SWEAT X [SOUTH AFRICA]

mp3: SWEAT X glitterati
it’s reassuring to know that africa has truly kicked us in the gut with some incredible music of late. the growing availability of hip hop outside of the continent has provided us with some original takes on the genre that suggests that the u.s. dominance is starting to wilt. then there’s the kuduro explosion that, despite the fact that it’s been in production for the last decade, took everyone outside of angola and portugal by surprise. and now africa is rolling out some sweet electro booty in the guise of sweat x -the self-titled “dynamic raverap voguehouse duo”.
after being alerted to their existence by the excellent blogs gutter broadcast and scattermish, i contacted sweat x and asked if they’d share a track with us – ‘glitterati’ is the result. sweat x are kool disco okapi (aka mc spoek mathambo) and markus wormstrom, the latter featured on fat planet back in february last year on a post re: african dope records. how things change – from wormstorm’s sweet electronica to this new, ravishingly dirty concoction.
on their murdochspace blog, “ndebele elektro folk singer” spoek goes into some detail about his path into the project: “i make a special style of dance-art-rap called ‘black sweat’, which is afrikan elektro speak for “cutting up the disko rug with a panga, blood on the dancefloor, new worlds on the black continent”… black sweat…is a new afrika. it’s sexxx. it’s fun. it is all the things that make living here incredibly dangerous, disjointed and dark and weird and maddd…and funny, and fun, and exciting. and it’s just begun.”
sweat x are currently unsigned and scouting for a suitable roof for their “afrikan bass” bins. you can find plenty of pre-sweat wormstorm material on the excellent african dope site, including his collab with producer sibot, entitled the real estate agents. spoek also appears with sibot on a mix album from two-time south african dj champion, redwood, entitled ‘redrum’.
murdochspace.com/sweatx