Johannesburg-based artist Itani Thafeli, better known as Itai Hakim, has always explored the idea of finding and remembering home through his music. In 2014, as part of the now-defunct folk duo 8 Bars Short, he released . The guitar-driven number sees Hakim and former bandmate Pelonomi Moiloa sing about their yearning for home and their desire to map out their ancestry.

Muzi Mazibuko (27) reclines in his chair and furrows his brow. “That’s not entirely true,” says the Johannesburg-based electronic music producer. “I wouldn’t say I was just making EDM [electronic dance music] all this time. My music’s always had African-inspired rhythms in it."

Drake has recently had quite a bit of explaining to do. A week ago, the Canadian rapper released his fifth studio album, , under the most trying circumstances he’s ever had to weather. A month earlier, another rapper by the name of Pusha T released — a neck-snapping diss track that took their beef to new extremes. In the track, Pusha took aim at Drake, accusing him of “hiding a newborn child” and being an absent father.

For better or worse, Sandy B has always been an artist ahead of his time. In 1994, the Durban-based artist released — an infectious lo-fi kwaito number with the laconic flow and thumping basslines that would go on to typify kwaito. It was kwaito before the genre even existed.

Cape Town-based photographer and filmmaker Jabu Nadia Newman (23) has a keen focus on the politics of identity and how its various complexities affect women in her work.

It’s been nearly three years since Cape Town-based artist Thor Rixon dropped his breakout hit . The one-take, single-shot video that accompanied the song featured Rixon in a nude leotard directing quirky pro-vegan lines toward the camera while getting his hair, beard and eyebrows shaved off. The video quickly went on to reach 15000 plus views on YouTube and was the subject of many a hot take (“Was this the gluten-free anthem South Africa didn’t know it needed?”)

La Maison Noir/The Black House, a visual album that accompanies South African artist Petite Noir’s EP of the same name, opens with an aerial shot of an arid desert. Petite Noir’s solitary frame ambles from the distance, decked in all red. After wandering and stumbling for some distance, the artist born Yannick Ilunga meets up with his younger self and recites a letter to him: Young traveller, wanderer, migrant...your story, our story will become a map for all of those who rise. “Blame Fire,” th

K Sello Duiker emerged on the African literary scene with a visceral two-punch combo, the novels Thirteen Cents (2000) and The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2001), which garnered him acclaim as ‘the most exciting young voice’ to emerge in post-apartheid literature at the time. Duiker took his life in 2005; his unfinished work The Hidden Star was published a year later. On 13 April this year, he would have turned forty-five. His writing pal Bongani Madondo fields questions about Duiker, mental health

We take you behind the scenes to find out just how big an impact 'The Lion King' and African music has had on the global music space.

We take you behind the scenes to find out just how big an impact 'The Lion King' and African music has had on the global music space.