The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Correspondent
A MONTH after he released his third album, Thuto, South African rapper Cassper Nyovest is a man on top of the moon.
In the month since he gave South African music his latest chart topping project, tongues have been waging as many hail what they believe to be his best effort so far.
From the bravado of Nyuku, to the celebratory tone of Tito Mboweni and the emotional honesty of such songs as Superman and Destiny, Nyovest has been spun an entrapping web of melody and rap that has seen him achieve his third platinum album in the space of a month.
Despite the overall difference in style and theme of those songs, one man connects them all together. Bulawayo’s Cowdray Park-born-and-bred Almonte “Alie Keyz” Mthombeni is the thread that runs through the album’s 16 tracks, giving Nyovest’s lyrics a singular musical backdrop. In those tracks, Nyovest bares his soul as he touches on everything from his celebrity flings to his tumultuous feuds with heavyweights in the dog eat dog world of hip-hop.
Despite critics hailing it as the best album to date, Cassper himself has not lost sight of the contributions of Alie Keyz, praising him on numerous occasions on his social media accounts.
Out of the 16 tracks on the album Alie Keyz, who also doubles as Nyovest’s musical director, is credited as the producer on 10 songs. Speaking to Sunday Life, Alie Keyz said that the album had given him a boost as acknowledgement of producers’ work was rare in South African music.
“It’s the best feeling I have ever had in my professional career. It’s a new feeling. I know how people take producers for granted but we’re the guys that make an artiste,” he said.
According to Alie Keyz, the album making process itself was gruelling as he and Nyovest sometimes had to take rests and let some of the songs “breathe” before coming up with the final product.
“To make this album it took us a-year-and-a-half. We didn’t rush it. We would stay two weeks doing nothing or listening to a song, thinking about plans and solutions to make that song better.
“I’m a soulful guy so the album will follow the direction of the producer. I’m the soulful guy who has been in the industry for a long time. That’s why the album took the direction it did because I was in charge of everything. At times it scared me because I wasn’t sure that is what people wanted to hear,” he said.
According to Keyz, it is not a coincidence that Confused, a song that he produced, was the first track on the album, as it was the song that allowed him and Nyovest to find a common vision.
“My favourite joint on the album is Confused because that’s the song that created the whole feel of the album. I made that song and Cassper heard and loved it. Afterwards he felt that should be the direction of the album.
“The atmosphere in the studio was incredible. People close to us got listen to the album while we were making it. It wasn’t really easy because Cassper is a hip-hop artiste and this was not the trap music that is trending right now,” he said.
The producer says that the album was first tested within Nyovest’s inner circle before it was approved for mass consumption.
“Everyone in the house loved it. There is a track that we made for fathers (Superman) which didn’t feel much like a banger when we were making it but I only realised its impact when it was out.
All the beats that made the album had to pass through me. I didn’t want it to sound like the previous album where we mixed different producers and people heard different sounds. I think in an album all songs have to be related. I looked at the songs like different members of the same family who are all different but also look alike,” he said.
