Khuli Chana is South African born and bred and a talented musician who has an impeccable skill of rhyming in vernacular rap. What is interesting about Chana is he specifically is master of Motswako rap. Motswako contains various musical background. It involves both street talk and highly influential messages in numerous South African languages as well as English. One of his major objectives is to encourage and inspire an international appeal to South African music, which can explain why he uses different languages within one song.
The song under discussion today is Chana’s No More Hunger off his album The Motswak Originator. What I most enjoy about this song is in one stanza and even within the same line he switches languages. One would have to be a true master of both languages to under their functions and sounds to use them freely and interchangablely. He is staying true to his objective by attempting to make his music reach the masses using several languages for his brothers and sisters everywhere in the main land as well as across the diaspora.
In the bridge it state:
“Somebody gotta make this chedda boss
Nobody should loose themselves for for this smega boss”
In order for there to be no more hunger somebody has to the money and bring in some form of income. But when look for that income, do not lose yourself. Do not get caught up in the streets knowing the streets is not for everyone. Yes, money is necessary in life, but remember who you are and what you are about because money is a tricky thing.
Another line in the bridge is:
“Man make the nyuku … nyuku don’t make a man
Nyuku e tlisa bana ba… nyuku don’t make a man”
This is a perfect example of how Chana intermingles the two languages as he tries to get his message across the world. A rough translation of the lines are “Man makes it safe… safety don’t make a make/ Safety brings the children… safety don’t make the man”.
Chana essentially is placing responsibility on the men of the community to earn money legally and take control and make the environment safe for the children to grow to full potential. I love that his calling upon the men to step up and own their community thus taking full pride and responsibility.