Award-winning Mdantsane musician and former boxer Nathi Bantu, formerly known as Nathi B, has come up with a new sound he calls nyuvadem during his exploration of African soul, fusion and folk music.
Speaking to the Daily Dispatch, Bantu said since the release of his first album in 2009 a lot had changed in his life. “When I released my first album I didn’t have a distribution company and I was doing a lot of things myself. This time around I knew I had to make some changes.”
Currently based in Johannesburg, Bantu said he now had a managing company and a PR team. “Your talent alone as an artist won’t grow your brand; you need help to help grow your brand,” he said, adding he was in talks with distribution companies to help launch his latest music.
His new single Novatshula was an emotional plea to his life partner, an uplifting conversation between two deeply interlinked hearts.
Bantu has come a long way since his songwriting days in the early 2000s. He hung up his boxing gloves in the late 1990s to pursue a career in music. He started as a songwriter in 2003, writing in English, after a short stint at Radio CKI. But it wasn’t until he started writing songs in his mother tongue, isiXhosa, that he found his voice in the music world.
This saw him release his first album, Ilanga, which won the best reggae album award at the South African Traditional Music Awards.
Although heavily influenced by the views of Marcus Garvey and Steve Biko, the lessons he learned as a boxer still influence him. “The will to fight in the ring makes me fight for people’s rights in my music.”
His new sound was developed while staying true to his reggae roots – a sound he has coined nyuvadem. “It’s a fusion of a lot of genres and I am excited about this,” he said.
“I will be releasing another single soon and there is a music video on the way. The single Ndize will be for my commercial market penetration; I will use it to launch myself commercially,” he said. A new album would be released in April next year
Bantu fuses genres into new sound
Speaking to the Daily Dispatch, Bantu said since the release of his first album in 2009 a lot had changed in his life. “When I released my first album I didn’t have a distribution company and I was doing a lot of things myself. This time around I knew I had to make some changes.”
Currently based in Johannesburg, Bantu said he now had a managing company and a PR team. “Your talent alone as an artist won’t grow your brand; you need help to help grow your brand,” he said, adding he was in talks with distribution companies to help launch his latest music.
His new single Novatshula was an emotional plea to his life partner, an uplifting conversation between two deeply interlinked hearts.
Bantu has come a long way since his songwriting days in the early 2000s. He hung up his boxing gloves in the late 1990s to pursue a career in music. He started as a songwriter in 2003, writing in English, after a short stint at Radio CKI. But it wasn’t until he started writing songs in his mother tongue, isiXhosa, that he found his voice in the music world.
This saw him release his first album, Ilanga, which won the best reggae album award at the South African Traditional Music Awards.
Although heavily influenced by the views of Marcus Garvey and Steve Biko, the lessons he learned as a boxer still influence him. “The will to fight in the ring makes me fight for people’s rights in my music.”
His new sound was developed while staying true to his reggae roots – a sound he has coined nyuvadem. “It’s a fusion of a lot of genres and I am excited about this,” he said.
“I will be releasing another single soon and there is a music video on the way. The single Ndize will be for my commercial market penetration; I will use it to launch myself commercially,” he said. A new album would be released in April next year
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