The Big Issue; text by

Like most other up and coming producers, his beat room is also his bedroom. Although with the speakers, lights, keyboard and PC, there's hardly room for a bed. Plus, the awards take up a lot of space too. Album of the Decade from the SAMAs, Most Talked About Personality from the Duku Dukus. "That's not even all of them," he quips. "Some of them have been lost. They've been moved around a lot," he says, before adding softly, "my mother moved around a lot."

Bongani Fassie is dealing with his mother's death the only way he knows how. After the very public, very tragic passing of the nation's most-loved superstar Ma Brrr, he released two albums. One as a solo artist, a jazz offering titled Makana Square, and the other a hip hop project with the group Shiman ECT. It might seem a tad contradictory since the genres are separated by the importance each assigns to vocals, but ask him what his first love is and his answer will illuminate the decision behind the releases. "I like both genres, but my first love is just music. It doesn't have to have a name; it doesn't have to belong to a certain genre. It's just music."

Listening to some of the music he's created that's piling up on his PC, music that has yet to be released, it's clear Bongani doesn't allow genre conventions or stereotypes about what style a musician should follow to get in the way of his creativity.

A laid-back reggae tune comes up after a trippy drum ‘n' bass track, just after a hedonistic twirl into hope and happiness. "Music to me is feeling, emotion. I don't label it according to the way society does. The reason why I write is ‘cause it's how I feel," he says. "I write jazz because I feel sad quite a lot."

That sadness comes through on the jazz album, especially on the track Brenda, a tribute to his mother. It's also present in some of the songs he has stored on his PC, like one titled Time Will Tell, with its chorus of "I will miss you more."

Bongani has been thrown into the spotlight following Brenda Fassie's death. "Music helps me deal, music keeps me sane," he says. "It's all I got. I mean, I've got family but music is the thing that keeps me going."

He lights up when he speaks about the tunes he's been working on and his role as a producer. "You've got to bond [with whoever you are working with]. In the game, you gotta be a dog, but you don't have to be one all the time," he says, wryly. He knows what it is like to be starting out from scratch. "I was once there, I didn't always used to have a studio. I used to have to go to other people, now I'm on the other side. I'm driving now."

Bongani grew up surrounded by music. Understandably, since his mother was one of the country's most popular artists. He released his debut album at the age of ten. Having a famous singer for a mother means he's been witness to the music game for a long time. It also means, now at the age of 20, he chooses the people he works with wisely. "The people who are going to be in my team are the people I chill with, people who used to know my mom, people who knew me when I had nothing." He believes in bringing out the best - or in some cases - the hidden talent - in people. Like his long-time friends Unathi and Jack, who provide vocals for some of his tracks. "When you're talented you don't have to use it all on you. You can bring out other people's talent."

It's this kind of value that led Bongani to Lance Stehr, owner of indie label Ghetto Ruff, home to ghetto superstar Zola and hip hop's phattest phenomenon Pitch Black Afro. "I could've gone my mom's route, the major [label] route, but I decided not to. I saw what can happen to someone when they don't take care of their own affairs.

"It might not have been such a ‘wow!' move," he says, about starting his own label, Fassie Records, "but in the future I think it's going to play an important role." He's determined to take care of all his dealings and to be on top of his game. To do so, he's constantly playing around with ideas and sounds. He started drumming "when I was small. I would beat anything," he says, demonstrating against his chest. He then got into playing the piano. "People think I'm a pianist, that that's all I can do, but they're wrong." When Brenda...