Sound and No Convention

“…But hitting and running was basically the tip of the plan, but ever since you realized Cadastrofik wasn’t a typical man it became a difficult plan” these are some of the many ways Cadastrofik effortlessly keeps our ears glued to his He(ART) EP (Extended Play) which was largely produced by Kenny Abrahams that Cada dropped and caused quite a stir with sometime in 2015 in these streets.

“…said you wanted space, I gave you asteroids and comets” Cada says is one of those that were a total bliss to wake up and record around 3 AM, since he had fulltime access to the studio.

Cadastrofik, born Glen Xaba, is probably one of the most well refined Hip Hop artists that South Africa has to boast. From his impeccable lyrical muscle to the way he delivers and his ahead of time style, this Bethlehem born rapper/fashion design student embodies every aspect of an artist.

His musical journey fully explains what meaningful coincidences are, because Cada started off singing in the High School Choir and the Serenade Group was pretty good, so much that he got called to be part of the Drankensburg Boys Choir and because of their fees at that time, he couldn’t make it in. He later found himself writing lyrics of popular songs for his classmates. That got him into too much trouble, not only because he would do this in class and that his mother was a teacher, but because those lyrics happened to be explicit, but he says: “mother has always been chilled, since music had always been a thing at home”. It is during this period he realized that he too could write, particularly after his first talent show where he’d ‘performed Busta Rhymes’ Touch It‘ and had everyone, especially the mamis were screaming. He went and formed a group called TIG (Thee Insomniac Gang) and that is when he found his style and material that he’s comfortable with, he added: “I feel like the best thing that attracts me as a lyricist listening to other artists is sincerity, honesty and realness, I like hearing a guy talk about how broke he is or how he used to walk across town just to go lay with his girl or just how f*cked up things are, you know real stuff, not just rhyming but connecting to what you’re saying. But I don’t think I’m a good rapper, there’s no such thing, I just happen to have certain attributes that enable me and the people who hear my music to connect well, for some it’s the wordplay and others the flow or content”. This is coupled with the fact that Cadastrofik always aims to make sounds that stray away from the normative, “I fvcks with anything out of the convention, and I tell myself throughout the thought process of every song to think less about everyone else and I love experimental sounds”.

It gets better when he starts talking about his team and the level of sincerity he dives into when he explains how amazing it is working with some of the best producers around, like Sellkat and Kenny Abrahams who Cadastrofik says is not only a perfectionist but also comprehends what he sounds good on and he also says, this is owing to Kenny’s engineering and how much energy he puts into understanding how they want each song to sound like. He’s got a grasp of embodying the right amount of confidence in his work and giving due respect to everyone who is involved in creating his timeless brand. “It’s funny how everything just seems to somehow fall into place” he explains how spontaneous his working relationship with Visual Artist, Bongani Ndlovu was so much that it went as far as establishing the link that led to his collaborative work with Afropop artist Presss both in studio with the hit single ‘Victoria’s Secret’ and on Presss’ ‘The Black Diamond’ tour which too was testimonial to just how versatile Glen is in his work.

Owing to Cadastrofik’s belief in consistency with his craft’s growth, he plans to release a follow up project titled “Heartless” as a continuation from his EP He(ART), which he says is a projection of his growth as an artist and a person. “I made a song, Slumber which actually initiated the EP, then more songs started flowing. Love lost followed but didn’t have a hook until later when I was at Kenny’s studio and ReloMash sang the hook, it just vibed afterwards.” He says he’d just broke up with his girl and finally realized that he wasn’t comfortable writing from so much anger, and calmed down, and he says it was easy because for him, music is personal and to an extent, therapeutic. “Sometimes I just wonder if it was love or just sympathy, coz she’s been through a lot and it blemished her history, I could’ve hit it and celebrated the victory, and she’d call me an asshole and wouldn’t mean sh!t to me but ooh she had me when she grabbed me and she landed her head on my chest and cried it soaking wet, looked in my eyes and made me promise I’d never hurt her, was it so that you could abuse the virtue?” and he says he connects on that level with his music and the mic has been the best outlet for his feelings.

“I wanna be remembered for greatness, I like pushing boundaries, for doing what I want to do and you love and relate to it, through music, or fashion or whatever it is I’m going to evolve into, who knows” and that’s him predicting his ultimate plans. The build up to that, he says, is continuously refining his brand through projects like Cada’s Freestyle Fridays which he named in numbered episodes he says were a projection of his daily encounters with trends and people. A personal reminder from the man himself, “keep the muscle working, we don’t always get to write from inspiration but that shouldn’t stop you from the rap, and I expanded a lot, learned and had fun with discovering new things about my delivery in a comfortable space”.