Mi Casa’s could blow you out of the water
J SOMETHING is struggling to get up onto the inflated rectangle that keeps caving in with each touch. He’s laughing through it, though.
The Mi Casa frontman is waist-deep in the Vaal River and with the assistance of some of the water sports guides – and with no assistance from those of us who are standing on dry land and laughing at him – he eventually gets onto what’s called a “blob”.
The aim? To send him flying back into the water as soon as someone else jumps onto the blob. If this sounds like a silly thing to do, that’s because it is. It’s silly and fun and the first activity of the #My1stShotLeft campaign.
Run by South Africa Tourism and spearheaded by Mi Casa, the campaign will see the beloved house music band travel to all nine provinces, exploring the beauty of our nation, while having fun with their friends and fans.
“We came up with this concept and partnered with Sho’t Left to make sure that we show other South Africans that South Africa is really beautiful,” J Something told me. “Our album is called Home Sweet Home and we recorded it overseas predominantly. Because we were missing home a lot, we decided to call it Home Sweet Home. This whole thing is about us taking pride in our beautiful nation.”
The first of the provinces they are set to visit was Gauteng, last week. With a few competition winners and some members of the media in tow, we set off for The Bon Hotel in the Vaal Triangle. Here, the order of the day was water sports, archery, volleyball, soccer and an intimate performance by Mi Casa. They were joined on stage by their good friend, Hip Hop Pantsula (HHP).
HHP also joined in some of the activities. He quipped: “We’re still debating the existence of the watermeisie and you guys want me to get into this water?”
The next day, we were off to Soweto where we were meant to bungee jump off the iconic FNB Towers. There were electricity issues so a few people ended up free-falling, some went quadbiking through the streets of Soweto, while others took a tour of the township by bicycle and others went paintball shooting.
Sho’t Left has long been South African Tourisms’s attempt at making it cool for South Africans to explore their own country. Usually at affordable rates. And because this was my first Sho’t Left ever, it was cool that I got to share it with one of the best live acts in the country.
Off stage, Mi Casa hung out with each other and shared laughs – when they weren’t congregated around a table at Vilakazi’s Restaurant, clowning each other over a game of Crazy 8.
But they mainly tried to split up – not in the way that the tabloids tried to insinuate – in order to spend time with the pockets of crews that inevitably form when a large group goes on an excursion. “It was so great,” Dr Duda later told me. “I never expected to do some adventurous things, especially not in the Vaal. It was an eye-opener. Now I know where to go when I need some adrenaline nyana.”
Usually the most camera-shy of the trio, Dr Duda was actually the most personable one on this trip. When the electricity situation in Soweto got some people down, he was chipper and joined in games where one had to spell their name using only their limbs. He always had jokes. Even when we went quadbiking together, he was a great sport.
Mo-T was really competitive – in a funny way – with us as we went paddling in the river. He also went out of his way to make sure that the winners were enjoying themselves. The winners were very funny. After waiting a gazillion hours to leave the South African Tourism offices and head to the Vaal, a few more people were trickling into the bus when HHP walked in. “Oh, my god,” one of the winners squealed. “I didn’t know HHP would be here. Who else is coming? Beyonce?”
The overall experience of #My1stShotLeft was a good one. It’s never fun to hurry up and wait when everyone has an itinerary, but I guess it’s understandable that that will happen when one is dealing with human beings.
Mi Casa will be bringing their musical friends to each province, so expect to see them perform their hit, Barman, with KZN’s own Big Nuz. In between these trips, J Something says the music isn’t being forgotten.
“We’ve had one plan since five years ago,” he told me as all three of them stood close together. “Just to make good music and put it out there. Do amazing shows like you saw last night. Many more singles. The album has 25 songs on it! We’re also focusing a lot of our energy on touring the rest of Africa. We’ll also go back to Europe and the States. There’s also a huge East African collabo coming up and we haven’t told anyone about that.”
Keep up with Mi Casa and the Sho’t Left campaign via social media.