marimba. Heavy K
doesn’t seem like a flashy guy, but he insists on being
photographed on his Mercedes-Benz C63 – you know,
the model Cassper Nyovest wants and wishes he
could tell us why.
The luminous yellow car was Heavy K’s dream car
and is an extension of his quest to start and stay in
his own lane. This is obvious when we sit down in the
home studio. It’s a scorching day, but it’s not as hot as
the music he plays me as he beams with pride. A
plastic crucifix is stuck to the wall, eye-level with
Heavy K who reclines in the swivelling chair.
The Port Elizabeth-bred muso speaks about
creating a blueprint for African house music as though it was divine intervention. Before he released his debut album, Respect The Drumboss 2013 , he was
led to put African drums at the core of his music.
“Before Busi Mhlongo passed,” he remembers, “I (as part of Point 5) did a remix of her song Izizwe and
it was very popular. Even when I use international-
sounding chords, I make sure the beat and vocalists
are distinctly African.”
He admits that his gold-selling debut put a lot of
pressure on him: “At first, I was really scared. I
couldn’t let the fact that it sold well go. I named my
album that because I wanted people to respect my
music more than anything else. It’s a big title so I had
to make sure the music is at the level where it is
undeniably respectable.”
So he decided to keep the title and change the year
of release as he churns out albums because “I want to continue building on that respect.” If his first single, Sweetie, featuring Nokwazi, is anything to go by, that
respect remains intact. Heavy K also played us a song
featuring Nigerian artist, Burna Boy.
“I don’t understand what he’s saying, either,”
Heavy K laughs as Burna’s patois fills the room, “but
it’s going to open doors for other producers to try new
sounds.”
He turns the song down to tell me: “This song will
put me on a bigger platform. It’ll be my crossover
because I’m not competing with DJs in South Africa, I’m coming for David Guetta!” He also played Mzwangedwa, featuring Mondli Ngcobo. Mondli’s
voice is so smooth and neo-soul inspired over these crazy drums that you’ll forget this is someone who told us Koze Kuse all of last summer.
As expected, there is a song, called Moya ,
featuring frequent collaborator, Professor. With an
enveloping baseline, it’s about someone taking your
breath away. Heavy K moves his hands up and down
his knees while the song plays and grins with his eyes
closed when Mpumi starts singing. It’s a pleasant
surprise and special to the producer as these artists had a major hand in his success.
“From Lento to Beautiful War and now Nguye Lo ,
everything Professor and I do is a hit,” he smiles.
“Even with Mpumi, our working relationship is
amazing because we click. People are going to lose
their bonuses to this album!” Then he leans in for a
hi-five.
Heavy K may be tooting his own horn, but he is right to do so. Respect The Drumboss 2015 is going to
catapult his star into a supernova. When we leave his
home, it’s clear Heavy K will not be having an early
evening: “All the music people have heard from me
wasn’t a mistake. I am music and if there was no
more music, I’d have to die tomorrow.”