Way before the whole Durban Kwaito Movement blew up, shifting pop sensibilities towards ambiance and nursery rhyming, a generation of Durban MC's dug deep into their lineage and the local street culture to advance language in ways that would make the great Zulu linguist Thokozani Nene dance in his grave.
Manelis is an archetype of that generation, that saw the reflections of themselves and their surroundings with each listen of Redman and Boot Camp Click. The result of putting his own stamp to influences is that, like Ol’ Dirty Bastard, there is no father to his style, making him the older god of the poetically flung, recontextualised Zulu proverb. On this track, S’tshengise, the title of an EP released in 2009, he teams up with the Eastern Cape beat maestro Top Shayela and ace turntablist P-Kuttah.