I Am Mapanta
an interview with Serokolo 7
electronic garble… static…. “rural, the rural areas, places like that, Limpopo”… more garble…“not really good, netwaaarkkkkkkk,” and Tshepang’s voice breaks away, bouncing off the satellites…
I am trying to interview Serokolo 7 after his track, Bonkoko Bagana was dropped by Björk during a DJ set at the Venice Biennale. Which happened shortly after his Nyege Nyege-released Maramfa Musick Pro was reviewed on Guardian UK, The Fader, and The Wire.
I know that Serokolo 7 is in the car. This is my second attempt to interview him. The first was the night before when they were in studio, got too busy.
Trying to speak on the phone with his manager and producer Tshepang Ramoba, drummer for the BLK JKS, producer of Moonchild’s first album and connoisseur of anything not mainstream.
Ramoba: Pulling over. Okay. Let me go outside. We don’t have much time, because we have to go on in like 15 minutes.
bios: Should we do this later?
Ramoba: We’re late for the gig, but now is fine, we have fifteen minutes.
bios: Björk called you Amapiano, right?
Ramoba: You know, actually, she didn’t call it Amapiano, she also played Mapanta as well, so one post serves a lot of videos. She was describing … static
bios: It just seems like a lot of people jumped onto that, like the press jumped onto that, like the description of it as Amapiano, the lumping of all South African music into one genre, like kwaito.
Ramoba: It didn’t make him feel good.
Gravel crunches, then…
Ramoba: O feela bjang ge batho ba counter music wa gago as Mapanta?
Serokolo 7: Ga e ntsware ga botse ke le panta.
Translation: It doesn’t sit well with me because I am Mapanta.
Ramoba: It’s not good… because it’s very specific, and it’s a very niche genre, today’s culture.
bios: So in the Bandcamp bio it says that he discovered Mapanta and has been bringing it back since 2011, that would make his discovery around the age of 17?
Silence. The phone call has ended.
Four minutes later they call back from another number.
Ramoba: My battery died but we’re at the gig now, we’re pulling up at the gig…
The sound of staccato off-beat music, a distant exorcism, greetings as a window rolls down.
bios: Let’s do this later, it’s three now, maybe before the gig?
Ramoba: That’s fine. We can do it later today, tomorrow — whenever it’s chill. I’ve got my phone on me. I was moving yesterday so yesterday was just hectic.
I do not hear back later, or the next day, and start to wonder if I will get to speak to Serokolo 7 directly. I send through a series of questions by text.
The gig they attended looked like this…
…. and you can’t see this unless you follow Ramoba.
Later that week, Ramoba records a voice note of himself asking Serokolo 7 the questions. I can only hear his translations. A transcript follows.
bios: How was the gig last night?
Ramoba: The gig last night was fire, it was very good, it was packed and the new songs that we created worked very well.
bios: What memories do you have of the moment of discovering Mapanta? What did it signal for you?
Ramoba: He started music in high school with Bacardi music, he was producing Bacardi. Every time his family went to a wedding, when he would tag along, he would hear the Mapanta beat. He wouldn’t hear a lot of it because they play it very late at night, literally the day before the wedding. He liked the sound and started messing around with it using Bacardi music sounds, then later changed to any sound he liked within Fruity Loops.
bios: How does the Fruity Loops workflow contribute to the music?
Ramoba: Somebody who was older, already out of high school, just put it on his computer. He taught himself how to use it. He says it’s the best, that’s the only thing he can use.
bios: I’ve heard the term wedding music a lot, this seems like a simplistic translation — can you expand on it?
Ramoba: The music is very important for specific events. They produce or compose songs when booked for a wedding or unveiling — songs specific to that event. They call out names. ‘Hey, Roger Young and Lucy are getting married today. It’s a fun day.’ That would be in the songs. They produce new songs all the time, specific to each event, and hope the listener enjoys the songs while the event is happening. They’re from Limpopo. There’s a wedding all the time — every week, sometimes multiple weddings. The night before the wedding they cross-night, they’ll dance Mapanta the whole night. Then the next day they do the wedding songs. Other events: unveilings of tombstones, those kinds of celebrations.
bios: From your first experiments, over the last ten years, what moments stood out?
Ramoba: The moment that stood out: getting booked for a big wedding in Raskoukoune, and seeing people in Europe dancing to his music. He was really happy about that.
bios: Is there a place for celebration for today’s youth, with unemployment and other challenges?
Ramoba: They’re always celebrating — every week, even the day before they go to dance, they celebrate. They go to the studio and create songs specific for the wedding. The whole week is a celebration from Thursday. Thursday they go to the studio, Friday they dance and play the music, Saturday is the actual show or wedding. He has a crew — he put the crew together with young people and it has helped with unemployment because they go DJ together, they dance together, they do everything together. More than 20 people in the crew.
bios: How does Mapanta fit in club culture?
Ramoba: They play the songs every now and then in clubs, but not that much, here and there. But in Limpopo the Manyalo they play in shops.
bios: Does the music have a set use? Is it prescriptive?
Ramoba: They produce new songs all the time, specific to each event, and they hope the listener enjoys the songs while whatever is happening is happening. Because it’s made specific for it.
bios: Tell me about the relationship between you and Serokolo 7. How did you meet?
Ramoba: We met online on Facebook. He sent me a message. For a long time it’s me trying and trying to get him, they’re very slow in responding and in doing anything.
bios: Tell me specifically about the tracks on this album. How were they chosen?
Ramoba: He doesn’t remember specific tracks because he’s made so many since. The album was for Maramfa. Maramfa is the crew — Maramfa Productions.
bios: Why did you choose Nyege Nyege to release through?
Ramoba: I pitched the music to Nyege Nyege. I sent them a lot of songs twenty or so, maybe more. They chose the songs.
bios: What were you doing in studio the other night?
Ramoba: They were making music for an unveiling of a tombstone. And they were going to dance the next day before the day — so they cross-nighted.
Still determined to get something from Serokolo directly, I feel like I am missing something, and I send Ramoba one last set of questions, he doesn’t read them, sends this response.
Ramoba: It’s very busy, everyone is trying to interview him, I’m booking so many gigs for all the Limpopo boys, trying to set something up, and it’s hard to speak to him, it took three days to respond to a request for a radio interview, maybe what you have is enough… You know he’s making music, he’s busy making music.