Playlist: Backyard Crew Essentials

Sabelo Mkhabela
Jul 23, 2017 · 2 min read
Backyard Crew (Phoenix, Mashonisa, Kideo and Pointwo) in their hood Khayelitsha. Photo by Sabelo Mkhabela.

Backyard Crew, a spaza/ hip-hop group from Cape Town is one of South African rap’s best kept secrets. They changed the spaza sub-genre in Cape Town in the early 2010s.

The then five-man crew was poised to take over the game, but a tragic car accident which saw one of their members Van de Merwe and another member of Backyard Records die, crippled them.

Earlier this year, the crew made a comeback after a five-year hiatus with a single called “Sudelela”. I interviewed the crew just after the release of their single. You can listen to the interview below, and read a written version here. I wrote about Kideo here.

Below I pick my favourite Backyard Crew songs (including the members’ solo tracks), and ones that I feel are key into understanding the group.


Backyard Crew is on Facebook and SoundCloud.

Sabelo Mkhabela

Written by

South Africa-based writer | Also takes photos: https://www.behance.net/sabzamk| Email me only and only about money: mcsabza@gmail.com

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade