Robbie Malinga Robbie Malinga
One of South Africa’s most accomplished music producers, Robbie Malinga, has stepped out from behind the scenes to give his fans an early Christmas present in the form of an album titled The Duets. For this album, Malinga chose some of his finest classics and partnered with established musicians like Musa Sukwene and Ntando.
“I have been making duets throughout my music career. I have worked with people like Kelly Khumalo, Zahara and Ntando. So through social media I picked up that people really wanted to have access to the songs, but they were on different albums and that proved expensive.
“So my team and I decided to come up with The Duets album which will have all the songs that I have done in the past,” said the legend. Before you write it off as a rehash of old material, not only were the songs on The Duets re-recorded for this project, but there is also new material for the fans.
“I also decided to add seven new tracks just to give people value for their money. To make that possible, I called artists that I hadn’t worked with who include Karabo, the Idols SA winner, and Maxi, a singer from Botswana, to be part of the project. I also called Fiso, whom I had worked with a long time ago, and we did a song just for old time’s sake. In that vein, I also called Ntando who has been quiet and asked him to do a new song with me,” said Malinga.
Thanks to the fact that he is always in demand to produce other musicians’ work, Malinga rarely finds time to work on his own music nowadays, so this project is a pleasant surprise for his supporters.
“I haven’t been in studio doing my own thing so it feels good to be working on my own material for a change,” he confessed. With an array of artists, you wonder how Malinga managed to navigate around their personalities and egos just to get the music out the way he wanted.
“When you are working with different people there will be different vibes. We are not all the same. It was fun because most of them are people I have worked with before. I know what to do when I am in the studio with Kelly Khumalo and I also know how to behave when I am with Ntando or Musa. I treat them as my kids and, as a father, you know how your kids behave,” he said.
Musicians never want to talk about a particular song as a favourite, but off this album, Malinga had no problem sharing with us where his heart is.
“I know people will think that Mthande is the obvious choice, but I have to say that Baby Please, which I did with Kelly Khumalo, is a special song to me. For a long time people have been saying that we should do a full album together. Baby Please is already taking off and people are loving it and the album is only a week old. We are even getting complaints that some places do not have stock, which is a good problem to have. Sometimes I get so emotional because of the love I get from people,” he said.
In a time when nothing but house and hip hop rule the airwaves, how does Malinga keep Afro-soul alive and popular?
“I stay true to the sound. I grew up listening to the likes of Caphius Semenya and Letta Mbuli. I always say to myself that my wish is to write a South African song that will conquer the world and not the other way round. We are looking at following what’s out there and that’s my secret. I have no confusion there. I think the song is coming. I thought I almost got it right with Loliwe, but I don’t think we are there yet,” he said.
The album’s current big hit, Mthande is undoubtedly the biggest song on this project.
“Musa and I created a monster with Mthande. We don’t sleep at all. We are booked all the time and are always on the move throughout the country. Again, it is another beautiful experience to be part of,” said Malinga.
• The Duets is in music stores and online.
