In the lead-up to NOISE, De Mthuda did not follow the traditional route to releasing a project. There was no single lead record tasked with carrying the entire campaign or a predictable sequence designed to tell audiences exactly what was coming next. Instead, the music kept arriving. Different songs and collaborations were allowed to have their own moments, each creating a new reason to listen, react and talk. From the outside, the approach could feel unpredictable, but that unpredictability created something valuable: conversation.
As the releases accumulated, so did the questions. What was De Mthuda doing? Which record was the priority? Why was so much music arriving? What would NOISE ultimately sound like, and where was all of this heading? Rather than rushing to provide the answers, the campaign allowed those questions to exist. Across Instagram, X, TikTok, YouTube, culture pages and music conversations, listeners responded in real time—celebrating particular releases, choosing favourites, questioning the direction, debating the music and trying to work out what De Mthuda would do next.
That response became an important part of the rollout. The objective was never to manufacture what people would say or suggest that every reaction had been anticipated. It was to create enough movement around the music for audiences to form their own opinions. Every release opened another conversation. Some listeners gravitated towards one song, others towards another. Some were excited by the frequency of the music, while others questioned it. But whether the response was excitement, confusion, criticism or anticipation, people were talking—and De Mthuda remained at the centre of that conversation.
The standalone releases were therefore not distractions from NOISE. Each record was given the opportunity to exist on its own while contributing to a much larger period of activity around De Mthuda. What initially appeared to be a collection of individual releases gradually began to tell a bigger story: songs generated reactions, reactions generated questions, and those questions increasingly turned towards what NOISE would eventually become.
When NOISE arrived, the conversation evolved again. The questions surrounding the rollout gave way to reactions to the completed body of work. Listeners began identifying favourite tracks, discussing collaborations and responding to the project as a whole.
The audience had not simply waited for the final project to arrive; their comments, questions, debates, favourites and interpretations had become part of the way the story unfolded.
NOISE also represents another chapter in De Mthuda’s wider musical evolution. From catalogue records such as Ace of Spades and The Landlord, his music has continued to evolve while maintaining the distinctive identity that has established his place in South African music. NOISE continues that progression, while the campaign surrounding it reflected the same willingness to move differently. Rather than repeating a familiar album-release formula, De Mthuda allowed individual records to breathe, audiences to respond naturally and the bigger picture to emerge over time.
Stream ‘NOISE’ HERE.
