Linda Mkhize has transitioned. The monumental emcee, known to legions of admiring South Africans as Prokid — and later, Pro — died from complications which arose due to bleeding in his digestive system.
As news of his passing on Thursday, August 9 spread across the media, music industry peers and South African hip hop at large shared personal anecdotes of their encounters.
“What hurts about Prokid passing isn’t about his bars or how dope he was as an emcee because he was that…Its [sic] the fact that he was so about people…like his humanity,” Leslie Kasumba, lost for words, tweeted after hearing the news. As a broadcaster on regional radio station YFM and later editor of Y-Magazine during the early-to-mid-2000s, Lee was instrumental in the developmental phase of many a rapper’s careers, including Pro’s.
“Pro was celebrated. We all knew he was a living legend and the number 1 Soweto boy. What sucks is that we didn’t celebrate him as much [for] everything he did for Hip Hop once he wasn’t as active in the industry. We keep failing out artists in that regard,” Ms. Nthabi, whose own rapping profile was on the rise around the time Pro’s debut album Heads & Tales hit the shelves and flooded the streets, reflected.
“[A] dark day — lost a brother, a friend and a kindred spirit today, brutally heartbreaking. R.I.P Prokid,” shared Pro’s regular collaborator, live performance sidekick, and rap iconoclast Maggz.
Early collaborator, the vocalist and songwriter extraordinaire Nothende, revealed: “One moment I’m celebrating his greatness. The next, I’m crying my heart out in disbelief, remembering all the moments shared. Back and forth between those 2 emotions. All day. Eish.”
A memorial service was held for Pro at the venue formerly known as Bassline in the Newtown Precinct this past Thursday. Another one had taken place during the weekend at the Slaghuis park jam in Soweto. This was one of Pro’s many homes. He sharpened the lyrical sword with which he broke ground and opened doors for future acts, there.
The magnanimous turnout at both events, and the outpouring of messages under the #RIPProKid, #DankieSan and #TheProIKnow hashtags, is proof that the five albums released under different record label in his lifetime had further reach than he would’ve thought, perhaps.
Pro got offered his first record deal after music industry impresario Dr. Sipho Sithole heard him freestyling on the radio during an off-the-whim visit to broadcaster and businessman T-Bo Touch’s legendary Rhyme and Reason show on Metro FM.
His mainstream debut and its follow-up were released under the Gallo record company, while the next two came to life after Pro moved to the indie TS Records. His fifth album came to light in 2012 under CCP Records. Among his recent appearances were features on former Teargas member and solo artist Ma-E’s Township Counsellor album, and on the remix of “Sebentin” by the rapper Zakwe.
The hardcore rhymespitter Gigi Lamayne’s recollection of the many times Pro fought for her right to exist, drained every tear duct in the room at Newtown. She came undone and scrambled for words; she poured out her love and oozed gratitude as she narrated how once, during an out-of-town show, Pro guilt-tripped the booing audience into giving her a chance on the mic.
“I thought ukuthi I was rapping my lungs out. And he stopped the music and told [them]: ‘Yazini, if you don’t listen to this little girl, I’m not performing. Because her voice is equally as important as mine’.”
This vital nugget of info in South African hip hop history cross-checks with the story Pro shared the last time we spoke, just short of two months ago, in the week leading up to his 37th birthday. It was a regular Monday afternoon in Mzansi. The stately figure sat across from me at a Starbucks after ordering his coffee.
We discussed his impact on people’s lives; Kwesta, Red Button, Gigi Lamayne, Sjava, Zakwe, and more — they owe their careers, wholly or in part, to the lanes and ways of being which Pro’s mainstream acceptance at the height of his rap pilgrimage helped solidify.
The consensus in South African hip hop-related conversations of late, especially among the older heads in the scene, is that the industry — though no one is specific on which one, or whom in said industry — doesn’t care about ‘legends’.
Did Pro feel short-changed by how the industry he was instrumental in building, viewed him once he wasn’t at the number one spot?
Drawing on the master-servant ideology, his philosophical response underscored how he’d navigated fame — from the heady days of street ciphers and rap battles that he’d dominate, to the platinum-certified albums he made alongside producers such as Dome, Omen and I.V. League, to the numerous endorsement deals and the clothing label he owned.
“It’s always the case. We [emerge] from the distance; we’ve never tried to be kings…We’re peasants man. All a king does is just wake up, stand there and announce to the village, and [head back to] indulge. A peasant sits there, by the gate. [They] can tell when trouble is coming from [a distance], and they’re the ones who make the king important. That’s just my set-up,” he said.
Linda “Pro” Mkhize was born at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital on June 25 1981 in Soweto. He grew up in eThekwini’s Lamontville district. His introduction to rap came while he was still a student, but his induction into the rap game happened the way other cats, active in hip hop during the mid-90s and living in and around the Gauteng province, did — at one of the famed Lé Club’s Saturday matinees.
He will be remembered as the unfuckwithable emcee whose passion for the craft and love for people he infused into everything he put his heart and mind to. He leaves behind his wife, Ayanda; his daughter, Nonkanyezi, whom he described as ‘my North Star’ in a song; his mother, Fikile; and his father, Zwelakhe Kheswa.
Dankie maqhuzu, dankie san!
- This image first appeared on Timeslive
