If you felt the giddy thrill of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s explicit hit WAP this summer then Moonchild Sanelly is bringing more of the same. With her trademark electric blue braids, Sanelly is one of South Africa’s most striking artists, and is unapologetic about female desire in her music. One new track, Where De Dee Kat, ends with sweet voices chorusing “penis penis penis”.
Sanelly is best known for rapping over a style of club beats called gqom, an apocalyptic, minimal electronic sound that came out of Durban townships and blends kwaito, house and techno. She moved there in 2005 to study fashion and immersed herself in the poetry and music scene, then relocated to Johannesburg, where she brings elements of punk, pop and hip-hop into her sound. She’s attracted the attention of Beyoncé, who put Sanelly on her The Lion King: The Gift soundtrack last year. The song, My Power, appeared again in her recent short film Black Is King. According to Damon Albarn, who worked with Sanelly on his Africa Express project, she is “a global superstar waiting to happen”.
Nowhere is this statement clearer than on her forthcoming Nüdes EP. Songs such as the slinky, horn-fuelled Thunda Thighs and Bashiri, which has the brash arpeggios of EDM, underpinned by clacking syncopated drums and menacing marimbas, have the pan-global freshness of MIA’s early work. Except that MIA didn’t sing about loving big bums. Nüdes is a lascivious call to arms that puts body positivity and horniness on the dancefloor alongside Sanelly, a sweeping gust of fresh air – jiggly bits and all.
Moonchild Sanelly’s Nüdes EP is out now on Transgressive Records
