Pops Mohamed
"For 3 decades we called him the South African Ambassador for traditional and crossover music. Ismail Mahomed Jan better known as Pops Mohamed was laid to rest in peace on the 5th December 2025." Robert Trunz MELT2000
"Pops Mohamed's music is beautifully expansive — he blended indigenous sounds with folk, jazz, and electronic textures, always with a sense of healing at its core. His work carries an ancient spirit, vibrant, alive and shaped by his gift for storytelling and his deep connection to tradition. Whether playing kora, thumb piano, or shaker, his sounds continue to invite listeners into rich, unfolding musical worlds. Pops will be remembered for his spirit — warm, generous, curious, and full of humour. He shared openly, uplifted effortlessly, and touched people far beyond the stage. To many, he was not just a musician but a mentor and a healer, and his legacy continues to resonate through the lives and music he shaped." NickyB Global The World Show on Kaya 959
Ismail “Pops” Mohamed stands among South Africa’s most respected cultural figures — a multi-instrumentalist, producer, educator, and visionary whose life’s work has been to reconnect modern sound with African spirit. His long-term collaboration with Robert Trunz, through B&W Music and later MELT 2000 unites ancient roots with forward-looking creativity.
Born in Johannesburg, Pops grew up in a multi-cultural neighbourhood that exposed him to jazz, soul, Indian classical music, and township sounds. Though he began on piano, guitar, and bass, he soon turned to Africa’s traditional instruments — kora, mbira, uhadi, djembe, berimbau, and didgeridoo — which became central to his musical identity.
The B&W Music / MELT 2000 Years - In the early 1990s, Pops met Robert Trunz, then head of B&W Music in the UK. Their encounter led to a shared mission: to record and present authentic African artists to the world. Pops quickly became one of the label’s key creative figures — a mentor, producer, and performer whose presence shaped many of its defining recordings.
He and Sipho Gumede were at the centre of the Outernational Meltdown sessions (1994–1995), the experimental series that joined Busi Mhlongo, Madala Kunene, Amampondo, Mabi Gabriel Thobejane, Changuito, Byron Wallen, Moses Taiwa Molelekwa, Andrew Missingham and Airto Moreira. Acting as cultural translator and multi-instrumentalist, Pops anchored these collaborations in African rhythm and spirituality while embracing global influences.
His first major solo release, How Far We Have Come (B&W Music / MELT 2000, 1995) is a blend of acoustic purity, traditional instrumentation, and ambient reflection.
Pops’s connected Madala Kunene, the “King of the Zulu Guitar” when he co-produced some songs on Konko Man (MELT 2000 / BW072, 1997) co-produced by Airto Moreira and Robert Trunz.
The album’s earthy yet transcendent mood — captured at Downtown Studios in Johannesburg and Brownhill Farm Studios in the UK — embodied the essence of MELT 2000’s South African vision with tracks such as “Ubombo,” “Sanibonani,” and “Konko Man”.
Following Konko Man, Pops Mohamed and Greg Hunter released Lotus Blossom (MELT 2000, 1996), a meditative exploration of sound featuring Gloria Bosman.
Bushmen of the Kalahari — a landmark MELT 2000 production mixing field recordings and live improvisations celebrating the San people was Pops production and took the MELT team to the Korridors in Namibia doing field filming and recordings with Peter Thwaites, Ben Watkins, Dick Jewell, Robert and Libera Trunz and Norma Fletcher .
British producer Greg Hunter later remixed several of these works for Electric MELT, including pieces from Bushmen of the Kalahari and Madosini’s Power to the Women, adding a new electronic dimension to Pops’s spiritual foundation.
For more than three decades, Pops Mohamed has been the unifying thread in the MELT 2000 story — teacher, collaborator, and spiritual anchor. His music bridges uhadi and synthesizer, desert and city, past and present.
Through works like How Far We Have Come, Lotus Blossom, Bushmen of the Kalahari, and Madala Kunene’s Konko Man, Pops’s sound continues to remind us that true innovation begins with deep listening.