What Happened To The New Wave?

I don't think I could write this article without painting a picture of the scene at the time. 2016 was the year a big shift occurred in hip hop. The term mumble rap had become mainstream, to the displeasure of old heads and XXL had announced the most polarising Freshmen List with the likes of Lil Uzi Vert, 21 Savage and Lil Yachty. They kind of opened up this new avenue for hip hop artists to express themselves. The sub-genre had become the new sound and 'skrr skrr' became a new moniker for people to make fun of hip hop fans. South Africa was no different with the youth adopting trap and it birthed what came to be known as the 'New Wave'. 

The Beginning 

My introduction to the new wave came via Treehouse's Aerosol music video. I was just intrigued by the fact there were people making the type of music I was into and they were in my backyard. Seeing Lethabo Acid, Fetti and J Molley as fresh-faced youngins rapping on a golf cart will forever be burnt into my brain. These guys were by no means a copy and paste of their international counterparts and they had their own swagger and sound. 

The new wave only grew from this point onwards with artists like Gator, PatricKxxLee, Wav. Gang, The Big Hash and others pushing the sub-genre forward. Maybe it might be commonplace to see an upcoming artist doing over 10 or 20k streams on SoundCloud but things were a bit different in 2016. WiFi wasn't a thing in everyone's life and I certainly remember that there weren't a lot of people that had official DSP's like Spotify and Apple Music, so SoundCloud was really the place where we all gathered to listen to the next generation of artists. Given all of these circumstances, you can see why seeing artists do over 40k on SoundCloud was mind-blowing at the time. 

The Rise

I think that new wave really started to gain momentum in 2017 because the mainstream media outlets had started interviewing artists like J Molley but when I think of 2017 I think of The Big Hash. To think that he was 17 when he made 'The Big Hash Theory' is still incredible. It was the moment I felt like there was something more to this whole movement and that perhaps we have just seen the tip of the iceberg. Champagne69 had dropped the visuals for ChamPain, PatricKxxLee's cult following was firmly established with his 'Diary Of An Arsonist' and Indigo Stella was proving to be a force on the scene.

The Peak 

2019 was the year where I feel the new wave had reached the peak of its powers. The new wave was undeniably the hottest thing on the local scene. J Molley was considered a commercial artist at this point, Costa Titch had dropped Nkalakatha and the Riky Rick co-sign blew it up to new heights. Dee Koala was making waves in Cape Town and I completely fell in love with her unique hard rapping style with the release of '4 The Khaltsha'. 

Present Day

Some people were a bit disappointed that not all of the new wave generation of artists made the transition to commercial artists but looking back, I don't think the new wave was a failure. Sure there are a few I wished stayed consistent but I think it went as far as it could and we got a talented crop of artists from it like Dee Koala, The Big Hash and J Molley. The new wave birthed media outlets, events and clothing brands. To think all of this started with a bunch of kids uploading 'skrr skrr' music on SoundCloud is pretty impressive.