Rapping up on a bizarre Sun
After years of issues and tension between kwaito and house producer Guffy Pilane and kwaito’s bad boy, Tokollo Tshabalala, the two have finally made peace through a new song, writes Therese Owen
T WAS going to be one of those Sundayswhen God smiles through the sunshine and everything is beautiful. Oh, yeah, if you’re hanging with Guffy Pilane and Tokollo Tshabalala expect the unexpected.
The two are together to shoot a video for the track Doing it in Style. This is the first time they have worked together since that fateful accident in Botswana. Guffy and Magesh were in a car that hit another. The female driver died.
Magesh was accused of murder after it was claimed that he was driving the car, an allegation he has always vehemently denied.
This meant that he was facing the death penalty if found guilty.
The South African government refused to extradite him as this country does not have the death penalty.
After seven years of toing and froing, the charge was reduced to culpable homicide and Magesh was found not guilty. During all this time Guffy remained silent. He claimed that he had passed out in the bar where they were drinking and woke up in hospital.
This caused a riff in their relationship.
Twelve years later, when he and producer Terry Pinana were working on a song in Zwai Bala’s studio, Magesh walked in. When he heard the beats he asked if he could be on the track. The result is the very hot semi-kwaito track Doing it in Style.
“Guffy was just lurking around on the song,” explains Tokollo. “It came on just so nice.”
No surprises that the lyrics deal with the Botswana issue and both of them rap on the track.
“I talk about how maybe since our little thing in Botswana, maybe we should call it quits,” says Tokollo. Yeah, well, let’s see about that. Now, back to Sunday. The video shoot involves tattoos, bikers and lotsa fun and performances by Guffy and Magesh.
First up is the tattoo parlour in Rosebank called Black and White Tattoo where Guffy is getting his six-year-old son’s name Phatshwane jr tattooed on his forearm. He has been inked before so he knows what to expect. Magesh, on the other hand, is curious. This is not his territory. The two are cued by director Monde Dube of Creative Entertainment to walk into the shop.
From the get-go one can see the chemistry between Guffy and Magesh. Their collaboration as producer and artist began in the late 1990s when Guffy signed Magesh just before TKZee came together. In fact, Tokollo gave Godfrey Pilane his nickname. In a party state, Tokollo gave up trying to say Godfrey and was “aah, its just easier to say Guffy rather”.
They laugh a lot and there is genuine caring from Guffy’s side.
Then it is time for the tattoo. As that high-pitched wurr of the needle kicks in and then strikes the skin, Guffy says: “Great, that is ‘P’ done. Oh, no, it hasn’t even finished!”
Then there is an even louder wurring. Outside, 10 bikers have arrived in their full leather gear.
Magesh greets them shyly and then turns to me: “I never know what to say to bikers. They’re so scary. It’s like ‘hmmm, so, you drove
Iall the way from Daveyton. Hmm. And then you’re going to drive all the way back? Okay.’”
An hour later, Guffy is proud of his tattoo and we’re ready for the next scene. It’s off to Newtown where the script suggests that the bikers spin around the two stars.
On the way there, there is much laughter in the car between the two. Guffy smiles at me: “You know I never thought this s*** would happen. This is the first time we have worked since then.”
The song is part of a new album by Guffy which will be released in the next few weeks. It is also the first time he is using his vocals on the track.
“After Botswana I kinda lost my voice. It just got more and more raspier, like I smoke a lot. Then one day I woke up and it was back.”
On the track and, indeed, on the album, it is wonderful to hear him rap. He has a dark, gruff approach, yet his rhythm and timing are easy. He is a natural musician.
Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown has 10 bikers growling their engines. Guffy and Magesh, dressed in their ghetto best, are in the centre. Gorilla Films’ Justin Campos, a kwaito artist’s favourite director, is armed with the camera.
As the track starts for the umpteenth time and the camera rolls, the two of them rap into the camera, clutching on to each other like the long-time comrades they are.
“I’m not an African’t, I’m an African,” says Magesh in the chorus. It’s a Sunday so the only onlookers are the car guards who stare in fascination. One even raps to Guffy in the vague hope of being signed by one of South Africa’s most famous producers.
Then it’s on to the stairs of Library Gardens where young skater boys are careering backwards and forwards. When the growling bikers arrive there is certainly a clash of cultures. Young inner city kids on their skates and rich BEE part-time bikers on their most expensive horses. Both groups stare at each other. Both groups have a desire for individual identity and recognition, yet there is still an air of contempt between the two.
Guffy and Magesh are completely unaware. They are too wrapped up in the music and the camera. They are here to do a job.
It’s surreal to experience. On the steps of the Johannesburg library, two of the country’s bad-ass kwaito boys are rapping about how they are now friends again after the hell of Botswana, while skaters of all creeds and colours perform tricks and BEE bikers in their leathers chill on their massive bikes. It is definitely a bizarre Sunday.
We have time to chill before the final scene in a club in Pretoria. We head for Guffy’s golf estate.
“This song is a new style of kwaito in terms of the sounds I’m