Bantwini’s new album gets royal welcome

ZAKES Bantwini’s Ghetto King album, that dropped last Friday, was met with great enthusiasm following the star’s unexpected hit song Osama, that trended weeks before the album dropped.

Bantwini, real name Zakhele Madida, said the album that took two years to complete was a product of constant working and reworking, until he was happy with the final offering – music that has staying power, and until his next body of work is ready.

“With Ghetto King, I kept going back and revisiting the music, changing this and that. By last year, I had already accumulated enough songs for an album but I kept on pushing back the release date because I felt that I couldn’t drop it while in lockdown.”

Releasing an album, for Bantwini, meant he needed to perform and promote those songs.

“So it was during that time of postponement that I made new music, and had I released it last year, songs like Osama wouldn’t have made it on to the album,” he said.

“All my albums have a four-year gap between them because I love putting out music that has longevity and depth. With each song on this album, I must have spent two months.

“Music for me is very spiritual and while working on each song, I would pray and ask ‘let the people who are meant to be on the album come’.

“Thereafter I would call everyone, requesting for a collaboration, and for those who came back to me, I knew they were meant to work with me.”

Ghetto King features artists such as Amanda Black and Da Carpo and also includes new emerging artists, “because I believe they are the future of dance music”.

“This is my first album where I have collaborated with so many artists and I think 95% of the album is a collaborative effort,” he said.

“It’s a beautiful body of work and I love the fact that I get to introduce some of the young producers and artists who were not known before. This album will do wonders to their careers, just like the rise of Kasango.Seeing him growing like he is now is amazing.

“Recently we saw his Spotify statistics and he grew by 100 000 in one day, that is worth everything to me,” Bantwini said.

Speaking about his banger song Osama, which means lion in Arabic, he said it was a creative experiment of languages, melodies and sound.

“What inspired the song is the feeling we had in the studio. After we played with the instrumentals, both myself and Nana Atta, who I co-wrote the song with, had goosebumps because it was so spiritual for us.

“Right there and then we knew that we didn’t want any subject attached to the song, we didn’t want it to belong to any language, but wanted it to be fluid and mean anything it will to the listener.

“I think that aim has been achieved because listeners have different experiences with the song.

“The entire album took the same creative process, where the vocals were inspired by the instrumentals, taking guidance from the energies that came from the instrumentals,” he said.

Bantwini said this release is extra special to him “because it’s all about being vulnerable to the public and how they receive it matters”.

“Titling my album Ghetto King is intentional because of this lingering misconception that tells us that kings can’t be born in the ghetto, but I want this album to prove that greatness can be found in the ghetto.

“I want to change perceptions about what people in the ghetto can achieve, and dispel the notion that we can’t inspire, we can’t create jobs or even change the narrative.

“It’s also a name I was given by guys that I grew up with, so I just took it because of the power that it represents.

“Now I am taking the term ‘ghetto king’ to the world,” he said.