The M2KR (Melt 2000 Revisited) project takes multi-track recordings from South Africa’s immediate post-apartheid era and puts them in the hands of modern producers. The goal is simple: make these cultural documents relevant for a generation raised on electronic music and global dance culture.
The Dazz Lesia M2KR Project from April 2025 carries extra weight following Pops Mohamed’s passing in December 2025. Mohamed, a central figure in the original Melt 2000 collective, spent his life preserving indigenous sounds through fusion. He famously said that “if people don’t understand where they come from, there is a hole in the soul”. This project, featuring reinterpretations of works by Mohamed, Madala Kunene, and the late Busi Mhlongo, proves his point: tradition survives through reinvention.
Key Project Information
- Original Artist(s): Pops Mohamed, Busi Mhlongo, Madala Kunene
- Original Project Title: How Far Have We Come?, UXolo, UrbanZulu
- Label: M2KR
- Reinterpretation by: Dazz Lesia
- Reinterpretation Release Year: 2025
The Original Artist(s)
Pops Mohamed (1949–2025)
Born Ismail Mohamed-Jan in Benoni, Pops Mohamed was South Africa’s “Minister of Music”. A multi-instrumentalist of Xhosa, Khoisan, and Indian heritage, he dedicated his life to protecting indigenous instruments—the kora, mbira, and mouth bow—from extinction. From defying apartheid musical segregation with Black Disco in the 1970s to pioneering field recordings with the San people in the 1990s, Mohamed was the spiritual anchor of the Melt 2000 collective. He passed away on 4 December 2025.
Madala Kunene
Born in Cato Manor, Durban, in 1949, Madala Kunene is known as “Bafo” and the “King of the Zulu Guitar”. His music is rooted in Zulu culture, but his hypnotic, trance-like guitar style goes beyond traditional Maskandi boundaries. A central figure in the Outernational Meltdown sessions, Kunene’s collaboration with Mohamed on albums like Konko Man helped define the label’s fusion of spiritual tradition and contemporary production.
Busi Mhlongo
Victoria Busisiswe Mhlongo, the “Urban Zulu,” disrupted the male-dominated world of Maskandi. Her album Urban Zulu, released on Melt 2000, fused traditional rhythms with funk, rock, and reggae—a fluid, urbane post-apartheid artistic identity.
The Reintepreter
Dazz Lesia Dazz
Dazz Lesia is a producer and DJ with over 15 years of experience, shaped by the Afro-house explosion and his time with SoulCandi Records. His production style brings deep, jazzy elements and rhythms described as the “heartbeat of Africa”.
The Works: Continuity Through Sound
These three reinterpretations span the breadth of the Melt 2000 catalogue’s diversity.
“Jimba Jimba” (Pops Mohamed)
The original appeared on Mohamed’s 1997 album How Far Have We Come, defined by its integration of San musical structures with western production. The Dazz Lesia Revisited Mix recontextualizes it for the dancefloor. The reinterpretation maintains the “ancient spirit” and healing intent, weaving the acoustic textures of kora and mbira into a deep house framework. This follows Mohamed’s own practice of using technology to ensure traditional music wouldn’t vanish but would reach wider audiences.
“Yehlisan’umoya Ma-Africa” (Madala Kunene feat. Busi Mhlongo)
This brings together two giants of the South African canon. Busi Mhlongo disrupted maskandi by infusing it with funk, rock, and reggae on her album Urban Zulu. The Dazz Lesia Mix places her vocal power—which symbolized a fluid and urbane artistic identity—within a modern electronic setting. It shows the timelessness of her message and how maskandi rhythm adapts to contemporary sequencing.
“Siyacela-Uhulemende” (Madala Kunene)
Madala Kunene, the “King of the Zulu Guitar,” is known for a trance-like, hypnotic guitar style drawn from spiritual traditions. The Dazz Lesia Reimagined Mix treats Kunene’s guitar lines as the central narrative thread. The production respects the spatial dynamics of the original recording—featuring session musicians Baba Mokoena Serakoeng and Bernard Sibusiso Mndaweni—letting the intricate finger-picking breathe amidst the programmed percussion.
What the Remixes Do
When viewed alongside the originals, the Dazz Lesia reinterpretations don’t try to correct or replace the historical recordings. They extend the “Outernational Meltdown” philosophy that birthed the label—the belief that collaboration across time and technology is essential for cultural survival.
Where Pops Mohamed used 1990s technology to amplify the voices of the San bushmen, Dazz Lesia uses 2020s technology to amplify the voices of Mohamed, Kunene, and Mhlongo. Both share a commitment to “taking the old and mixing it with the new”. The result maintains the dignity of the source material while making it accessible to a global youth culture encountering these legends for the first time.
About the Melt2000 Revisited Project
Melt2000 Revisited is an editorial and archival initiative dedicated to revisiting, contextualizing, and reinterpreting selected works from the Melt2000 catalogue.
