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It’s almost a month since Mandla “Mampintsha” Maphumulo passed away and was given a resounding send off. But that reality still seems odd to me.
It’s difficult to reconcile Mampintsha’s nine lives with the cruel finality and eternal silence of death.
This likeable, bubbly, larger-than-life person … this heroic, all-conquering figure, a one-of-a-kind rhyme-spitter and hitmaker – uShimora, uMshekesheke, uDiego, uGolide Dayimane – the sometimes chubby, sometimes scrawny, comical, always dancing, doting baba ka Sponge.
He was at once stirring with his prodigious talents and seemingly possessed by a painfully self-destructive streak. As a huge fan, I don’t even know how many imaginary conversations I’ve had with him over the years to try to get him to mend his ways.
It’s yet another incredibly sad and heart-breaking (Oh, not again!) chapter in the unrelenting plucking away of South Africa’s relatively young, black and gifted lyricists, the crème de la crème of hitmakers.
The big ballers with the Midas touch, the number 10 generals in football terms, who knew how to dig from within their souls and channel their voices mellifluously, almost effortlessly, over a beat, as if travelling on train tracks, to make a hit, as if born to do this thang.
READ: Top five hit tracks from Mampintsha to remember
From Brown Dash, Mandoza and ProKid to HHP, the effervescent young Mpura and the recently departed Magesh, the all-star No 1 tsotsi ... we have lost so many.
It came at a time when even those with the slightest hint of a musical bone were jiving to Big Nuz’s smash comeback hit song Ngeke – they were everywhere, from TikTok videos to wedding venues and nightclubs all over the country .. even in Durban’s law unto themselves minibus taxis.
All of this made for a not so festive season, quite frankly. It was almost as bleak as the Covid-19 calamity at its peak in December 2020.
Mampintsha, a heavyweight in the figurative and literal senses, was luminous, with the world at his feet.
I have a history and admiration for Mampintsha, which came long before he “two-feeted” the country’s erstwhile “national key point” in Bongekile “Babes Wodumo” Simelane, in what turned out to be a tumultuous union. So dramatic that it spun off a reality TV series (and, no doubt, a few million rands) that is as entertaining as it can be cringe-worthy.
As far as certifying one’s love for a music band or artist, it gets no better than playing their song on your wedding day, especially during the “step time”.
And so it was that Mampintsha and his Big Nuz bandmates R Mashesha and Danger’s vocal talents drew my sweetheart and I, and our wedding party, back into the reception venue. It was our finest hour, getting hitched on the historic, lush and scenic lawns of Inanda Seminary in Durban in December 2009. The choice of song came naturally for me, for Big Nuz’s almost perfect Undisputed album, produced by the perennially underrated DJ Fisherman, had taken permanent residency in my car CD player during the weeks and months leading up to the wedding.
WATCH | Big Nuz member Mandla 'Mampintsha' Maphumulo's funeral
“Bhasobha Sok’bhunyela … Ngamabhaked’ othando [Beware, for you’re about to be showered with bucketloads of love],” the lads proclaimed, as I led my beautiful bride into the venue, my two left feet messing up the wedding steps in the process.
It’s impossible to consider Mampintsha’s career in totality without revisiting the nascent days of Big Nuz and their still little-known Zozo album. It was released in 2005 and was essentially a memorable hip-hop offering in what is considered the golden age of local vernac rap, as well as their appearances on Slovas’ Impilo kaLova album, which was released at about the same time – and how all of that work would come to influence a fresh new sound that came to be known as Durban kwaito music, with the shrewd DJ Tira at the helm.
Together with T’zozo and Professor, El’vovo Derrango and Zakes Bantwini, Big Nuz held it down and represented Durban and KwaZulu-Natal to the fullest, doing for the province and city what 10 million marketing and tourism brochures could not.
Given the technical superiority of hip-hop, Big Nuz’s transition to dance music was always going to be considered a step down for the group. But they made it work for them, peppering their brand of music with proper rap bars, to superb sonic effect.
As he had always done, Mampintsha – like Magesh with TKZee and Mandoza with Chiskop years before – took centre stage as the leader of Big Nuz.
Quite remarkably, Big Nuz suffered absolutely no sophomore blues.
They went on to dominate the local music scene, regularly winning industry awards, including the coveted song of the year award on Ukhozi FM, which singularly ushers the country into the new year.
I have previously alluded to the completeness of Undisputed, their next album, which is a classic – Big Nuz’s own Halloween, if you will – with hits such as Newlands West, S’yagijima (featuring Sliquor), where DJ Fisherman “qongqotha-ed” the drums and basslines as if it was the ransom required to release a kidnapped daughter. (Have you heard the drums on Fisherman’s Owethu Wena?)
WATCH: Big Nuz member Mandla 'Mampintsha' Maphumulo's memorial service
There were songs such as Yes Please (Ungabathethisi, Ba-buy’el’ i-Hennessy); Gibela (Khwel’ Uval’ is’caabhaaaa); and, of course, the massive hit Umlilo, which is right up there with some of the biggest songs to have come out of this country.
There was also Pound for Pound (2011), with a whopping 25 tracks, among them bangers such as Serious (which would later become the theme song for the broadcaster SuperSport in what ought to have been a lucrative deal), Sting Ray, Imisebenzi Iyabonakala, Asispani (S’phila ngok’hlanganisa), Idedele (Eyamapantsul’ ishey’ntele) and Ntomb’enhle, which is a love proposal that is strikingly not dissimilar to the currently trailblazing Ngeke.
Made in Africa, which was released in 2013, had many tracks that gained traction with Big Nuz’s following, such as Hawaii (reminiscent of TKZee’s Fiasco, which should actually have been Fiesta), Inazo and Incwadi Yothando, another wedding song, featuring their Umlazi homeboy Khaya Mthethwa, of Idols SA fame.
READ: Babes Wodumo and Mampintsha's mom bury the hatchet at funeral
In no time, there was a much-publicised acrimonious split from Afrotainment, followed by the runaway success of Babes Wodumo’s Wololo, which notably made it on to the soundtrack of the blockbuster Black Panther film.
Many books can be written about Babes and Mampintsha’s relationship. If you follow social media, you would have seen Babes sharing some of the secrets she found on her late husband’s phone. But I digress.
As the country was in the grips of the Covid-19 pandemic, Mampintsha and Babes were evidently hard at work.
Soon, Mampintsha released his debut solo album, titled Bhut’Madlisa, while Babes simultaneously released her own album, Idando Kazi.
Cooked with the beat-making prowess of Distruction Boyz and Madanone, and new producers such as DJ Skillz and Bhut’Madlisa, is a collection of some of the most infectious, go-to gqom songs to lift any dour mood or make the party jump, notwithstanding the discomfort of veiled references to drug use (“Fun’ukudl’ ipharishi; Aw’ngiph’ i-straw, ngizenzele,” which were too reminiscent of “Ngibambe Mercedes … Ugad’ ungaslimazi!”).
In his later years, the lanky Mampintsha – his knees bent, stomach protruding, arms and shoulders jerking rhythmically as part of his laid back and almost effortless signature dance routine – became an experience. A whole vibe.
He was the ultimate court jester on TikTok, where his multitude of followers had great fun imitating some of his skits.
But he always knew when to get serious.
At a time when gqom’s own obituary had already been written (because, well, that’s just how we roll as South Africans: too quick to kill off musical genres, instead of allowing them to live side by side and thrive in this tiny music industry of ours), Mampintsha stuck his head out and went against the grain, riding proudly for gqom and its irrepressible dance culture.
For iTheku.
Mampintsha has left an indelible mark on urban youth culture.
As an artist, he will be a tough act to follow. It’s the unbelievable end of an era.
