Those who took Oscar’s nod to heart and saw this year’s foreign film winner, the captivating South African “Tsotsi,” know that half its charm entered by way of ear. When the title character’s unruly, ghetto-scarred face is introduced by abrupt zoom and the opening buzz beats of rapper Zola’s “Mdlwembe,” he is instantly understood and we are hooked.
Zola, named after one of the most violent neighborhoods in Soweto (the region of Johannesburg, South Africa, where “Tsotsi” takes place), currently heads the “Kwaito” South African hip-hop movement. Just as American street-hop channels the angry energy of its youth, Kwaito captures the spirit of the modern African rebel, straining the native sounds of jazzy mbaqanga, whistling kwela, and synthey marabi through the hip-hop filter into a house-worthy dancehall all its own. Zola commands nearly half the infectious soundtrack, half-rapping, half-chanting in Zulu with a sprinkling of heavily accented English.
Though the film’s score truly belongs to the visuals it carried and cannot be fully appreciated without a vague memory of its context, the symphonic sorrow and harmonious chants that narrated a young boy’s hardship have undeniable beauty, and are complimented by the urban, ornamental thud of Kwaito. It’s admittedly difficult to handle such a large dose of full-on Africa (one starts to feel a little like Simba being dangled over Pride Rock), and a few laughably literal tracks somewhat spoil the ambiance (“I’ve got no ma, no pa, no sis, no bra and it’s killin’ me softly,” raps Bongz on Ishmael’s cheesy tribute to the movie’s young gangster). But the album succeeds in transporting us back to the motherland, putting some jump back in our hop-step and some bongo back in our ears.
