“This is our Time”: Nozinja takes shangaan to the world


Nozinja feat. Tiyiselani Vomaseve “Kuna… by brtvofficial

While Boiler Room was in South Africa forits most recent Stay True Journey with Ballantines Scotch Whisky, they recorded a special film with Richard Mthethwa – aka Zinja Hlungwani, but best known as Nozinja – and then caught up with him afterwards to get a little background on how he feels to be an ambassador for a sound with a very particular history.

Nozinja occupies a unique place in the South African electronic music world. Where others have taken house or hip hop as their template and hybridised these with local styles to create something new, he is the producer who has most unabashedly used traditional rhythms – the hyper-speed percussion of the Shangaan dances he attended in Soweto – as his base.

The style he invented as a result, Shangaan electro, has been a runaway success, with international festival audiences falling at his feet and those of the deranged dancers who accompany his performances – leading to a highly productive partnership with WARP records, and the great Shangaan Shake remix album on Honest Jon’s.

Read the full interview here