Yebo! Rare Mzansi Party Beats from Apartheid's Dying Years

Mzansi is a Xhosa word meaning south and in the 1980s became shorthand slang in the townships for South Africa itself. The term also came to be applied to a kind of dance party music derived from American disco, boogie and funk, but given a local flavour. A similar naturalisation happened with township jazz and jive, and would happen when house music gave birth to kwaito in the 1990s. In the case of Mzansi music – also known as ‘bubblegum’ – this involved slowing down the bpm, going overboard on the drum machines and adding a touch of Soweto funk and Cape jazz soul. Compiled by the British DJ John Armstrong, Yebo! Rare Msanzi Party Beats from Apartheid's Dying Years features 14 weekend-dancefloor fillers. Standouts include the banging instrumental ‘Crocodile's Rock’, a prime slice of Hammond-heavy funk by Black Moses, two tracks by Paul Ndlovu, ‘Tsakane’ as well as the slow-burning jive of ‘Khombora Mina’, the stomping ‘Chomesa’ by the deep-voiced Chicco and the joyous ‘I Was Born in Africa’ by Richie S with its bouncing rhythms and call-and-response vocals. When this music was being made, the end of apartheid was still a decade away; the songs gathered on Rare Mzansi Party Beats helped people forget the evils of that regime, at least for a few hours on a Saturday night dancefloor.