Tumi Molekwane

I "discovered" Tumi and the Volume (his live band!) a few weeks ago upon my arrival in-country. Their album was profiled in this article as the dopest South African hip hop group of the year. After downloading their album and having a listen, who was I to disagree? Absolutely electric. Here are a few videos and articles:

This first video is the MC (Jaco van der Merwe) from Bittereidner, Tumi, and Jack Parrow, a well-known MC who raps in Afrikaans from Cape Town. The song is a tribute to the three cities they are from: Pretoria, Jo'burg, and Cape Town, respectively. While the first and third verses are in Afrikaans, I can tell (thanks to the way the video is done), that they are love-letters. That is, there are many references  to places and events in Pretoria and Cape Town (I actually understand some of the Pretoria ones). I personally love hearing these songs, as one of hip hop's many fine qualities is its respect for place. To be an MC is to represent where you are from and its constituents.
However, Tumi's verse (and maybe this is because I actually understand the language its rapped in!) is a fully-drawn portrait of a city. Indeed, it is really a fully-drawn portrait of contemporary urban South Africa in all its glories and contradictions. The verse is a penetrating critique of unbridled capitalism, a discourse on racial injustice, a celebration of the hustler, an abstract rumination on the city as an idea, and a simple shout-out to dynamic New York of Africa...

Tale of Three Cities:

Here is a live medley video (its a great Tumi sampler):

Here is a raucous performance where he reps Pan-Africanness to the fullest:

I encourage you to search him out some more if you like what you hear. This is just the tip of the iceberg!