Focalistic Reveals How Much He Spent On ‘Ke Star’ Video

South African artist Focalistic, who has gained huge popularity with his mix of Amapiano and Hip-Hop, is this week’s cover star and joins Cuppy via FaceTime on Apple Music 1 to talk about his latest album Sghubu Ses Excellent.  Focalistic tells Cuppy about his ambition of exploring African markets, and how the credits on his album confused fans as he listed producers and engineers as features to ensure they get their credit.

Focalistic on ‘Ke Star’ video and investing in the amapiano movement

Focalistic: With the music video, as directed by Steezus and myself, our whole thing was to kind of show people a different light of amapiano, the bangers, that it can still be high-end. We shot that video with a budget of 250,000, trying to show people that-

Cuppy: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold up. 250,000 what?

Focalistic: Rand.

Cuppy: I was like, “You’re just going to come Africa now and stunts on us? Okay, Charlie.”

Focalistic: No, it’s just about showing people that the music is high quality as well. I think because our genre is so new, we have to make those kinds of moves to show people that we’re respected ourselves, and it deserves the respect from the world and that’s what it’s about for me.

Focalistic on being an African superstar

I’ve always said for me, it’s about being an African superstar because all this music that we making in the hood, if it can change lives in Nigeria, change lives in Kenya and Tanzania, then we’re halfway through the dream of every hood kid. And then we bring back the Grammy to the same hoods. For me, Africa now is such a great stepping stone.

Focalistic on the meaning behind his album title ‘Sghubu Ses Excellent’ 

Cuppy: Tell us about the debut album. Now, I need you to teach me how to pronounce it. I can say Ses Excellent, but the first word, I need help.

Focalistic: The first one is “Sghubhu.” “Sghubhu” means the baseline. So if you listen to all the songs, the baselines are different. So it just means a different baseline, an excellent baseline, an excellent sound. And if you know me, you know I’ve always been about the sound. Even “sghubu” is a sound-based statement. Basically saying this is not trap, but it still sounds from the hood. Because trap in America, trap is from the hood. But for me, I think our trap is different. It’s based on the baseline. It’s based on the catchy and witty, smart lyrics and references to the hood. So that’s why it’s like that.