South Africa’s Okmalumkoolkat Curls Words like Bubblegum on “Allblackblackkat”
Memories of a Zulu cleansing ceremony form the basis of the song’s compelling video.
On Hyperdub trio LV's 2012 album Sebenza, it was South African MC Okmalumkoolkat that clean stole the show. His purring flow pulls all of popular culture into his orbit, and he curls word associations round his mouth with the snap-pop speed of bubblegum. He's finally and fittingly just released a debut solo EP on Affine Records called Holy Oxygen I featuring LuckyMe's Cid Rim and The Clonious on production duties. One of the EP's highlights, "Allblackblackkat," has received a ritualistic video treatment from director Chris Saunders, who Okmalumkoolkat has previously worked with in his Dirty Paraffin guise. The video plays with memory, reality and generational shifts, drawing on Okmalumkoolkat's childhood experience of a Zulu cleansing ceremony that is performed on male members of the family prior to a funeral.