I WRITE ABSURD-SCI-FI-SOUTH AFRICAN STORIES. I also tell stories through music.
In my written narratives, a recurring voice emerges, probing the complex concept of South Africa. This voice interrogates: Is South Africa a state project, a "Rainbow Nation" construct, or perhaps a cinematic illusion? Does it represent a land once perceived as vastly empty, subsequently exploited by pilgrims?
My writing serves as a mnemonic device, an attempt to remember my country. It is a challenging endeavor to observe her from an external perspective. She was once beautiful, I'm told, though I have never witnessed her in that state. Instead, ruin, loss, and hate form the visage of her obscure silhouette.
Consequently, the theatre of the absurd has become the stylistic approach in my oeuvre, a means to grapple with these complex realities.
Fifi - Artist Biography
Fifi is an eclectic artist whose live performances have consistently captured audiences through her powerful voice that ranges from jazz, soul, trip hop and spoken word. She sings in both English and Setswana (her mother tongue); her skill of storytelling in this style is what makes her original and uniquely different from her peers.
Aged 11, she found jazz, funk and hip hop music encompassed in their house in Mamelodi. She was introduced to the likes of Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, and Herbie Hancock from her grandfather's collection, and Sun Ra and Fela Kuti by her uncle Raymond Motau (the percussionist for the band Malombo). Her family tuned her ear to music.
In 2005, whilst at TUKS studying political science (very short term), she began working with renowned hip-hop music producer Nyambz, featuring on two songs on dub/ska band 340ml's second offering, as well as Tumi Molekane's debut album "Music from my Good Eye". At the time her song "Hip-Hop God" with producer Nyambz also received considerable airplay.
In 2008 she started working with DJ Kenzhero, performing regularly at 'Party People' events. Through Party People she toured extensively, performing on stages from Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, to Mozambique, and regularly at concerts like Oppikoppi and Burning Man.
By 2009, she had since shifted her focus to completing a Bachelor's degree in Drama & Film, and she and Kenzhero had produced and released her first project "Fifi - the EP Release".
The independently released 5-track EP became an instant collector's item to followers of her music. This album also shaped the inception of her artistic career. It marks a style that is unmatched to this day, making her instantly recognizable with her followers. Fifi has developed her own sound and her voice complements the producers she has chosen to work with. The beats do not shape her sound but she writes her own melody and chooses the beats that she feels match that. She is well known for not writing to beats.
In 2010 she began working on her album Black Matter, including "Light", from an experimental Dadaist album Random Acts of Kindness, which was featured at the 49th Chicago International Film Festival in 2013. Her live shows over the years are an intricately crafted voyage through her ideas and music, fusing live and digital sounds to create a lush backdrop on which Fifi paints her visceral and creative storytelling skill to the listener.
From 2015 until 2017, she got busy with her postgraduate degree in Art History; therefore curatorial concepts influence her album Black Matter. This album is a full-length album released in 2017. It is an Afro-Futuristic collage of melodies. Set a hundred years from now in a dimension very similar to the present, the songs and lyrics reflect a world and being in flux. Woven with subtle political, spiritual and metaphysical undertones, the stories are of time and space and love and the strangeness of being. This marked a new sound in South Africa as no other artist was creating this sound.
In the span of its nine-month release, Fifi toured the album and concept performance independently, showcasing to audiences in Swaziland, Switzerland, Amsterdam, Germany, China as well as theaters and galleries in Southern Africa.
In 2019 she was invited to exhibit her body of unreleased work from Random Acts of Kindness at the Turbine Art Fair hosted by the Rand Merchant Bank. In the same year she was part of a panel holding dialogue between artists, curators and collectors, to preview the Javett art collection before its opening - this is the largest African contemporary collection in Africa. In 2021 she collaborated with House of Lucent, a South African designer based in Cape Town, and winner of South Africa Fashion Week (trans-seasonal collection).
Over the years she has also shared the stage with the likes of Saul Williams (USA), Bahamadia (USA), Tumi & the Volume, 340ml (Moz), Jeru the Damaja (USA/GER), Questlove (USA), and Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) (USA).
Five years later, Fifi has returned to the mic as a singer, composer and producer of her album Kiotengkelemonisi - a bird's lullaby. The raw unedited version of this album is available on SoundCloud.