COSTA TITCH'S ''MADE IN AFRICA'' IS THE SAVING GRACE FOR SOUTH AFRICAN HIP HOP

The break out star of 2020 Costa Titch has finally arrived and is carving out his space in the South African hip hop space. In a year where the whole world was hit by a pandemic and everything was put on hold a white kid from Nelspruit has saved and shifted the whole game. His debut album came out on the 9th of October and it was met with mixed reactions, some people love it, some peole hate it but one thing you can't do is ignore him and the TITCH GANG.

In a time when majority of the young rap artists coming up in South Africa sound like your favourite American rapper here comes Costa Titch to come and remind his peers why being ''Made In Africa'' is your super power as an artist coming from this continent. Now, there is a huge disconnect with the OG's & the new wave of artists because the OG's feel like the new crop of artists are trying to sound like America and the new wave do not give a ''flying fxck'' about what the old heads have to say about how they are creating their art. I hear both sides of the argument, on one hand there is nothing more valuable as an African in your art than your African heritage, but on the other hand you can't blame these kids who grew up idolising American culture like we all do, we are all a part of it. It's a tricky situation for both sides, and both sides are right in their stances but the difference is that the new wave of rap artists are the ones who are going to dictate the direction of the sound. Someone needs to be able to walk the fine line between this to mantain the identity of South African Hip hop but also to take the sound international and that's exactly where Costa Titch comes in.

Somehow Costa Titch managed to find the perfect balance of South African youth music and American influence and blended it into one hell of a debut album. I'll be honest when I first saw the Nkalakatha video I loved it, it was exciting, here was this white kid with dreads rapping in zulu and killing it. It was the sign of the times, the melting pot of race and culture is finally reaching new heights and for me it's great to watch. I have always viewed cultural appropriation as an individual who steals from a culture and doesn't acknowledge or give back to it, Costa Titch does not fit this discription. He is a white kid who grew up with Black friends and loved hip hop. He started out as a dancer and he used it as a through pass to become one of the biggest new wave artists and no one saw it coming. Don't get me wrong I was also skeptical and thought he was going to be a one hit wonder and that it was all a gimic,but he delivered one of the best Hip Hop albums this year and is now a fully formed artist. His time is now and no one can stop his ascension. 

Him and Focalistic have litteraly been the saving grace for the genre this year, they have been able to revive the sound and give it direction. Only time will tell where Costa takes South African Hip Hop music but from where I'm sitting I think  he is going to be one of the biggest artists in the game.