Radio airplay? Electronic duo Stiff Pap are a hit without it

If you Google "Stiff Pap" you're most likely to find recipes on how to make the white, fluffy mielie meal staple food we Zulus refer to as "uphuthu", but if you probe a little further you'll definitely come across Stiff Pap - an electronic music duo consisting of producer Jakinda and rapper Ayema, and let me tell you, there is nothing fluffy about them.

Just last week, they dropped their sophomore EP, titled Stiff Pap Radio. It opens with the cascading synths of NNNEWWW as Ayema's voice booms over the instrumental, introducing the EP like a radio announcer would, followed by a radio caller asking for a song by the duo.

What follows is a cinematic explosion that sets the pace for a project that encapsulates what they refer to as industrial post-kwaito.

Now based in Johannesburg, Stiff Pap was founded a little over two years ago in Cape Town where both Jakinda and Ayema were students.

Stiff Pap Radio follows on their debut Based on A Qho Story, first released on Soundcloud in 2017. The EP is now widely available on all major digital platforms. It's a project that took them from obscurity to playing at music festivals, including the now-defunct Red Bull Music Festival in Joburg, as well as Oppikoppi.

Without a recording deal (who does that these days anyway), or co-sign from any big artist, radio airplay or a traditional pathway to success, Stiff Pap have been slowly building a loyal following both on and offline, and Stiff Pap Radio comes at a time when the duo is looking to expand their audience and sound - an interesting, synth-heavy mix of hip-hop, kwaito and electronic influences.

"When I was writing Based on a Qho Story it was about that Umlazi fast life of parties every weekend and that sort of thing," explains Ayema, the rapping half of the duo, who hails from the Durban township, adding that the sound and narrative on Stiff Pap Radio builds on that.

"We tend to think of what we do as a movie or series, where Stiff Pap is a character that is in constant development," Jakinda says. "So, if Based on a Qho Story, and before moving from Cape Town to Joburg was our season one, this is season two."

On arrival in the city of gold, Stiff Pap have not rested on their laurels, striving instead to create a community around their music, collaborating with other creatives on a variety of pursuits, including an agency known as Ebumnandini.

Through this venture, the duo host parties at venues in the city such as Kitchener's and The Tennis Club.

"When we started out, there used to be so many exciting events with diverse lineups almost every weekend, but we don't see that anymore," says Jakinda, lamenting what he identifies as a decline in support for live music in both Johannesburg and Cape Town.

He adds that Ebumnandini was born partly out of a desire to not only create a space for themselves, but for other like-minded artists who are hardly afforded platforms.

This DIY culture not only cuts through how Stiff Pap present themselves, but also extends to their approach to finding new audiences.

When I ask them about radio airplay, for example, they speak instead of the need for data prices to come down so that the internet becomes accessible to more people.

"What I would like to see is that we don't have to worry so much about radio.

"If you put out a dope video, for instance, it would be nice for people to actually get to see it. Radio has big numbers, sure, but I don't think it's a true reflection of what people are into more than it is about what they have access to."