Kanyi, an emcee who rhymes in her mother tongue - Xhosa, began performing at open mic sets around Cape Town from 2002. Rated as one of the formidable lyricists coming from the Cape, Hype magazine, South Africa’s leading Hip Hop magazine placed Kanyi at the number 5 spot of Hype’s Unsigned Top 5. Since then she has shared the stage with international hip hop artist, Bahamadia and was part of the Hip Hop Connected production in 2008. Performing alongside Rus Nerwich and the Collective Imagination, Kanyi opened for Mos Def at the 2009 Cape Town International Jazz Festival. Kanyi’s music is relevant to the South African market as it focuses on social issues while her rhyme delivery, wordplay and killer flows make her a skilled emcee.

Kanyi is currently working on her debut album entitled, Iintombizifikile - set for release later this year by MoFire Music (dates to be confirmed). Ingoma, produced by Mananz, is the first single to be released from the soon-to-follow debut album.

Notable feature: S'phume Gugs by Driemanskap ft Macho and Kanyi on a Planet Earth production. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.