Cape Town - Cape Town will be ablaze on Sunday with flash mobs, screaming fans and and a convoy for a Xhosa rap star.
iFani (the “i” is pronounced like the one in iTunes) is set to land in the Mother City on Saturday morning for the music video shoot for his single Ayadelela.
iFani shot to fame recently with his #1stDayGold campaign for his album I Believes in Me (2nd Quadrant).
Through his efforts, he managed to push over 20 000 copies of the album last month, many through pre-sales before May 9.
iFani worked on a national radio tour to punt pre-orders in all nine provinces. The campaign covered physical pre-orders and digital pre-orders.
The hip-hopster studied at UCT from 2005 to 2007, and returns to Cape Town for his third music video shoot.
He said the shoot will feature a variety of locations. including Signal Hill, Mitchells Plain, beaches and the unfinished highway.
Using social media, he is hoping to create flash mobs with choreography for scenes in his video.
He won’t have a tough time reaching people though; he has more than 143 000 followers on Twitter and more than 187 000 Facebook likes.
iFani said he did not have a tough time choosing Cape Town as the setting for Ayadelela.
“Cape Town is such a creative spot. Joburg is about money... I do gig there, on the outskirts. Radio stations in Cape Town are a little selective, so my fans listen to my music on their phones.”
He is, however, playing on Good Hope FM.
During March, iFani’s national radio tour took him to around 35 stations across the country.
“That was interesting. Before that my music was on a break. It was kind of hard. Radio in Cape Town is very closed.”
Following his first single Settle Down, which launched his #1stDayGold campaign, comes Ayadelela which features additional vocals by Musa Sukwina.
iFani hadn’t even been thinking of the track for a single, but his fans indicated otherwise at his shows.
“When I did the album launch, people loved the song. I had no choice with Ayadelela, the fans wanted it.”
The album features other notable collaborators such as beatboxer George Avakian on Turn it Up and R&B crooner Donald on Jonga Ixesha.
The rapper is cautious about how he uses social media, conscious that interaction can burn a celebrity.
“I know my goals. I am never fake (on social media) and I keep my eyes on my goal.”
iFani is proud of the Xhosa flavour he uses in his hip hop, at a time when the linguistic make-up of the genre is shifting from English, to Afrikaans, Nguni and Sotho languages.
“I mix sometimes, I use some English. Everything is in my music. Gangnam Style was huge in this country and no one knew what it meant.
“We can’t all use English, otherwise we lose bits of ourselves.”
iFani said Ayadelela should be on radio by next week.
Weekend Argus