The Lyrical Life Of Zaki Ibrahim
Meeting singer songwriter Zaki Ibrahim is a gentle experience. Sitting at a coffee shop, cuddling her five-month-old son, she looks utterly content with life. And so she should be. Zaki, who is the daughter of South African broadcast and Bush Radio legend Zane Ibrahim, is on a global trajectory that seems pre-ordained.
Career highlights include opening for Erykah Badu in 2008 and Mos Def in 2009, being nominated for a Juno Award in 2009 for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year for her single Money, and collaborating with Spoek Mathambo on the single Don’t Mean To Be Rude in 2011.
In 2013, her first full-length album, Every Opposite, was shortlisted for the prestigious Canadian Polaris Music Prize and most recently, she impressed as headline act of LittleGig in Cape Town.
That her upbringing was spent as a “citizen of the world”, living between Canada, South Africa, France, the United Kingdom and Lebanon, has influenced her sound, which resonates with a unique fusion of soul, jazz and spoken word that’s all held together with a distinct hip hop sensibility.
Today, Cape Town is home, says Zaki, because “there is so much going on here. It feeds me creatively”.
In fact, she credits Africa with having changed her – in small, but profound, ways. “I’m less timid here, and I carry that with me when I travel.” Not so long ago, she burst into song while sitting on a bus in Toronto. “I feel like I can do that now; that I can sing out loud if I want to.”
An arduous 18-hour labour, and the literal process of “baring all” during childbirth have also helped morph her into a more emotionally seasoned person. This new maturity will be evident, she says, in her sophomore album, The Secret Life Of Plants, which she is currently recording in Cape Town with international producers, and long-time collaborators Alister Johnson (from Toronto) and Gervase Gordon (from London).
The album is inspired by the 1979 documentary (and Stevie Wonder soundtrack) of the same name that explores the physical, emotional, and spiritual connectivity between life forms, which, Zaki explains, is a reflection of where she’s at right now.
“I’m fascinated by how everything is related; how you enter into it, and increasingly learn to anticipate it. It’s not always like I know where I’m going but there have been plenty of signs that this is my direction.”
This sense of fate influencing her path, and gratitude for the gift of her talent, helps ease any pressure Zaki may be feeling around producing a second album that’s comparable to the first. “At the end of the day, I’ve been lucky to be able to do what I want to do and be where I want to be… And it’s all because of music.”
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Words by Justine Stafford
Images – Black Major & Zaki Ibrahim
