Zaki Ibrahim's musical tribute to Woodstock, Cape Town
In a segment we call the q Block Party, we invite guests to pay musical tribute to the neighbourhoods they hold dear to their hearts.
Today, musician Zaki Ibrahim takes listeners on a guided musical tour through Woodstock, a suburb of Cape Town in South Africa.
Below are Ibrahim's song picks and her reasons behind them.
Little Dragon, "Feather"
"A big favourite, a big song at a transitional time in my life. Relocating to Woodstock [...] I associated it with family and I associated it with being more settled down and isolated, at the very bottom of South Africa. The feeling of settling and becoming isolated was very daunting, being a nomad, but when I did 'grip the crown,' like she says in the song, I found that the opposite happened. I became airborne and the world opened up to so many opportunities to collaboration."
Black Coffee, "Masingita"
"I was exposed to this whole world of underground dance parties that were just huge and they took place mostly at these places, they were BBQ joints and they used to call them the car wash. There'd be thousands of people, there would be meat, there would be people dancing almost as if they were in a trance. I remember hearing this song 'Masingita' by Black Coffee and just being exposed to this whole other movement. I could smell it, I could feel it, I could taste it. And every time I hear this song, I'm brought back to that same place where I heard this song for the first time."
Alonzo, "Like A Star"
"In South Africa, post-apartheid, the segregation is still there and there's still a lot of pockets, you have to go in and dig and look for scenes, look for certain things. If you're a record digger and you're looking for vinyl, there are some real goldmines. I went into a record shop somewhere in 2012 and I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me because I saw a record by Alister Johnson and Alister Johnson is a producer that I've been working with since that year. There was a vinyl there of his there."
Abdullah Ibrahim, "Manneberg"
"This is an anthem. Manneberg is a neighbourhood also in Cape Town, much like Woodstock. When I hear it, there's always a little bit of a lump in my throat because it reminds me of my childhood. It reminds me of New Year's Eve where, once a year in the middle of summer in Cape Town, we're allowed to go camping on the streets and stay out all night. This song would be a definite staple to that New Year's Eve experience."
Mos Def, "New World Water"
"It's as relevant as ever right now, with what's happening in North Dakota. Water being such a basic human right, access to fresh water being such an important issue right now, this song still rings loud and clear."