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“That’s the one question that I don’t want to answer,” singer Zaki Ibrahim says as I ask her how she can be musically defined. Her music, to the average ear accustomed to our traditional classifications, is a blend of 70s Soul, Hip Hop, and Jazz. But as she reclines against her sofa and ponders the question some more, she finally offers a proper definition. “It is an interpretation of things that go through my head, the life that I live, the relationships that I have with people and the different things that I go through.” |
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The music, she says, “draws from all those things and also speaks to all those things.”
And all those things include the emancipation of the self, as in the playfully funky song Grow, or self-affirmation, as in Take a Stand, and also love and social justice, all delivered by a powerfully soothing voice, almost embracing at times, especially when she hits a chorus and carries it in the manner of Alicia Keys or Anita Baker.
Zaki Ibrahim is the daughter of the legendary South African percussionist, activist and storyteller Zane Ibrahim, who, among many other things, founded one of that country’s first community radio stations: Cape Town’s Bush Radio. All throughout the tumultuous years of her childhood, music remained an important component of her family life, from the traditional rhythms and dances of her grandfather to the work of her father.
“As a child, my Dad toured around a lot, so we had all kinds of instruments in the house,” Zaki says. “It was a very musical and animated kind of family.”
During the Apartheid regime, Zane Ibrahim was exiled, and Zaki spent her teenage years in Nanaimo, British Columbia. She remembers it as a “very small town” where she says, “There was not too much exposure to music outside of the home. So as soon as I had a chance to leave it, I left it.”
She left it for Vancouver where her musical career slowly started taking flight through contacts with DJs, producers and other songwriters.
“But I had been writing songs all along,” she insists. Through that work came the early collaborations with emcees, first in Vancouver, then Toronto, then South Africa, where she connected with the critically acclaimed band Tumi & The Volume. Last year, when the band came to Canada on their first North American tour, she travelled and performed with them along with K’naan. The tour was put together by District Six Music, an independent music management company that Zaki cherishes because "they are just a wicked, wicked company" and for a variety of other personal reasons.
“The idea of District Six means something slightly different to me. There was actually a place called District Six in Cape Town where I had a family. It was a very multicultural area with a mosque and a church literally on the same block and in places where all the musicians used to hang out. There was a lot of music, and there were also a lot of freedom fighters who came out of that area. So it kind of played into stuff that I was already on mentally.”
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Over the years, Zaki Ibrahim has worked with a variety of producers and emcees, including Juno-Award-winning Kemo of the Rascalz, DJ Serious, and more recently, Toronto’s own Nick Holder. She has also shared the stage with Bahamadia, The Pocket Dwellers, and The Quartertones. One of those collaborations with Citizen Kane is the song Lies [listen], which was included in the recently released Headnodz EP under the TreeHouse Records label. It tackles the many falsehoods that both our history books and our political leaders continuously serve us, reconnecting Zaki with themes that permeate her life. “I’ve grown up in a political mind state. My politics are by the people for the people, on that kind of tip. My mother is Scottish/English. In my household, politics, racial issues, knowledge of what South Africa is and the dynamics there, my colour, awareness of what goes around me... I’ve had to deal with that all my life.” |
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Zaki’s single Daylight will be released in the UK by London-based label Headnodz at the end of this month. The album is in the works, although there is no specific release date yet. Her plans for the future include expanding her musical horizons and working on various community improvement projects both in Canada and in South Africa:
“I want to continue to develop youth workshops on visual arts and music, appreciating and discovering your talent, self-expression, art for social change, and music for social change. If you’re able to express yourself, it’s like therapy almost, to be able to put your talents to use.”
Zaki Ibrahim will be performing at the 2-year anniversary of District Six Music on Friday, December 9th, at 10 pm at The Revival (783 College Street). For more on Zaki, visit www.myspace.com/zakiibrahim
