South African Amapiano ensemble ATK MusiQ taps Busta 929 and Civil Soul for one of the more spiritually charged moments on “The Return” — a track called “weNkosi.”
The name means “the King” or “the Lord” in Zulu. So the record has a spiritual weight to it, separating it from the club-facing tunes on the same album. But ATK MusiQ don’t veer away from their unique Amapiano template to get there. Instead, the spiritual concept sits within the rhythm and doesn’t displace it.
Busta 929 is a natural here. From his “Ngixolele” run with Boohle that topped the Official South African Charts and crossed 778,000 streams earlier in his career, he has proven a continuous ability to convey emotional depth to piano records without sacrificing the rhythm. He’s not selling the feeling too hard on “weNkosi.” So you keep the delivery grounded while the lyrical content is reaching.
Civil Soul has a texture that provides the record its most distinguishing feature. Their singing style is soulful and soft, which makes a good counterpoint to Busta 929’s fire. Because a spiritual Amapiano record without real emotion in the singing risks being background music – yet “weNkosi” avoids that altogether.
Tracks like this one on “The Return,” a double CD, demonstrate the versatility of ATK MusiQ. They can move a dance floor, but they can also make you stop and feel something. Six years between albums had folks wondering, but this comeback effort keeps answering the questions one track at a time.
Listen to “weNkosi” and tell us what you think. Is it the stand-out cut from “The Return” for you? Drop your opinion below!
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