Mapaputsi smoking dagga in Zola. "You must photograph me doing this thing," Paps said, "I wee-dee-dah! As I said. Weed wee-dee-dah." Then he laughed.

Check out an interview with Mapaputsi, my favorite kwaito artist that I discovered during my last trip to South Africa. This is from the reporter's notebook section of a documentary on "South Africa's Kwaito Generation." The reporter's (Sean Cole) notes are candid and amusing. There is also a multi-part audio documentary that accompanies it (haven't checked that out yet, but looks cool). All in all, it's a good beginner's guide to Kwaito. Considering that there ain't a lot of in-depth discussion of the ins and outs of kwaito, or even ANY real kind of coverage of it, this ain't bad.

Here's my super-short beginner's guide to kwaito.....Kwaito is one of the main sounds of modern urban (and not so urban) South Africa. A mix of hip hop, house, ragga, township jazz, mbaqanga, kwela and whatever else finds its way into the mix (soukous and kuduro get some attention here too), kwaito is primarily electronic music. It's harder and slower than house music (generally around 100 bpm), but somehow straighter than hip hop (sort of 4 on the floor house beats on tranqulizers). Straight, but not un-swung so to speak. And speak they do....vocals can be, and are, in a whole handful of languages - sometimes all at the same time. Zulu, Sesotho, Setswana, Xhosa, English, Afrikaans or all of the above and more in what's known locally as totsi taal or "thug talk."

"Kas'lam"from Mapaputsi's 2004 release Kleva on Ghetto Ruff. Buy it.

I have no idea what he's talking about in this track. I asked a friend in JoBurg what the lyrics were about and the response wasn't much more elaborate (or poetic) than, "ahh, street shit - you drugs, guns, police, difficulties in life, etc." The only words I understand are "neighborhood" and "big shot." Anyway, his flow is tight.

This, of course, opens a discussion of what our responsibilities are as transmitters of music, ideas, culture, etc. As a DJ and music producer (and especially working with music that is in languages that I don't understand), I make a conscious effort to transmit a message that is positive and conscious. I don't play anti-homosexual dancehall ragga tracks for example. Small, seemingly inconsequential words often prop up much bigger and destructive social insitutions - like racism.

On the flip side, sometimes it can be interesting when a culture embraces a foreign language or style and makes it its own. Like funk and soul in Ethiopia in the 70's or baile funk in Brazil. American pop hip hop tracks got reinterpreted and brasilified. "Whoomp! There it is" became "uh!, tererê." Or, circus bands in India playing western rock music....it's human, natural and inimitable and ALWAYS real.