There is a rare self-revealing moment in Ntumiseng and it comes at the end with the perfect pop timeout of just less than two minutes and half Tata Ntombazane [Take That, Girl!] that Ntumiseng the artist, like Ntumiseng Mokhasipe to give her full everyday name, believes herself to be an ordinary girl: it is rare in that locally-penned lyrics hardly reveal anything about artists. When she sings in the brilliantly pared down only acoustic bass-, piano- and voice-scored chorus:
Thatha ntombazane!/Thatha ntombazane!/ Any girl can be like me,/Any girl who dares to dream,/ Any girl who believes/ That anything and everything is in her reach
Its dream-pursuing motivation stuff and inspiration-rousing message driving something akin to the general American Dream or the specific British punk ethic that pop music can be made by anyone: it takes self-belief, hard work and, with some natal fortune, a dose of talent. By her testimony in the album she has all the three qualities plus, as Amu raps in the self-esteem augmenting No Bruises, “a woman with determination” who, after no less than being burnt as so much as being singed by music industry players, took some time to teach herself and observe its intriguing shenanigans. Tata Ntombazane’s a message so homely as to be anti-pop in a music industry that sells unattainable dreams that only the exceptionally gifted, the impossibly glamorous, inaccessible Olympian idols were immaculately conceived for the rest of blind humanity to idolise them in awe and worship at a safe distance, preferably at the foot of the mountain: this message belies the lavish glamour achieved by celebrity-portraitist photographer Neo Ntsoma in the portraits on the inlay sleeve as she captures the regal woman out of the petit Ntumiseng. Ntumiseng is telling her fans that - and fans she does have - remember the screaming hordes of teenyboppers during her nationwide tour as part member of the ill-fated 101?: What I am, you can also be. It is an inspiring lifeline for hopeless wannabes: it’s a pity that the song is definitely no single material but deserves to be heard more and more by the youth.
“I’m an example to many young girls. Any young girl can do it, I mean if a young girl like me from Welkom can do it. Any young can girl can pursue a music career,” she says.
Ntumiseng is seeing herself as the ordinary girl from little town Welkom, far west Free State the centrally-placed gold-mining province of South Africa, who, armed with a dream to be musician since a young age in a threesome all-girl pop group, left for Johannesburg to pursue her studies in law at the premier Wits University but forever nursing her childhood dream of becoming a musician she knew herself she could be. With her former childhood schoolmates back in Welkom she had taken part up to three times in the once popular late eighties/early nineties telethon talent search Shell® Road To Fame each time with no luck, no less because they were shockingly young back then to even contemplate that they could become pop stars at a time when South African pop idols looked like one’s parents in age. As her friends gave up on the dream, she held steadfastly to hers: “You know, we were just kids in Welkom having this dream of wanting to be an all-girl group. I was fortunate enough to live my dream.”
That statement uttered with
a quiet, low-pitched voice as to be almost inaudible, as this was now the
most indifferent thing in her life. It is a dream that has nourished and fuelled
the music careers of such single-minded music personalities as Beyoncé
Knowles who nursed her ambition since she was nine years old solely dedicating
all her energies to be either one thing or nothing but a singer; it is the
one distinctive quality that distinguishes authentic music personalities from
mere ineluctable, stars-in-their-eyes opportunists. In Ntumiseng there’s
now a delightful little paean O Naledi [You’re A Star] not so much as
a love song to a coyly unidentified idol/lover as simply being an ode to what
inspired Ntumiseng to hold steadfastly to her belief that a certain star like
some glowing halo was just above her head so that she can realise her destiny
to become a singer. The song is reprised by Tata Ntombazane making Ntumiseng
such a well-crafted album with songs weaving in and out of each other as though
it were a sonnet sequence in their shortness and connectedness: take one away,
the whole edifice falls apart.
“I was doing my first year of LLB law at Wits University when Coca Cola
Pop Stars came around. I entered just to see how far it goes. I didn’t
even tell my parents when I participated. But when it came that I was part
of the group just before the Top 40 began so I went home to tell them. They
didn’t understand what was going on. Obviously, they weren’t happy.
They knew I always had love for music but they wanted me to finish my degree.
We discussed the issue until we came to an agreement that as long as I finish
my degree at some point. In that sense, I’ve suspended my studies because
I do want to finish and focus on entertainment law, you know, there’s
so much to do around the music industry, it’s just not only about being
in the limelight,” she explains.
As 101 the group released the gold-selling debut (over 25 000 units) and only album after which they unanimously agreed to split in order to go their separate ways to fulfil their original dreams. 101 had been merely used as a platform to pursue better dreams: she’s the third former 101 member to release her debut album Ntumiseng (2007), and by all indications, far substantial despite that she, and other members Preston Siluma (Press) and Irene were only three members with any discernible talent (the other two members, including the vibrantly exciting media personality Pam Andrews, who released her cleverly microwaved solo efforts, were simply there to compliment the image). Since disbanding 101 at the end of a successful one year contract with the local sub-company of a multinational, Ntumiseng had never been about looking for a record deal.
“Joseph [Mothiba, twin brother of deejay duo act Revolution] called me for a session. They [the twin brothers as production house Four Sounds Productions] wanted me to feature on Mdu’s album [associate artist known as Mega aka Mduduzi Gumede] for which I recorded one song. I then started hanging out with the guys. At that time I got to learn what kind of people they are. They, too, were wanted to know me as a person. It was a kind of studying each other. For in this industry too many people want you to do certain things for them in order that they record you. In this life things just don’t fall into your lap. A lot of people one meets try to bribe one; they try to hurt one, saying: ‘Do this for me and then I’ll record your album.’ I found them (the twin brothers) to be humble and honest persons, which is rare in the music industry. So one day they asked me if I would be interested in recording an album and, as they say, the rest is history,” says Ntumiseng.
Sign of how much the Mothiba twin brothers value the results of this incipient relationship is that Ntumiseng’s album has seen the light of day ahead of Mega’s album in which she was originally called to feature in. Distinguished turntablist and producer Joseph Mothiba, cautious and ever business-sensitive with regard as to who they work with in order to protect the brand, the company and business associates such as Universal from unwelcome publicity, confirms as much when unprompted he gives the reasons as to why seemingly out of the blue they chose to work with Ntumiseng at a separate conversation without her presence:
“The reason we chose
Ntumi (her diminutive) is that we got know her better as a person in a month
we hung out with her. We were sort of studying her personality. We saw that
she is a person who won’t get her head swollen with celebrity status.
That she has been humble despite that she was exposed to fame so much. Because
you don’t want to work with someone who’ll end up messing up and
affecting the business for such artists do not only ruin their careers but
affect other artists in the stable. That’s what people do not realise.
In addition that we’re a group on our own, we also run a business. That’s
something we should take care of,” says Joseph.
As typical of the time-conscious twin brothers Mothiba, Joseph and George,
right throughout the production is unerringly faultless, sufficiently diverse
and distinct this time around: the mild-mannered mid-tempo jack-in-the-box
dance first single O Naledi is in tune with You Are The One, Otlong Hopola
and the deliberately speeded up So Far Apart in reverse to typical Zamajobe-penned
fair, the hip-hop thumping clatter of No Bruises, the organ-driven soul ballad
Kgutlela Hae, and the perfectly Caribbean-sounding raggamuffin Tell Me and
the pleasantly sweet piano-based jazz Tata Ntombazane. This time around the
production confidently draws these disparate elements into one seamless whole
with clear, audible sound engineering. As always with their artists such as
Maduvha, Four Sounds Productions has spared no budget as they went for the
top notch photographer Neo Ntsoma, who was recently selected to exhibit her
jazz portraits with two other jazz portraitists for the 8th annual Cape Town
International Jazz Festival, to profile Ntumiseng in a series of extraordinarily
beautiful, lavishly laid out pictures.
Though she has been underground in the last three and half years, Ntumiseng never stopped being part of the music industry as she featured in the corporate gig circuit, something of a highly secret society in that it has no publicity but keeps in many musicians alive and close to upper end clients.
“I was under the radar, so to speak, after the whole 101 experience, which was quite overwhelming for me, I mean just a girl from Welkom. I felt I wanted some time off from the whole thing. I wanted to get back to myself. I felt I wasn’t ready to record the next solo record and felt it necessary to get back to myself and strategise as to my next move. But I was involved in less high profiled music scene, did backing vocals and dancing routines for KB, and performed with Irene at corporate gigs,” she says.
She’s quite perceptive as well on how different is her solo effort Ntumiseng from the soulless industry machine-manufactured album of 101:
“I made good songs which I believe do relate to people. I believe the music will touch people’s hearts. It’s different from 101. There we were not even allowed to have an input. Here I write my own songs except one written for me by Zamajobe. It was a manufactured group with all of us having different dreams. That’s why we agreed to end it to pursue our dreams. There we weren’t even allowed to write. Here at least I write some songs in my own language [which is Sotho]. The purpose is to get my name out there: this is Ntumiseng: this is what she is about. This is who I am; I’m worthy.
“Here you’ll find songs about love, disappointments and pains, things that a person goes through. The other day before I was doing research on suicide and I came across information that teenage suicides are on the rise, which indicates that there’s a problem in our society. I was inspired to write the song No Bruises about the pains of another person that no one could see except those persons,” she reckons.
When she is asked that apart from the empathetic motivations of the song No Bruises did she ever contemplates the ultimate simultaneous triple act of courage/cowardice/betrayal suicide she said that has never though she is quick to admit that she has suffered hard times, especially post-101 period.
“I’ve myself never contemplated suicide but I’ve had hard
times. Life is too precious to leave it behind. It’s a life full of
struggle but people can relate to when they hear the music. They’ll
[listeners] know that they’re not the only ones. That’s how I
wrote No Bruises,” she says.
The other intriguing aspect of the album is obviously about the love and disappointments as Ntumiseng is guarded, barely revealing any past love affairs that inform her self-admitted heartbreaks and affections she has suffered to experience. In songs such as the opening track You Are The One, indicating she had thought she had found The One who later walked about in the song where she wears her agitated heart of Otlong Hopola [You Will Remember Me] up her sleeve and the Zamajobe-penned So Far Apart - it is amazing how some souls, rather musicians, can have affinity for each other as Zamajobe clearly feels something akin for Ntumiseng, maybe it owes to their petit statue, a voice timber almost identical, a distinct individuality more in tune with male rather than female companionship, an intensely inward-looking personality (introverts), etc., etc. Galloping behind these are the slightly risqué girlish desire to be disrobed by her object of her affection of Tell Me - risqué for her strict Anglican Christian background of small town mores and slightly out of keeping with her reserved ladylike image; the organ-driven soulful slow-percolated self-remonstrating regret ballad Kgutlela Hae [Come Back Home]; even the innocent-sounding catchy O Naledi suggesting some pubescent dark secret desire looming behind that carefully coiffured image and closing by the proud-sister triumphant Tata Ntombazane suggesting a thigh-revealing long-slit silk dress-wearing of a jazz-like sex goddess wanting to let it all hang out in smoky barrooms in front of testosterone-boiling adoring male fans. Kgutlela Hae in its richly textured slow beauty recalls Mpharanyane (the 70s soul legend) at his most willow-weeping soul-wrenching mbaqanga. It is difficult to believe that Ntumiseng simply imagined the pangs of self-remonstration without ever having felt regret about love that one feels that, with a little restraint, could have saved. For Ntumiseng is cagey about the love to which she was devoted that plainly comes out as having caused her the heartache: she merely states that it is all some imaginary love that will connect to other people’s lives; it is nothing personal. Period:
“Music is just not for
me. I’m doing music for the people out there as well. It’s something
that they can relate it to. It’s my first album and I just want to see
how they react and then hopefully I can get direction as to what they want,”
she says rather disconcertingly when the Ntumiseng is such a delightful blend
of heartbreak, desire and life-giving motivation.
This is most difficult to believe as she insists on the raggamuffin Tell Me,
featuring the original godfather of raga since the mid-eighties-to-late-nineties
with trail-blazers Prophets of Da City/Boom Shaka now known as Junior Dread
in his Yeoville suburb, where she intones about how the object of her desire
just “don’t even have a clue” on how she gets by through
her chemically-charged hormone insatiability in the preacher’s-daughter-let-loose,
all-revealing hanky-panky:
I totally feel consumed
by every thought of you,
Boy, how I wished that you knew!
But you don’t even have a clue (You don’t even have a clue)
I cant’ get enough of you (I cant’ get enough of you)
You’re the reason I get up in the morning;
You’re the reason I can’t sleep at night
And when she sings “Won’t you, please, open the door,/ And help me inside to explore” one is immediately struck by the an allusive reference, whether conscious or not, to the line found in Betty Wright’s Tonight Is The Night when she, trembling, allows her first time lover about to share in each other’s private company: You’re knockin’ on my door and you’re ringin’ my bell as she sings about being made to feel as real woman the first time ever. If this is mere tantalisation of pubescent wet dreams, then she can clearly dream them well. Otlong Hopola strengthens the belief Ntumiseng is not the smoke-and-mirrors she was not successful at all as it sentiments of being missed despite being rejected are augmented in Kgutlela Hae. Despite claims to the contrary Ntumiseng is betrayed by the unerring sad tone of her voice throughout the triumvirate Otlong Hopola, So Far Apart, which augments You Are The one, and Kgutlela Hae. She might have begun by mustering the virtuosity of the art of songwriting but nonetheless it revealed something of her bruised soul: the warts show through the masterful make-up application. By time it came to the self-esteem boosting and life-giving hope of No Bruises one knows that these are little songs of a soul that at one time of its young life has known some bruises. The choice of the word itself is revealing and the fact that this is referred to as a metaphoric internal battering points to the inward personality that Ntumiseng is. And there is the early Janet Jackson naïve feel to the whole Ntumiseng album; maybe Ntumiseng will turn out to explore fully her sexuality once the public response shows that it cannot get enough of these glimpses. There is more to the Ntumiseng than meets the eye: it is for daring souls to find out if they choose to go a little deeper than the convex glass surface.
For more info on distribution
and marketing, please contact:
Master Sechele @Universal Music, Johannesburg, South Africa
Master.sechele@umusic.com
+27 11 722 0500
+27 83 289 6695
For bookings and artist management
issues, please contact:
The Mothiba Bros @ Four Sounds Productions, Johannesburg, South Africa
fsp@worldonline.co.za
+27 82 965 5203
