DESCRIPTION:
Back in the mid 90s three students at Durban’s Institute of Technology were drawn together by their love of music. Nathi Maphumulo, Mnqobi Mdabe and Demor Sikhosana are the music students who went on to create the soulful vocal house trio SHANA and become successful producers in their own right, especially in the case of DJ and producer extraordinaire Black Coffee (aka Nathi). Black Coffee remembers that they naturally came together because their combined talents “just worked”. He explains: “Nqobi and I had been in the same accapella singing group and we both liked messing around in studio. Then we met Demor who was a senior who had access to a studio key and he could play the keyboard so we started collaborating with him. We all had an ear for a song… I programmed beats and Nqobi was the lead singer.” In 1997 whilst still on campus they began performing their brand of Afro Soul at gigs all over Durban. One night at the famed BAT Centre their talent was noticed by none other than legendary Maskandi Diva Busi Mhlongo. Busi not only started experimenting with them in studio, she also made a call to Melt 2000, the label that released her seminal album Urban Zulu, and soon SHANA had a record deal, and a remixed version of a Ladysmith Black Mambazo song on the radio.

By 2003 SHANA had left Melt 2000 and were studying at Pretoria Technikon, soon after that they formed their own Label SHANA Recordings and signed a distribution deal with EMI. Thereafter they signed a licensing deal with Kalawa Jazzmee, the label that is co-owned by DJ Oskido and is home to influential Afro Pop groups like Bongo Maffin, Mafikizolo and other huge artists like BOP and Thebe.

SHANA is an acronym for 'Simply Hot And Naturally African', and Black Coffee stresses the sound off the four albums they’ve released is exactly that. “It’s African music through and through, from the way we harmonise to everything else….” SHANA’s members alternate the group’s projects with their own solo endeavours. Black Coffee’s three solo albums have seen him winning awards and millions of fans in South Africa and the world with his mix of deep soulful sounds and vocals by big name South African artists such as Hugh Masekela, Ringo, Thandiswa Mazwai, Siphokazi, Busi Mhlongo and Zonke. His label Soulistic Music is home to internationally acclaimed house DJ and production prodigy Culoe De Song. This track Iyo Londaba came out on SHANA’s 2006 release of the same name and it means “It’s About Time.”