A common phrase you read on timelines and in conversations with friends is "doing the work". From all walks of life, this simple saying has come to symbolise grit, determination and a single-minded approach to achieving your dreams. There is something to be said for buckling down and getting shit done. This underdog mentality - the contemporary expression of the hero's journey - is embodied by Stiff Pap.
- NATAAL
Stiff Pap is a South African electronic music duo fusing Kwaito, Gqom and Hip Hop to create their own unique sound. The duo consists of Zulu songwriter-vocalist Ayema Probllem and Red Bull Music Academy alumnus Jakinda. With Ayema’s enticing raps and Jakinda’s avant-garde production, Stiff Pap is at the forefront of African electronic music innovation - mixing a progressive global electronic sound with localised African lyrics and rhythms.
The identity of Stiff Pap formed pre-musically, with the birth of two individuals on the precipice of a regime of terror and at the start of a period of complicated freedom. To come into the world so full of hope and freedom in their parents eyes and yet so tied down by the lingering prejudices of Apartheid is a kind of contradiction that formed a post-Apartheid black consciousness that has defined Stiff Pap long before its musical manifestation.
