Muso Spoek goes Mutant

Musician and documentary maker Spoek Mathambo is focusing his lens on controversial Western Cape rapper Isaac Mutant in his latest film project.

He disclosed this week that he had teamed up with music video director Lebogang Rasethaba on the Making of Mutant.

Mathambo, whose real name is Nthato Mokgata, and Rasethaba have already given home-grown music an international platform in their first documentary The Future Sound of Mzansi — which was screened at the British Museum on Saturday.

The documentary tracks the burgeoning local electronic music scene and features Black Coffee and Rude Boys.

This time Mathambo is tackling the contentious Mutant, who unleashed a wave of anger three years ago when his band Dookoom released its song and music video Larney Jou P***.

The song written by Mutant was in response to the 2012 farmworker strikes that took place in De Doorns in Western Cape. At the time civil rights group AfriForum said the song was tantamount to hate speech and racist against white people.

“Farmer Abrahams had many farms, and many farms had farmer Abrahams, I work on one of them so would you. So let’s go burn them down …” said Mutant in the song, which he claimed was meant to generate debate and not incite violence. Mathambo said that Mutant was a “work in progress”.

 “It’s a film about Mutant’s life, work, as well as his views on life in post-democratic South Africa,” he said, adding he had been alerted to the controversy of Mutant’s song.

Mathambo, who is also renowned for his Mshini Wam track, said: “Future Sound of Mzansi has been shown in a number of UK cities in the past two years. It’s an honour to have it shown at the British Museum.” He said interest in South African music had been growing, particularly in the UK.

“I think online access and a huge immigrant population are some of the factors that have made local music popular,” he said.