Here’s why Yanga Chief almost quit after releasing “Utatakho” single.
There are certain things we don’t know about some of our favourite Mzansi artsists. We only find out about them when they tell the story. This is why the interviews they grant give us a peek into their world, and some of the things they have been through.
SAMA Award winner, Yanga Chief was recently interviewed by Okay Africa where he opened up about a time in his life when he wanted to quit. According to him, that was around the time when he made the “Utatakho” single.
In the interview, the “Becoming A Pop Star (BAPS)” hit maker shared how much he struggled as a songwriter. In his opinion, songwriting does not thrive in places like Mzansi it does on the international scene. He also detailed what led up to the point when he finally made the hit song song “Utatakho”. He said;
“In South African hip-hop there’s no room for being a songwriter. It’s not like in the States where you can live comfortably from writing songs. For me, songwriting in South Africa is more of a sacrificial act where you’re sacrificing yourself for the good of the music. So that’s another relationship that I have with music, that if I take care of the music, it’ll take care of me. And even when it comes to songs and people have always said, “You’re giving away these songs, whatever, whatever.” For me, it’s like I’ve never given away any song. Any song that has come to me while I was in studio or whatever, and has ended up in someone else’s hands, was always someone else’s song” He continued,
So it’s just when I decided that I’m not going to continue, it was more of the ego and self and physically throwing in the towel. But looking at it now, I needed to get to that point to make a song like “Utatakho.” There are songs you make and they make the greatest mathematical sense, but they just won’t resonate. But the songs that you make with your eyes closed, and just speak, won’t be perfect on paper, but it will resonate to the listener in a way that you had not even intended. So everything just happened the way it did. Even me wanting to quit is just a lesson for other people to learn through my story, I think,”
