The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Correspondent
LAST year, the world watched in awe as South Africa’s Cassper Nyovest successfully packed Johannesburg’s famed 20 000-seater TicketPro Dome — a feat few thought was achievable when the rapper announced his ambitions a few months prior.
One person who insists he had always believed that Nyovest would pull of that monumental, is the ponytailed rapper’s trusted keyboardist, producer and right-hand man Almonte “Alie Keys” Mthombeni. To show his trust of his Zimbabwean protégé, Nyovest had entrusted Alie Keys with the responsibility of being the musical director for the show which was held on 31 October last year. Alie paid off Nyovest’s trust by putting together a flawless show, with few grumbles from the 20 000 strong crowd that turned up on the day Nyovest proved that a South African act can pull off a show of that magnitude.
A year later, Nyovest and Alie Keys are plotting to pull off an even bigger coup. While Soweto football giants Orlando Pirates might struggle to fill up the club’s famed Orlando Stadium terraces during a normal South African Premiership match, the two young visionaries are planning to bring in 40 000 fans into the stadium on 29 October this year. Alie Keys, who now sits comfortably besides Nyovest on his throne as his permanent musical director, is expected to handle the musical aspect of what is sure to be another monumental event by the multi-platinum selling rapper.
For Alie Keys, the responsibility that Nyovest has bestowed upon him is not accidental, as he has won over the rapper’s trust after years of good and dedicated work. Nyovest and Alie Keys are musical Siamese twins it seems, with one’s taste complementing the other due to their years together in the musical trenches as budding artistes.
“Cassper made me his musical director because of my approach to music. I used to play with a band called the Red Riots and we used to be one of the bands that could replace a DJ effortlessly. Cassper used to watch us perform a lot before he was deep in the industry,” he said.
Keys went on to describe the central role he is set to play during this year’s festivities.
“At Orlando Stadium, I’ll be the music director. Basically I’m the guy who’s going to lead/be the driver of the band. I’m the guy who knows who I’ll have in terms of musicians while also creating a team that I can lead. I’m the one who’ll have to create live versions of Cassper’s songs so that the band can play. I’ve to make sure the music produced by the band is top class while ensuring that both the band and Nyovest are in sync.”
A year after pulling the strings behind the scenes at The Dome, Alie believes that he is now in a better position to take Nyovest fans to musical nirvana when they come to witness his latest history making spectacle. While he thrived under the Dome’s pressure cooker atmosphere, the keyboard players says that the run up to that show had not been easy and he does not expect filling up Soweto’s Orlando Stadium to be an easier task.
“I really learnt a lot from the Dome, now I know how it feels to direct big shows like that. The pressure in putting that event together was too much as we only had a month. I simply told my guys (band) that we had to pull off something amazing, all we wanted to do was to leave a mark.
“I learnt that too much pressure makes you stronger, not weaker. Playing for 20 000 people made me feel like a king behind those keys.”
“The hardest part when it comes to pulling off a big show like Fill Up Orlando is pressure, pressure and more pressure. You have to make sure that the band is on point by rehearsing every day for about two months while you also need to create more ideas that can accommodate both the band and the back track that will be used during the show.
“You need to make sure that on the day, there’ll be no mistakes because you can’t do that in front of 40 000 people while also making sure that you raise the bar higher for not only yourself but Cassper and Family Tree,” he said.
Due to the bravado in their music and lyrics, some might have the image of rap superstars as egotistic wordsmiths that are hard to work with. However, according to Alie, Nyovest does not have any diva tendencies despite his popularity.
“Nyovest and I are always on the same page no matter the circumstances. Here and there, I’ve to listen to him when he wants something done on the production side but he listens to me as well. It’s a 50-50 situation all the time,” he said.
