KNYMN by Dali Danger is a Love Letter to Kwaito & Kasi Rap

The debut album is not just genre-defying but fuses various sounds to produce a distinctively South African listening experience

In his album announcement, Dali Danger dedicates his debut album to the “6 year old boy who heard ‘Pantsula 4 Life’ and was inspired to chase his dream” which sets the stage for what is a journey through rich sounds from the golden age of kwaito, a cadence and flow ploughed from the architects of kasi rap with a sprinkle of beats from 2010s South African hip hop. The 9 track, 33 minutes long project is an audio feast cooked up by one of Vosloo’s finest.

Dali Danger came to recognition not through music but by being the constant co-star in social media skits produced by George ‘Okay Wasabi’ Mnguni. Several of Okay Wasabi’s skits were parodies of popular songs flipped for comedic purposes such as “Hamba ney’dudla” which was a parody of ‘Vura’ by Dj Citi Lyts. Dali Danger featured in those music parodies but soon after started releasing his own original music.

Dali Danger started releasing singles and in 2020 he released an EP titled Penny’s Rose. June 2023 came the debut full length album Ke Nako Ya Ma Nigga (KNYMN).

From the very first track down to the last, it is clear that this album draws much of its inspiration from the kwaito sounds of the late 1990s to early 2000s. Throughout the album Dali Danger samples the likes of Its My House by Kabelo Mabalane, We Love It Here by TKZee, Pantsula 4 Life by Kabelo Mabalane, Mambotjie by TKZee and Mari Ye Phepha by Bongo Muffin. He also brings in some later sounds by drawing from Dali by Sjava and Spirit by Kwesta (who he shares a hometown with). Like Beyoncé’s Renaissance, the many samples on this project are an ode to the sounds of old and a show of appreciation to those artists who paved the way for Dali Danger.

What is interesting about this project is that though it is heavily influenced by kwaito sounds, it is not a kwaito album. It is more reminiscent of a kasi rap album produced by the likes of Pro Kid but with modern day beats and the infamous log drum which has come to define the modern day South African sound. Track 7 – Schille Kamnandi sounds like something you would have heard from an underground club in Newtown in 2004 while Track 3 – Be Free sounds like a record AKA would have released during his Levels era.

In as much as some may be quick to categorise this as a hip hop project it’s clearly distinguishable from something Blxckie or Nasty C would produce (these two have come to be the standard for South African hip hop). The difficulty to box this album at the same time that it is a beautiful listening experience makes it a genre-defying masterpiece.

Credit is due to Dali Danger for staying faithful to his own sound. Though it may not be everyone’s taste, this album certainly does not sound like everything else on the market right now, all the while still maintaining a uniquely South African sound.

The log drum (which has come to define the Amapiano genre) also comes through very strongly throughout the album. One Twitter user who listened to the album said they felt like the log drum was overused. Whether you think it was overused or not, Dali Danger could not run away from incorporating an element of Amapiano into the project for two main reasons.

We are currently living through the golden age of Amapiano, a genre that has come to define the South African sound of the 2020s. If Dali Danger is going to produce an album that spans across decades and fuses sounds that defined South African music for the last 25 years, he cannot run away from Amapiano. Secondly, in as much as Dali Danger wanted to create a project that is authentic to him, he also has to think about the commercial viability of the project. And whether he likes it or not, what’s currently hot right now is Amapiano.

The incorporation of the log drum into this sound is not only so that the album can sell or go viral (which is the modern day measure of success) but also because it is central to the bigger idea of the album which is to pool together sounds from the different eras of popular South African music.

Something else that jumps out at you when looking at the track list is the number of features on the album. 7 out of the 9 tracks have a feature. It is important to note that none of these features are ‘household names’ and so Dali Danger cannot be accused of riding on the coattails of other artist. What these collabs show is what Issa Rae termed “networking across” which is collaborating with the people who are on the “same level as you” instead of constantly trying to work with people who have more name recognition than you (networking up).

What cannot be left unsaid is how dangerous Dali is on the pen. From the first track down to the last, the rap lyrics are well crafted while simultaneously creating the feeling of being off the cuff which is something Pro Kid was a master at. It is even difficult to pick out a single song as having the best lyricism because it is clear that Dali put in equal effort into every song. The seamless switches from English to Kasi Taal (a mixture of IsiZulu and Sesotho spoken in townships in the East, West and South of Joburg) is another testament of the hard work Dali Danger put into the lyrical work of the album.

We cannot talk about an album without some discussion about its commercial viability. An album becoming a commercial success these days depends on many factors and some might say it’s now dependent on just luck. With apps like TikTok and Twitter being so popular and the slow decline of radio and music tv channels it’s now social media that largely dictates which songs are popular.

The album on its own is good but will heavily depend on its social media marketability and maybe a viral moment for it to be a commercial success especially in a time where Amapiano is dominating the music scene. A simpler question about commercial success is, will this album make Dali Danger a lot of money? Probably not and that’s because of the times we live in and not because it’s not a good album.

Pulling from his early days as a co-star on Okay Wasabi’s skits, Dali Danger produced a series of skits with the help of names like Nqanawe, Menzi ‘Anarchadium’ Mzimela, Sibu Mpanza and Okay Wadabi. These are 5 minute long skits in comedic documentary style of an up and coming artist trying to launch an album. The plot line of the skits flips Dali Danger’s actual reality of being a new kid on the block into a marketing tool for the album.

The skits were released on YouTube leading up to the release of the album to build up anticipation for the project. Like many other artist Dali Danger understands the importance of utilising social media to aid in the success of a music project.

From the lyrics on every song, the fantastic artists featured, the samples from some of the best music produced in this country, the production value, to the thought and consideration that went into making this music this is a project that Dali Damger can be proud of.