Malik has finally graduated from an artist known for singing hooks perhaps more accurately , wailing choruses in the songs of more established artists. Tuks and RJ Benjamin would no doubt bear this view out. Who could forget Malik and RJ’s rendition of the heart warming See The Light at the SAMAS?. He no longer features in the shadowy background, invariably the fate of many a talented vocalist angling for a break in the dog eat dog world that is the music industry. 

Present at his graduation is, among others of course, Ringo Madlingozi there to give this young crooner a helping hand not to mention, a practiced hand , giving him a nudge towards centre stage. Ringo features with great success in the title track Mthulise urging young men to comfort their weeping women. Here the Daveyton born Malik proves emphatically that he can belt a tune with the best of them as he complements rather than match the more forceful and grunting old hand. With Mazabalazo the first track , of the album he reminds the youth of where we come and turns to the old toy toy for inspiration as if to say brace yourselves for an emotionaly bumpy ride. We are soon yanked back to the reality of present day South Africa through the complementary Ofana Nawe with its heavy western influences. This song would melt the heart of any music enthusiasts with its American rhythm overlayed with Xhosa lyrics. 

Malik chastises his age mates through the cover ingane featuring Cook and hauls the model c generation over the coals for loss of culture through apathy and disinterest in African languages the conveyor of old African wisdom. Can he isolate himself? Thandiwe makes this album a possible Mother’s Day present as he pays tribute to his mother a figure whose stabilizing influence seems undeniable in his life. Such sensitivity should endear him to many. 

Malik possesses an astonishingly shrill falsetto reminiscent of Maxwell’s breathy tones as he soars to high notes. While he assures the prospective consumer of his awareness of history and culture he nevertheless indulges as many before him the worldly and rhythm and blues obsessed youth of today. His music is a much needed interval and change from the trance inducing sameness of house music those lively floor fillers which offer no time for contemplation. Buy it because here is a vocalist getting a word in edgeways in an on going conversation about who we are. Buy it because he is making a good impression and first impressions last.