Yanga Chief

The leader of new-school Xhosa rap, Yanga Chief doubles as a songwriter whose pen has shaped hits by other South African artists. Starting out as a film director in the late 2000s, Yanga Chief (born Yanga Ntshakaza in 1987) is responsible for the visuals for rap superstars AKA and K.O’s era-defining 2014 hit “Run Jozi.” On that same track, Yanga Chief also contributed a memorable hook that interpolated kwaito group TKZee’s 1998 song “Sikelela” and showcased his refusal to be limited by the confines of genre. On his subsequent solo records, Yanga Chief references the sounds he grew up listening to—including kwaito, Afropop, and R&B—as well as Xhosa folk songs from the Eastern Cape (where he was born and raised in the town of Mthatha). On his 2020 debut album, aptly titled Pop Star, its prequel, the 2019 EP Becoming a Pop Star, and the rest of his catalogue, Yanga Chief integrates his influences into a unique brand of pop-rap and Afropop earworms.