Nvcho Navigates Love and Loss on Debut Album

Nvcho’s heartbreak is still fresh when he speaks to OkayAfrica, the weight of grief from losing his father still pressing down on the producer and vocalist’s shoulders. He announced the news via Instagram in February, and in no time, the comments section was filled with tributes that read like a roll call of South African dance music royalty.

A month later, his debut album, Letters I Didn’t Send, was released. It immediately solidified what any discerning listener had long known: that the vocalist and composer’s talent is boundless, and that his pen game is lethal.

Before everything unfolding now came a few years of relentless grind, much of it traceable to DBN Gogo’s studio and label, Zikode Records. This is where Nvcho, alongside Stixx (as well as Mathandos and Zwayetoven), started out, sharpening their chops as amapiano became a global phenomenon, studying their peers and waiting their turn. He first heard Stixx, a drummer from the East Rand (a district to the East of Johannesburg), through his father, himself a musician with deep ties to the area’s live music scene.

“I didn’t know that he produced music until we met and started making songs together, myself, Stixx, Mathandos, and Zwayetoven, whom I knew from Instagram. There was a time when Stixx and I were staying at Zwayetoven’s place. He’s the one who plugged us; he knew everyone,” says Nvcho.

It was around this time that Major League Djz’s “Bakwa Lah” defined a December still uncertain about COVID restrictions.

“The song was bigger than me at the time. I loved making music, so that’s what I continued doing,” he tells us. That one song led to appearances on hallmark amapiano tracks, most notably across his incredible run with Kelvin Momo.

He explains the origin of the word ‘kwapi’ to us: “'Kwa-' is from kwaito, and '-pi' is from piano. The way we started this sound was crazy. I wasn’t in a good space at the time; I was super depressed and didn’t know why. I couldn’t write music; there was a lot going on in my mind. I started doubting what I was doing, thinking it wasn’t working out,” he says. Stixx’s room was just down the hall, and he could hear beats blaring from it. “I’d always had this idea of doing kwaito because I was good at it, even when I was making my own sound. There’s a type of amapiano they call tech — the kind De Mthuda makes — and I thought it sounded like kwaito when I heard it. I went into the room and told Stixx I had an idea. I started chanting, ‘dlala Stixx, dlala Stixx, why wena uhlez’ udakwa.’ (go Stixx, go Stixx/ why are you always lit?) It was a joke, and we all laughed. I laid it down and came up with a verse.”

“Dlala Stixx,” alongside Mathandos, emerged in November 2023. A template had been established; a new sound set in motion. What they created was club-ready but rooted in jazz chords that spoke to the East Rand’s musicality, particularly its deep ties to jazz and gospel. Around the same time, Pretoria producers Xduppy, ShaunMusiq, and Ftears were developing their own wave, Quantum Sound, which was harder-hitting and more minimalist in its lyricism.

Sam Deep was exploring territory similar to that of Nvcho, Stixx, and their circle. “I used to know Sam Deep, too; he’s from the East Rand. He didn’t know that I was aware of him. There are people you just have to know if you’re tapped in, and he was one of them. People have their [Kabza De Small’s]; our equivalent in the East Rand is De Mthuda. There’s no way you don’t know about Sam Deep or Da Muziqal Chef if you know him.”

The kwapi sound was formalized during a session where all three were present, each tunneling toward the same vision. When King of Kwapi Vol. 1 arrived in mid-2025, it built on the foundation set by Nvcho and Stixx’s collaborative album Dust 2 Dust, and helped usher in a sonic shift — one that, in many ways, propelled Stixx and Sam Deep toward mainstream recognition.

“We always work together, so it was easy to compile a project. We just took those songs and added a few more. We added five brand new ones for the album,” he says.

By the end of that year, Sam Deep’s “Shela” and “Thandaza” were everywhere — and still are — while Stixx’s album The Dawn stood out as one of the year’s best.

“I don’t like telling people my plans. If you want to see, you must tap in. Sometimes things you want to achieve don’t happen because you’ve told people about them,” he says.

There’s excitement, hope, and even joy when he speaks about his new work. But he still feels he can do more, outpace his previous efforts. Across twelve songs, we hear the musical worlds that have shaped him: the hip-hop of “SOFT.”, the deep house of “Ntomb’Yomzulu,” the kwapi of “AmaCorrection” alongside Babalwa M, the neo-soul textures of the intro, and the brittle ache of heartbreak on “Umzali,” dedicated to his father.

"I used to doubt myself a lot. My dad was the only person who would tell me, 'ndoda, ublind' (you've got the sauce). He used to tell me that I'm special, that I'm not like other artists. He also told me that there's someone out there who'll hear me, who hears what's going on in my world. He just always lifted my spirit. Even now, with my album out, I don't even know how to feel, because I know that he was gonna say something crazy. He's gone, eish, and it's tough. It's very tough. I'm just glad that he heard my project and he blessed it. I'm very grateful for that, and I hope this project changes a lot of people's lives."