What we say, who should win and who will win

Can rockers Gangs of Ballet outgun feel-good house-heads Mi Casa? Is Naima Kay really a contender? And will Nakhane Touré be the surprise package? Rolling Stone breaks it down.

Album of the Year
DJ Kent The Weekent
Mafikizolo Reunited
Mi Casa Su Casa
Naima Kay Umsebenzi
Nakhane Touré Brave Confusion

*Nakhane Touré: Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want*

What We Say:

DJ Kent’s classy inner-city soundtrack, The Weekent, and Naima Kay’s Afro-pop breakthrough, Umsebenzi, both spawned high radio rotation, if not bootloads of bona fide hits. But the real showdown is between Mi Casa and Mafikizolo. While Mi Casa’s cocktail of feel-good Afropop fables and polished jazzy house hip-shakers had audiences bewitched, it was Mafikizolo’s Afropolitan blend of Balearic kwaai-house celebrations and sensuous lovers ballads that oozed a 21st century Afropolitan allure. And let’s not forget about Nakhane Touré’s soul-baring beauty.

Who Should Win:

NAKHANE TOURÉ’s Brave Confusion. Come again? Yes, the young troubadour’s obsessive-compulsive love songs yearned with a rare beauty. But when has an alternative nominee ever won “Best Album”? Ah, well. But of course, the SAMAs is a pop production. Mafikizolo’s slick, chic return to their house-music roots should edge out Mi Casa’s Rainbow Nation rhythms.

Who Will Win:

MAFIKIZOLO. With Kalawa godfather Oskido and hipster house young guns Uhuru sharing production duties, Theo and Nhlanhla refreshed their call-and-response choruses with an Afropolitan palette of club-bangers that segued between kwaai-house anthems, smooth cocktail jazzy throwbacks, brassy retro-marabi house-party-starters and sexy Afro-pop ballads.

*Review: Mafikizolo – Reunited*

Duo or Group of the Year

Gangs of Ballet Yes/No/Grey
GoodLuck Creatures of the Night
Mafikizolo Reunited
Mi Casa Su Casa
The Parlotones Stand Like Giants

What We Say:

In “Jika” and “Khona”, Mi Casa and Mafikizolo produced the two runaway hits of 2013, giving this category an indisputably populist sheen, reinforced by The Parlotones getting yet another nod. Does the trio of established groups have the musical goods to outweigh newcomer Gangs of Ballet and electronica outfit GoodLuck? GoB’s sync-friendly tunes have much more muscle than The Parlotones’ well-worn sound, and GoodLuck’s crazy trek – recording fieldstyle in Namibia – has produced an intriguing and frequently beautiful record.

Who Should Win:

MAFIKIZOLO OR GOODLUCK. GoodLuck’s audacious recording resulted in a sumptuous electro-electric record, while Theo Kgonsinkwe and Nhlanhla Nciza readied a set of morning-fresh, sing-along songs aimed right at the dance floor.

Who Will Win:

MAFIKIZOLO. Comebacks are hard to resist – especially when they come with enough suss to step into the current moment while keeping firm roots, as Reunited so skillfully does.

Female Artist of the Year

Dear Reader Rivonia
Judith Sephuma The Experience Live in Concert
Naima Kay Umsebenzi
Rebecca Bayos ‘Khomba
Zahara Phendula

What We Say:

For the second straight year, the Female Artist of the Year category is disappointingly lacklustre. Sephuma’s overlong gospel outing lacks the verve of her early output, as does Rebecca’s umpteenth release – and for all the hype and her undeniably lovely voice, Naima Kay’s debut fails to rise much above bog-standard Afro-pop. How Laurie Levine’s emotionally charged Border Crossing failed to get the genre nomination that would’ve put her in deserved contention here remains one of this year’s mysteries.

Who Should Win:

DEAR READER. Cherilyn MacNeil’s chamberpop opus dealing with both her personal history and that of the country where she was born is a triumph of inventiveness – the quality sorely lacking in the other nominees, bar perhaps Zahara.

*Review: Dear Reader – Rivonia*

Who Will Win:

ZAHARA. Zahara might just be able to surf the wave of her eight-statuette 2012 haul and the success of Phendula‘s soul-blues title track to take this category.

*Review: Zahara – Phendula*

Male Artist of the Year
Connell Cruise Connell Cruise
Kabomo Memory Remains
Matthew Mole The Home We Built
Nakhane Touré Brave Confusion
Vusi Mahlasela Sing to the People

What We Say:

Now we’re talking: a schizophrenic showdown. So, who’s got more game: a double-play of breakthrough singer-songwriters with an affable, if unchallenging, radio-friendly appeal (Connell Cruise and Matthew Mole)? Or a veteran African folk bard’s soul-soaked world-music mix of blues, mbaqanga and jazz? Well, with the country celebrating 20 years of democracy, Mahlasela’s ubuntu activism should strike a chord with the judges, and he can expect to add another SAMA to the several already in his trophy cabinet for Sing to the People. Nakhane Touré’s soul-baring debut, Brave Confusion, is the indie-outsider’s bet though.

Who Should Win:

VUSI MAHLASELA. The virtuosic vocalist and finger-picking guitarist’s multilingual messages of real truth and reconciliation continue to shift the nation’s collective consciousness beyond an apartheid autopsy to call for – and celebrate – a united struggle to make our democracy work.

Who Will Win:

VUSI MAHLASELA. “The Voice” of hope.

Newcomer of the Year
Gangs Of Ballet Yes/No/Grey
IFani I Believes in Me (1st Quadrant)
MuzArt MuzArt
Naima Kay Umsebenzi
Nakhane Touré Brave Confusion

*Because iFani is A Hip-Hop Pythagoras*

What We Say:

Gangs of Ballet prove that anthemic rock can win over the judges. MuzArt’s upbeat dance-pop is infectious enough, but their songwriting needs work. iFani’s debut is impeccably produced. If only the Hinds Brothers’ stunning Oceans of Milk had replaced Naima Kay’s middling Umsebenzi, this category would have neared perfection.

Who Should Win:

NAKHANE TOURÉ. Intimate. Innocent. Beautiful. These are just some of the descriptions invited by the Eastern Cape artist’s debut. Brave Confusion announced a gift so unusual it’ll be years before there’s another contender like Touré in this category.

Who Will Win:

NAIMA KAY. For unfathomable reasons, decent but bland Afro-pop always gets the ear of the majority of judges.

Best Rock Album
Gangs of Ballet Yes/No/Grey
Shadowclub Goodbye Wild Child
The Black Cat Bones Beatipiller
The Parlotones Stand Like Giants
Van Coke Kartel Bloed, Sweet & Trane

*Checking In With Van Coke Kartel*

What We Say:

Who the hell said S.A. rock was dead? Nominations range from easy-to-love/hate rock (The Parlotones); all-up-front(man) rock (Gangs of Ballet); seedy-but-sweet kissoff to the old days/ways rock (Shadowclub); rocking-the-suburbs … err … rock (Van Coke Kartel) and bone-throwing swamp-man rock (Black Cat Bones). The only question is: Are The Parlotones really a rock band?

Who Should Win:

BLACK CAT BONES. Sure, you’ll never hear (m)any of their gutbucket blues-rock sermons on the radio, but everyone loves an underdog – especially badass primitives who can actually rock and roll.

*Review: Black Cat Bones – Beatipiller*

Who Will Win:

GANGS OF BALLET. Sexy-but-not-intimidating-or-legitimately-troubled frontman; unchallenging rock (sans the roll). Yes/No/Grey is the kind of album that captures the hearts of teens and preteens and doesn’t worry their parents too much, filled with the type of songs that don’t need someone to bleep out expletives on 5fm. That is, this is the kind of rock that wins awards in South Africa.

*Review: Gangs of Ballet – Yes/No/Grey*

Best Adult Contemporary Album

Connell Cruise Connell Cruise
Farryl Purkiss Home
Hinds Brothers Ocean of Milk
Michael Lowman Crayon Boxes
Shaun Jacobs Love Can

What We Say:

Adult contemporary, that strange catch-all, comes of age 20 years down the line. There’s not a female amongst the nominees, but everyone, from stalwart Purkiss to talented newcomers Lowman and Jacobs turned in records as good as anything topping the global charts. It turns out, thankfully, that we have a bunch of songwriters with a feel for melody after all.

Who Should Win:

HINDS BROTHERS. This album of close vocal harmonies and near-peerless songwriting from brothers living on Durban’s coast stands head and shoulders above this already strong pack.

*Review: Hinds Brothers – Ocean of Milk*

Who Will Win:

FARRYL PURKISS. Home was crafted with such eloquence and maturity it might seal it for the Durbanite, a decade into his career.

*Rolling Stone SA’s Podcast – Ep 21. Farryl Purkiss*

Best Alternative Album

Chris Letcher Hyperbalist
Dear Reader Rivonia
Death by Misadventure dump dump
Die See II
Nakhane Touré Brave Confusion

*Review: Die See – II*

What We Say:

Why can’t some of the duller Top 5 categories be this thrilling? “Alternative” usually means a place for albums that don’t quite fit anywhere, but the nominees make a case for it being somewhere artists go to dream up something transporting. Whether it’s DbyM’s flaming-hot electronica, Die See’s spacedout rock, Letcher’s gorgeous sonic meanderings, Dear Reader’s narrative imaginings or Nakhane Touré’s meditation, there’s not a dud in sight.

Who Should Win:

NAKHANE TOURÉ. We can’t say enough about Touré’s enigmatic, complex debut that blurred genres and upended expectations.

Who Will Win:

NAKHANE TOURÉ. If the judges came up with a nominees list this good, it’s likely they will spot the best of a brilliant bunch.

Best Rap Album

AB Crazy Home Coming
iFani I Believes in Me (1st Quadrant)
Kwesta DaKAR
L-Tido All of Me
Molemi A Sia

What We Say:

No Tumi, no HHP, no AKA, no Khuli Chana. Crikey, where the hell are S.A.’s hip-hop heavyweights? Well, their absence makes this a tough category to call – all these emcees have mad lyrical skillz. So, stalemate? Nah, the only real question is whether consciousness or conshizzle holds the most currency with the judges.

Who Should Win:

IFANI. While L-Tido’s All of Me may have got Mzansi’s upwardly-mobile hip-hop massive bopping, here’s a thought: When was the last time a rapper who championed innovation over imitation won the “Best Rap Album” award? iFani’s I Believes In Me does precisely that.

Who Will Win:

L-TIDO. Like the Grammys, the SAMAs is all about rewarding the chart-movers and shakers, right? If so, then there’s a fantastic case to be made for L-Tido’s All of Me winning hands down. No emcee walked the line between self-pimping playa consicousness and booty-baiting brand conshizzle.

Best Kwaito Album

Alaska The Revival
Big Nuz Made in Africa
Character Self-Control
Mandoza Sgantsontso
Tzozo Amabills

What We Say:

You could see this category as some kind of Old School (Alaska, Mandoza) vs. New School (Big Nuz, Tzozo, Character) rumble for the King of Kwaito crown. Alaska’s keep-it-kasi blueprint had its moments. Kalawa’s “new kid on the block” character showed he’s got game. Mandoza proved he’s got his groove back. But sonically-speaking, there are only two artists worthy of kwaito’s heavyweight championship crown. It’s a duel between Big Nuz’s Made In Africa and Tzozo’s Amabills.

Who Should Win:

TZOZO. The method in the madness of Tzozo hiring an all-star cast of kwaito, maskandi and gospel collaborators, including L’Vovo, Big Nuz, Phuzekemisi, Pastor Zondo, Shabalala Rhythm and more? Brand consciousness 101 for a SAMA-winning player looking to build his comeback brand, right? Fo’ sho.

Who Will Win:

BIG NUZ. No other kwaito nominees are able to lubricate converts in both inner-city clubs and township taverns. Sure, Big Nuz may milk booty-chasing braggadocio on summer hits such as “Hawaii”. But it’s the message in minimalist tech-house mating games “Incwadi Yothando” (featuring Khaya Mthethwa) and “Your Love” (featuring Mlu) and upwardly mobile kwaai-rap “Inuz Ikhipile” (featuring PRO) that really rewards with repeated listening.

Best Dance Album
DJ Kent The Weekent
Lulo Café Soul Africa
Mi Casa Su Casa
Uhuru Our Father
Zakes Bantwini The Fake Book & Real Book: My Music Bible

What We Say:

Lulo’s chilled roots-music cocktail of soulful house collabs (Soul Africa)? Or DJ Kent’s triple-disc blend of weekend mirror-ball karma that percolates between commerical chart-bangers (“Spin My World Around”), deep-house remixes and laid-back lounge makeovers? Or Mi Casa’s feel-good Afropopped house celebrations (Su Casa)? What about Bantwini’s soul-soaked concept album (The Fake Book & Real Book: My Music Bible) that shrugs off any hipster dubstep hedonism for a shape-shifting celebration of the kwaaihouse revolution in multiple-party harmony. Tough call, but Uhuru’s evolutionary kwaaihouse spiritualism could take the trophy.

Who Should Win:

UHURU. Reckon “Y-Tjukutja” was a one-hit wonder smash? Forget about it. Kalawa’s hippest young house visionaries have way more game. While star cameos, courtesy of Professor, Oskido and McKenzie (Rhythmic Elements), and a hypnotic 21st-century remix of Bongo Maffin’s classic “That’isgubhu“) may have kept their street cred, it’s Maphorisa, Clap, Xelimpilo and MaPiano’s penchant for mainlining proudly pan-African rhythms into their hypnotic funk workouts and kinetic kasi-disco jammers that not only call you onto the dance floor, but keep you there. That title, “Our Father”, isn’t just a toss-off either. There’s a fertile gospel-house gold current circuiting throughout their sound. The message? Free your ears and your ass will surely follow.

Who Will Win:

MI CASA. Is their mix of hook-heavy Afro-pop anthems (“Jika“), epic arena house collabs (“Africa Shine”, with Black Coffee), cocktail-quaffing soul-house hook-ups (“Feel the Love”, with Jimmy Nevis) and aspirational hip-shakers about faith (“Save You Again”) and unity (“Stand Together”) really Rainbow Nation hard-sell? Never. We all need to party with a purpose.

Best Jazz Album

Marcus Wyatt Quartet One Life in the Sun
Shane Cooper Oscillations
Sisa Sopazi Images & Figures
Tumi Mogorosi Project Elo
Zim Ngqawana Live at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival

What We Say:

Do albums from a trumpet veteran (Wyatt), a young bass virtuoso (Cooper) and a pair of young drum innovators (Mogorosi, Sopazi) stand a chance against a multiple SAMA-winning saxophonist’s last will and testament? Well, while Wyatt’s One Life In the Sun is a beautiful conversation in contemporary Afro-Scandinavian creativity, and Mogorosi’s Project Elo a spiritual African jazz experiment in emancipating the drums, it’s award-winning bassist and composer Shane Cooper’s bitching global brew of hard-bop, chamber and progressive-jazz idioms on Oscillations that could give Ngqawana the biggest challenge.

Who Should Win:

ZIM NGQAWANA. For Zim, jazz was never just about entertainment, it was “a sound for inner-tainment”. “I have always believed that the spirituals – gospels, blues, jazz, stride, maskanda, marabi, funk, mbaqanga, salsa, Latin – have the same roots and one day will meet,” he once said. At his stellar 2012 CTIJF performance, they do. A mesmerising tribute to the visionary composer’s quest to decolonise jazz from “ethnic cubicles”.

Who Will Win:

ZIM NGQAWANA. Guiding a killer cast of young sidemen and women through in-the-tradition arrangements of Coltrane standards, sentimental interpretations of traditional circumcision-ritual fight songs (“Qula Kwedini“), Zim fuses ancient rhythms, Western classical soundscapes and modern jazz idioms, channelling his love for master spiritual sax-blasters Dudu Pukwana and Archie Shepp into explosive hard-bop extrapolations on fierce originals such as “Biologial Warfare”, and hauntingly beautiful Xhosa prayer meditations, rhythmic harmonic converstaions and fiery free-jazz rallying cries. This is live performance as a search for freedom – “freedom-from”, yes, but also “freedom-to”, a celebration of the very (he)art of creative improvisation.

Best Collaboration
DJ Kent Ft The Arrows “Spin My World Around”
LCNVL Ft Lakota “Silva Closer”
Mafikizolo Ft May D “Happiness”
The Parlotones, Khuli Chana & Jon Savage “Sleepwalker”

Uhuru Ft Oskido, Professor And Dj Bucks  “Y-tjukutja”

What We Say:

Which transformation most captures your imagination? Saccharine Christian popsters The Arrows becoming sultry house sirens with the help of DJ Kent? Mafikizolo ditching da club for a rootsy multicultural mashup with Lagos native May D? The Parlotones and Khuli Chana doing understated and almost-offbeat with the supervision of Jon Savage? Or Uhuru, Oskido, Professor and DJ Bucks mixing a South African dance floor favourite out of Angolan beat-head Yuri Da Cunha’s booty-baiting “Atchu tchu tcha”? The only disappointment is brostep badboys LCNVL’s decidedly average club headache, “Closer”.

Who Should Win:

MAFIKIZOLO FEAT. MAY D Continent-spanning beats plus multiple vocals in various languages equals “Happiness”.

Who Will Win:

THE PARLOTONES, KHULI CHANA & JON SAVAGE 5FM’s MashLab has produced a radio-friendly track that includes the sonic stylings of two of S.A.’s best-loved acts. It’s a winning combination.

Best Music Video of the Year

Goldfish “One Million Views”
Mi Casa “Jika”
The Muffinz “Umsebenzi Wendoda (An Ode to Single Mothers)”
The Parlotones, Khuli Chana & Jon Savage “Sleepwalker”
Toya Delazy “Memoriam”

What We Say:

The Parlotones may sport instruments made of ice, but having sleepwalkers sleepwalking in “Sleepwalker” is a little literal, no? The same could be said of “Umsebenzi Wendoda” if it wasn’t so darn tear-jerking. “Jika” shakes things up with a nice guy finishing first over a sexy-boy beat; while “Memoriam” is a collage of slo-mo interpersonal blowouts. Then there’s Goldfish’s (animated) electronic music in-joke. It’s a mixed, middling bag with no clear winner.

Who Should Win:

THE MUFFINZ. Simple, sentimental, impeccably styled. The video may not be high-concept, but it’s honest and uplifting.

Who Will Win:

GOLDFISH. The group’s trademark Ren and Stimpystyle characters embark on a satirical adventure straight out of South Park. The dealbreaker is Deadmau5, who, despite being caricatured as a DJ School mob boss teaching students not to use real instruments, gave “A Million Views” the thumbs up.