INTERVIEW | SOUTH AFRICAN RAPPER PRIESTDEBEAST DISCUSSES NEW SINGLE ‘FOCUSED’

Priestdebeast dis­cusses the shift in style for his latest single “Focused,” the cre­at­ive pro­cess behind the col­lab­or­a­tion with Flow Jones Jr., and offers a glimpse into the themes of his upcom­ing album ‘Mfun­d­isi.’ He also shares insights on blend­ing diverse genres, the influ­ence of South Africa’s music scene, and the impact of col­lab­or­a­tions on his music­al jour­ney, all while aim­ing to cre­ate music that’s both enjoy­able and mean­ing­ful. Lastly, he hints at excit­ing plans for the future, includ­ing school tours, phil­an­thropy, and his vis­ion of becom­ing the future Afric­an giant in music. We catch up with him to find out more!

Your latest single “Focused” takes on a dark­er and edgi­er tone com­pared to your pre­vi­ous release “I Own It.” What inspired this shift in style and sound for this track?

Being hon­est as a musi­cian, I love exper­i­en­cing dif­fer­ent sounds and styles because I always want my fan base not to get bored of my music and to be able to play it any­where.

The col­lab­or­a­tion between you and Flow Jones Jr. on “Focused” has res­ul­ted in a unique and dense sound­scape. Can you tell us about the cre­at­ive pro­cess behind craft­ing such a rich music­al envir­on­ment?

I come from a town­ship called Cler­mont in Durb­an, 031 (south Africa), where you get a lot of ‘whistle call­ing.’ so I thought it would be cool if I blend in with my own town­ship cul­ture. As for flow jones jr., he is our south Afric­an Lil Wayne mixed with some young thug vibes, which makes some ad libs even bet­ter on the song.

“Focused” serves as a teas­er for your upcom­ing album ‘Mfun­d­isi’. Can you give us a glimpse into the themes and con­cepts that will be explored in this new album?

My album ‘Mfun­d­isi Wenu Nonke’ is basic­ally about my exper­i­ences as a human being. There are a lot of genres in this album because I want to reach out to more people who don’t listen to hip-hop only. You’ll exper­i­ence genres like house, amapi­ano, hip-hop, maskandi, rnb, afro pop. Listen to it; some will cry, laugh, or be motiv­ated by what i say in some songs.

Your music often blends ele­ments of Hip-Hop, Elec­tron­ic Music, and Dance. How do you approach mer­ging these dif­fer­ent genres to cre­ate a cohes­ive and innov­at­ive sound?

Firstly, I would say my main pro­du­cers such as Bigga Beats, Msego, and Creature Mck­en­zie are the people involved in this cohes­ive sound. I give myself huge chal­lenges to ful­fill a great sound.

South Africa has a diverse and vibrant music scene. How has the coun­try’s music­al land­scape influ­enced your cre­at­ive jour­ney and the music you cre­ate?

By me just want­ing to try every music genre, so I can see people dan­cing whenev­er I play my songs dur­ing my own events/shows, and I know since we have one of the best dan­cers in S.A, it also elev­ates my music craft.

With an impress­ive lineup of col­lab­or­a­tions includ­ing artists like Blxck­ie, Flow Jones Jr., and more, how do these col­lab­or­a­tions con­trib­ute to your music­al evol­u­tion?

Well, for Blxck­ie, it gave me more oppor­tun­it­ies to reach out to oth­er big artists like him. Some artists I worked with have advised me on how to over­come chal­lenges in the music industry and what I should try out.

Your music aims to encour­age listen­ers to relax, dance, and express them­selves. How do you strike a bal­ance between cre­at­ing music that’s enjoy­able to listen to while also con­vey­ing deep­er emo­tions or mes­sages?

It must depend on whatever I’m feel­ing at that time or if someone I’m close with is going through some­thing. I try and take that, mix it with my own issues, and some issues people deal with on a reg­u­lar basis. But for a song to make people happy, it can be done any­time; just make some­thing catchy.

“Focused” fea­tures auda­cious flows, whistles, ad libs, and mouth clicks, cre­at­ing a dis­tinct son­ic exper­i­ence. How do you go about exper­i­ment­ing with dif­fer­ent vocal tech­niques to enhance your tracks?

People in my coun­try get bored eas­ily, so it’s always import­ant to do dif­fer­ent things in every song you cre­ate, because you can­’t eat the same chocol­ate every day without try­ing new fla­vors.

 As you gear up for the launch of your second album, can you share some insights into the cre­at­ive pro­cess and the jour­ney you’ve under­taken to bring this pro­ject to life?

It was­n’t easy mak­ing this album. So much money was spent, and so many sac­ri­fices were made. I gave it my all, hop­ing it will take my fam­ily out of the hood to a bet­ter life­style.

Your jour­ney from your debut in 2020 to around 15 singles and now your upcom­ing album has been quite dynam­ic. What can we expect from Priestdebeast in the future, and how do you envi­sion your music evolving fur­ther?

You can expect a lot, like school tours, more songs, more events, and we’ll be giv­ing away to the poor. And for sure, you’re look­ing at the future Afric­an giant.

‘FOCUSED’ IS OUT NOW 

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Rishma Dhaliwal

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds

Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voice­less. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

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