Things fall together

Through chaos, travel and shared vulnerability, Msaki and Jesse Clegg discovered that true collaboration begins where control ends

- Kibo Ngowi

Travelling together: Jesse Clegg and Msaki collaborated on Entropy, which is due to be released in January. Photo: Marty Bleazard

(Marty Bleazard)

When Msaki met Jesse Clegg in June 2022, she didn't know she was meeting a friend who would help shape the next three years of her creative journey.

What began as a simple meeting to reimagine some of Johnny Clegg's classic songs has evolved into Entropy, a six-track EP alchemised from friendship, curiosity and an almost accidental artistic chemistry.

Both Msaki and Clegg are musical forces in their own right.

Msaki, the genre-bending composer and singer-songwriter from East London, has spent over a decade crafting some of South Africa's most soulful and compelling music, from her debut EP Nal' Ithemba (2013) to the South African Music Award-nominated Zaneliza: How The Water Moves (2016).

Clegg, a platinum-selling artist and multiple South African Music Awards nominee, has carried his late father's torch of cross-cultural storytelling into the modern era, producing chart-topping singles and albums like Life on Mars (2011) and Things Unseen (2016), while collaborating with Grammy-winning producers in Los Angeles and New York.

So when these two powerhouse musicians first crossed paths, it was inevitable that sparks would fly, just not in the way either expected.

"I remember when we met," Msaki recalls. "It was around mid to end June 2022. Jesse reached out saying he was reimagining his dad's music and thought my sound would make sense for that idea.

"We spoke on the phone and met the next day. He pitched up at my house and it feels like we've been friends ever since."

Their first collaboration was Hoping for a Miracle, a song that fused Johnny Clegg's classics into a tribute performance.

"That's kind of how we became friends," she says simply.