'Why I won't sing about coronavirus'- Nasty C

South Africa’s 23-year-old rap superstar has been described as a mature head on young shoulders.

Nasty C is a deep thinker and it shows in his lyrics, which are often just a bit more nuanced and a bit more from the heart than you might expect.

When I spoke to him for this weekend’s edition of This Is Africa, he told me how shocked he was by the impact of coronavirus, and how writing a song about what is going on could not be further from his mind.

"Covid-inspired lines? No! The things that I’ve seen online - a song is not going to help any of those things".

"I’ve been seeing the craziest things like people having to leave their dead relatives on bus benches because the morgues were packed out and one family had to leave their father sitting on the couch for four days, he was dead there for four days - they couldn’t do nothing. It’s heartbreaking. I wouldn’t want to hear a song about that".

"Those are real-life problems. Hopefully one day I can have a foundation of some sort and really help out versus just singing about it and raising awareness, because sometimes that really doesn’t do nothing - it’s just cool for the artist and it’s a good look but it doesn’t really do nothing for the people that are in need.”

It is interesting to hear an artist be so modest about what music can achieve, especially one who has been signed by the prestigious US hip-hop label Defjam, in large part thanks to the power of his words.

Nasty C agrees that in other contexts his songs can bring solace, and that this is one reason for his success.

"Making super-relatable music that’s like super-real, and you know for a fact people go through stuff like that and if you’ve been through something and you hear a song that speaks very closely to that situation and you reflect and you relate to it, obviously people will listen to you a bit more and I think that’s what’s been happening.”