Durban-hatched and Joburg-powered artist ByLwansta is more than a rapper. Described by a label exec as “Joburg’s nicest music man,” he’s a musician’s musician, a frequent collaborator and an openly vulnerable creative. His new album reflects all of this. With the pithy title ‘THE CHIP IS StALE’, and a quirky rollout centered around his beloved Opel Corsa Lite, the release is both ultra-considered and totally unpretentious.

When we chat, he is his usual breezy self, juggling the interview and his civic duty in true ByLwansta style. “I’m actually answering your questions while in the voting queue. The lady in front of me just discovered that she forgot her ID. And there’s a little baby with the cleanest fade and line up I’ve ever seen on a child,” he tells me. In life, as in his career, there’s never been a dull moment. “Around 2016, two official years into my music career – and my graphic design studies – I had one independent full-length release, the ‘NORMVL Mixtape’ (2014), and I was about to release a second, ‘Your Absolutely Right EP’ [no typo]. Between each project I'd worn various hats, both for myself and others,” he explains, emphasising his identity as ByLwansta, not his given name Lwandile.

Since then, ByLwansta has cemented his moniker and his talent but this new body of work has been a long time coming. Between our first meetings in Durban, to later hanging out in Joburg, I learned quickly to not ask, “How’s it going?” as I’d always get the response, “You’ll see when I get there.” And see (or rather hear), I have. ‘THE CHIP IS StALE’ is an unintended love letter to the self. Brooding, optimistic and sometimes the musings of a confused young South African, the album represents the chillhop genre while still being distinctly African.

“Each time I've developed a body of work, it's generally an attempt to contain a period of my lived experience,” he shares. “This period found me reaching new depths of self-discovery, and by depths I mean things got really low, deep and dark. I came face to face with triggers and their traumas, signs I'd been ignoring. It got really ugly but the moment my head was pushed down and held under the waters for as long as it was, I became properly acquainted with these things. Looking back, I'm really grateful for the awareness. Anyway, fast-forward, I filter this new information through my writing and this album is born. I've lived in Jozi for five years now. I have a chosen family, I've settled.”

And despite its playfulness, its title is as serious as the album’s backstory. From some stale fast food found on the floor of his old Opel Corsa, the image of a chip (or fry, for our American friends) became a metaphor for the chips on ByLwansta’s shoulder – and the quest to rid himself of them. The car itself has had a lot of artistic value as well. “I recently realised how much of an emotional connection my car and I share. Each time I’ve had to take it in to a workshop, it’s absence takes a toll me. My romantic eyes saw the Lite of my Life breakdown on the side of a main road with smoke coming out the bonnet last October. I identified that moment as a lesson to stop ignoring the signs. That engine light was on for a while, and that oil light started flashing a few minutes before we broke down. My Corsa would become the vehicle we conveyed our #stopignoringthesigns metaphor through.”

When I listened to the album the first time, I was quickly compelled to play it in the car full blast with the windows down. It holds a kind of coastal breeziness which feels just like Durban, and there are some lines you simply won’t forget. Between ‘Office Daze’, ‘GOOD COMPANY’ and my favourite, ‘Clutch Balantsi’ (reminiscent of the late rapper RikyRick), there is a full peek into the music world South Africans speak from – using local language, slang and even radio ad tropes to speak to the listener. And then there’s ‘Are You Pleased?’, a brooding but frank reflection on how ByLwansta has navigated being a people pleaser to a man with a clear vision for himself.

“It's important to me to be as honest about my account of my life. It's such a powerful and impactful thing to be able to connect on a human, filter-free level and feel less lonely in the world. There are creatives in SA who share a lot of my sentiments. Life is hard enough already so if what I contribute to the world brings a level of comfort then I'm happy to bare my soul as often as I can. I'm not a pretender, I'm not a cosplayer, there's never a specific time to be ByLwansta, I'm always ByLwansta and who that is is entirely up to me,” he says.

With the album out in the world, he’s also been busy enlisting some like-minded creatives to his company NORMVL, which supports artists and has established some live performance credibility in Joburg with its regular events. Their Wednesday night residency at Bar Ber Black Sheep were always a good time, and while I often had had a few too many margaritas, it felt like a slightly wild, unplugged school night event. Since ending their stint at ‘BarBar’ as it’s known, their newest performance takes place in a vegan restaurant in the suburbs. “We're a small team at NORMVL, we're building capacity but for the most part it's just the three of us (cue ‘GOOD COMPANY’). Someone's gotta carry the speakers, bring out the stage, put up the branding, handle soundcheck, do the hosting. There's so much to do but it’s a wholesome exchange of energies.”

In a true commitment to the not-so-obvious, the album was originally pushed via CD rather than streams, with a launch not in a club, but an Opel car dealership. It’s this future-focused, not so NORMVL approach which makes ‘THE CHIP IS StALE’ an album with serious staying power.