Manelis

You can tell there’s diamonds on the sole of his shoes when Manelis slithers across each tune on the appropriately titled and ground shattering 17-track album titled Aircuts, literally cutting through the atmosphere of sameness on his tippy toes.

The experience of listening to Aircuts is a theatric one; a sobering statement and an unintentional act of differentiation from the testosterone turn-up culture while turning up in ways never imagined before by any rap infused South African art.

Sounding local but global is shrugged off as Manelis exposes the obsolete boundaries of musical geography while landing like a space creature on IMPIreal Sounds – of course the music is Durban, just from another planet.

There’s a reviving beauty in the asymmetrical sounds of Aircuts that is often missing from modern day music making. But this is where Manelis finds his Jericho - a home away from home, fitting into each pocket offered by the lopsided tempo in Vuthela – a standout sonic demonstration of disregard for “perfection.”

Telling a ghetto story can be a daunting task that is sometimes tainted with unvaried nuance and often overfamiliar, but Manelis eases through the pastures and suggests infinite hidden worlds known only through living in it. This multifaceted portrayal of the ghetto is most evident in Township Jupiter a uniquely South African ode to the 80’s.