5 Reasons Skuta Baba Is Culture's Most Important Drop In 2024

Its rare you hear a song thats trending which incoporates education, nostalgia, homage and relevance in one listen,Skuta Baba Remix ticks all the boxes.

Please note i'm not talking streaming numbers or social media likes and impressions its an opinion based on my connection with the culture.

Here the 5 Reasons why I think this is the most important song in 2024.

1.Features

Let me be honest I had never heard of Woodblock Djs, Tony,Mvelost,Set Off and Somolomo until this song but one thing I learnt quickly is that they know what they are doing. The line up of seasoned,blowing up and up and coming artists was perfect.If a song allows an artist to really hone on how we've loved them as fans its a slam dunk.  A seasoned artists will always know how to leverage the opportunity so trust Cassper to open the song up with a Ballito sales pitch, a classic routine and an anthemic verse,while Kane Keid introduces vernac Kane, although Tony is fairly new he carries the maturity of an artists thats has a long standing relationship with writing lyrics for mainstream hip hop while maintaining the street, -peep his  abum"Red October Induction" one of the best newcomer project in my opinion. With Buzzi Lee her team has something to give her the momentum she needs and finally Kwesta reminds us of his lyrical depth yet keeps it simple with characters we all know. Essentially everyone shows up at the speed of their greatness. 

2.Nostalgia:

The nostalgia of this song dates back to almost 33 years with Kwesta throwing us back to Arthur Mofokate then taking us to Reece Madlisa "kushi eKwaito "and A-Reece "rhyme umlahlo" while at the same time shouting out Zola....very simple but pure genuis. The video takes it a step further with the deep fakes of Trompies,HHP,Zola,Tkzee,Mandoza and Pro Kid. What a moment of reflection for our culture in those few seconds. I can't help but get goosebumps when I see it. 

3.Homage:

I couldn't believe that without them mentioning this as a homage video it kept on bringing flashbacks of Riky Rick's Amantombazane Remix and here's the catch it wasn't even cringeworthy. The fact that it wasnt introduced to us that way makes it more acceptable.Similarly Amantombazane was a bunch of rappers on a kwaito influenced beat and was one of Riky's breakout singles. This deliberate or subtle homage was heartwarming and well.

4.Genre:

Amapiano is an evolution of Kwaito,from a South African context Hip Hop is an evolution of Kasie Rap and Motswako. These are two genres with sub genres within them and this song is everything above its an incredible hybrid. The kwaito chorus and adlibs can only be found here in South Africa and take you back to kwaito when it was mainly chanted words on a mid tempo drum. When you also bring Cassper and Kwesta at the beginning and end who were part of the biggest kwaito/hip hop joint iNgudi and are now masters of writing for the hybrid genre. It creates a sandwich that gives the ingredients in between  -Kane Keid, Buzzi Lee, Tony,Mvelost,Set Off and Somolomo more prevalence and is almost an ushering from these two seasoned artists of the next generation of artists,sound and collaboration.You can't listen to this and not wish for this feeling to repeat cause its the recipe of all our sounds presented with such eloquence. 

5.Rollout:

In the age of social media where we know the behind the scenes of how everything happened you tend to not get excited by rollouts. I have questions though.  Did Kwesta and Tony rap on this beat for fun? Did the producers or djs that made the song hear this and then decided on making a remix? Was this a planned rollout which would lead to this song?  If that was the case how did they decide who to start with on the rollout? 

Yup a good rollout  will make you ask questions. 

I'm yet to get all my answers and if you have any for me hit me up on the comments.