Top 7 South African Songs You Need to Hear

Nonku Phiri

Johannesburg-based singer/songwriter, Nonku Phiri, is the daughter of South African music maestro, Ray Phiri. She refers to the type of music she produces as a mixture of all influences she grew up listening to, mainly RnB, kwaito and electro. She made a stunning debut back in 2015 with single “Things We Do On The Weekend”. The mellow yet intricate layering of sound is her characteristic and you can find it in any of her songs.

She’s working on her EP and her first album concurrently. She has two singles coming out in the next two months that will be a very good indicator of what to expect from her album.

BLK JKS

South Africa's very own BLK JKS played in the first South African World Cup kick-off in Orlando Stadium alongside Alicia Keys, John Legend, and The Black Eyed Peas back in 2010.

The band which formed in 2000 blend kwaito, ska, reggae, ambience, jazz, prog in their music. Their debut album, After Robots, has been nominated for two South African Music Awards, including Best Album back in 2009.

The Plastics

Indie Pop is a common genre in Australia, but not in South Africa which filled with many electronics or R&B musicians. The Plastics is one of the band that represents the indie pop in South Africa.

The word innovative describes the band because they're always trying to come up with new things along their shows. They've launched an EP at an invite-only mother of all house parties. For their double music video launch at Mercury Live Lounge they had bags of beach sand brought in to create an island feel inside the club. At Rocking the Daisies in 2009 they headlined, they celebrated this big event for them by having guys dressed up as robots cavorting onstage with them.

Petite Noir

Yannick Ilunga known as his stage name Petite Noir, is a South African singer, songwriter, and record producer. His debut EP, "The King of Anxiety" was released in January 2015 and his debut studio album, "La vie est belle / Life Is Beautiful" was released in September of the same year via Domino Records's subsidiary, Double Six Imprint.

He used to play guitar until hearing Kanye’s electro-influenced album 808s & Heartbreak. He experimented his sound until he found a more complex sound. The result was a mix of edgy electronics, deep bass, percussion and African-blues guitar lines.

December Streets

December Streets is an indie rock band formed in late 2009. Living in the midst of an ever-evolving and growing South Africa, the band draws inspiration largely from life around them.

After several line-up changes, they received nationwide success with their first single, My Name, and decided to launch their rerecorded debut EP. In 2012, December Streets recorder and released their debut album, This Is, after signing with 2 Feet Music.

With upbeat tracks, eargasm guitar riffs with rhythmic vocal hooks, they have climbed to fame with their dynamic and addictive indie-pop hits.

Thor Rixon

Cape Town based, Thor Rixon, is a producer, musician and also an actor. He experiments extensively on his live performance, making it always fresh and different. Rixon makes use of interesting acoustic instrumentation to capture unheard sounds and soundscapes in his productions and musical compositions.

He already released 2 albums, Songs From The Baths and Tea Time Favourite, and also bunch of singles.

PHFAT

PHFAT is an electronic rap duo from Cape Town, consist of Smooth Mike and Disco Izrael on vocals. The band is one of the big name in the scene with several years of successful touring, 3 independent releases, a couple of Top 40 charting singles, and 100’s of shows performed in South Africa. They also opened for Public Enemy and The Used (a very opposite genres of musician, shows how big their music range is). It's a hard-hitting hip-hop track that fuses South African sounds with powerful instrumentation.