The Ebony Ivory Tron. Kool Disko Okapi plays the charismatic Ndebele counte… Read Full Bio ↴The Ebony Ivory Tron. Kool Disko Okapi plays the charismatic Ndebele counterpoint to the LAN Lord’s exuberant Afrikaaner. They’re like a 20ft acrylic painting of a black hand holding a white hand against a bed of fur and wires…Afrika on Blast!!

Sweat.X are Spoek Mathambo, ‘The Kool Disco Okapi’ and Markus Wormstorm, ‘The LAN Lord’. They are The Ebony & Ivory Tron. Mathambo plays the Ndebele counterpoint to Wormstorm’s exuberant Afrikaaner: “We’re like a 20ft painting of a black hand holding a white hand against a bed of fur and wires.”

Mathambo, aka The Royal Disco Knife, elaborates: “My real name’s Nthato Mokgata. I like to think of myself as the Ndebele prince (and I don’t mean prince like diamante studded one piece lycra suits and hi-heels, but I mean Maraba royal family of Polokwane). My connection to the crown is somewhat remote, but it makes me feel fun inside.

“I’m the singer, dancer, songwriter, fashion-face in Sweat.X, along with the incredibly talented Markus Wormstorm. Now 22, I live in Johannesburg with my family and have been writing songs since I was ten. I never thought I could be a professional rapper – I wanted to become a ninja, a computer programmer and a doctor – but eventually went to med school and ditched the whole ninja thing. I then ditched the whole med school thing and learned to make pictures on the computer… graphic design. I’ve now decided I will become a professional rapdancer.”

Over the last two years Sweat.X have developed their self-described ‘future-primitive’ and ‘black sweat’ brand of patois-littered electro. “I started bumping into Markus through friends and had half-developed an album of electro-rap Prince covers.” It was their shared obsession with Prince that eventually brought them together to form Sweat.X.

Wormstorm (real name Markus Smit) is an Afrikaaner, born in Pretoria, and started writing electronic music at age 15. He attended a local art school where he studied drama and music. At the age of 16 Smit had formed a small theater group, writing and directing.

At the age of 18 Smit moved to Cape Town, after convincing his parents that he needed to study there. Shortly after dropping out of university he sold a song to African Dope records for five thousand rand. He used the money to distribute a hundred copies of his first solo album and in 2003 a deal with New York’s Sound-Ink followed. Two years later he formed The Real Estate Agents, an instrumental tech-based electro outfit, releasing two albums on African Dope.

In 2005 Smit returned to his early-day theatrics, forming a fantasy art collective, The Blackheart Gang. Their second project, The Tale of How, has received international acclaim, winning Best Independent Film at the Bradford Animation Festival, the Canal+ Prix Award at the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival and the Special Distinction Award at the Annecy International Animation Festival.

Now 25, Smit co-owns SayThankYou music studios in the heart of Cape Town.

Sweat.X have recently completed their European ‘Go Black Go Low Go Fast’ tour, blitzing dancefloors across London and Paris, as well as Stockholm, Gothenberg, Copenhagen, Liege and Berne... they will return.

Shut up
SWEAT.X Lyrics

Shut the fuck up
Shut the fuck up
Shut the fuck up
Shut the fuck up

Shut the fuck up
Shut the fuck up
Shut the fuck up
Shut the fuck up

Shut the
Shut the fuck up

Shut the fuck up
Shut the fuck up
Shut the fuck up
Shut the fuck up

Shut the fuck up
Shut the fuck up
Shut the fuck up
Shut the fuck up

Shut the
Shut the fuck up

Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

Written by: Christopher Wilson, Riot Ten

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

To comment on or correct specific content, highlight it

TRACKS