The Soil

South African a cappella group The Soil’s uplifting songs resonate with audiences of all ages. The group consists of Buhlebendalo Mda and brothers Luphindo and Ntsika Ngxanga, who were all born in Soweto, Gauteng, where they connected in the mid-2000s while they were students. Their 2011 self-titled debut was inspired by “all the day-to-day occurrences that we saw in Soweto,” the group told Apple Music; the album was led by the breakout hit “Joy,” a song about unifying the human race, particularly South Africans. The Soil’s music contains traces of vintage South African genres like isicathamiya, marabi, and mbaqanga meshed with hip-hop and soul. The title of 2016’s Echoes of Kofifi speaks to these influences: Kofifi (the nickname of Sophiatown) was a South African town famous for a robust art and music scene that left an indelible mark on the country before being destroyed by the apartheid government in the ’50s. Although The Soil’s members embarked on solo careers in the late 2010s, they still perform live as a trio.