Our next song was an inescapable smash that serenaded South Africa for months, Sondela. Venom & Shishiliza’s Sondela is what I like to call soul food music; it’s cozy afro-pop with a simmering groove that just hits the spot. It doesn’t try to do too much because it already knows that the recipe works. This is a song that was made for lovers, for slow dancing and for weddings. The production and Raspy do a majority of the heavy lifting with Yumbs providing an intoxicating mid-tempo groove for Raspy to deliver their swooning refrains over. Blxckie and Tshego yearn in their verses when riding the groove whilst Riky Rick brings a pensively apologetic tone in his unexpected swan song that has only grown more melancholic after the fact. Sondela is a song about cherishing love, delivered by some of the savviest musicians within the rhytmic crossover space. It’s dependable and it endures as a solid addition to South Africa’s canon of smooth love songs.

Read more Blxckie related content here, Riky Rick here & Tshego here.

Listen to Blxckie’s All That Yazz feature here.

Fun Facts: Yumbs has the most overall artist appearances of any musician on 2022 selections. He is the only person to be credited as an artist on 4 songs on the overall 2022 list.

Blxckie is tied for the most appearances of any vocal performer on the 2022 Next Gen Greats list. He shares this distinction with Thato Saul and Maglera Doe Boy who all appear 3 times.