I remember as a laaitie I always used to skrik when I heard an Afrikaans song playing on the radio.
One of the first songs I heard in Afrikaans was from an old gospel cassette that my late father use to play when I went to visit him. Now I don't know who the singer was but one of the song’s chorus lyrics are stuck in my head to this day and it goes: “My geeerde broer, waar is jy vanaand ek het jou lief.”
The song that made me feel really lekke and we used to dance to it as laaities is one penned by the late Al Etto and performed by Groove Station.
They sing: “she don't want no boerewors she say it's too duk lekke lekke lekke fish en chips will be alright.”
The years went by and all the time new Afrikaans songs popped up, like the one from Homebase’s ‘hoe rukkie party hosh my bra hosh hosh’ to Molly Barron and Rico White's "amakokkerotte".
Over the years we had a few of these hits but most of the time they were not played on radio, like "koekie" that became famous only when it was used in a political party’s election campaign.
There were many local Afrikaans voices like Dee Louw with message songs like "ek sal jou paptrap paptrap as jy nie jou hande vannie kinnes af hou nie’, and who can forget any of the Brasse vannie Kaap hits like 'almal is vrek my broe' to 'skaroemba'.
Those were the good old days.
Never did I think that local Afrikaans music would become as big as it is today and right at the forefront is two of the most humble and talented guys in the music industry, Jayricko Van Wyk (Rjay) and Lethan Fisher (LK).
They shot to number one on two of Cape Town’s biggest commercial radio stations, GHFM and Heart, with their hit song Wikkel Wikkel.
The song now has over one million views on YouTube and on social media there is no one that hasn't heard that hook "wikkel nou dai heupe en doen it lekke gooiet mettie skoues drop it lower gooiet mettie bene gooi dai lyfie die vloer is joune’.
While Jerusalema was big in the world, the second highest trending song on social media was this Afrikaans numbertjiebby these two stars who hail from Wellington. Rjay and Lk say that they started way back in 2014 making music together but it really started to come together in 2019 and then of course 2020 was the biggest year for them in the music industry.
They describe their tunes as lekke Afrikaanse music because people from all races enjoy it and it does not matter if you understand the words or not, you still will get lekke because of the vibe and the beat, so their target market is people from all walks of life.
When asked about their goals, they said: “Die goal is maar net om elke dag ‘n stappie verder te wees en ons werk kliphard om dit nog verder te maak.”
To the youth and aspiring artists their advice is: “Om altyd jou alles te gee... En altyd te kyk wa jy jouself kan verbeter... En vir jou doelwitte stel en te werk daarnatoe en belangrikste, maak vir God deel van al jou planne en drome.”
In my opinion if this style of music was ever going to go big then this is the time and these two young stars are the perfect leaders to take local Afrikaans music to an international level.
They are already TikTok kings, so soon we could see JZee or Puff Daddy collabbing with this dynamic duo and singing Afrikaans. For more new music and music videos you can follow Rjay and LK on YouTube at Jayricko RJay, on Facebook at RJays Music and on Instagram @RJay and @LK.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za