Kwesta’s 'DaKAR II' Album Has Gone 7x Platinum

Over the weekend, South African rapper Kwesta tweeted that his third studio album DaKAR II has gone seven times platinum. Congrats are in order for Da King of African Rap, it's been a long time coming.

Platinum in South Africa is 30 000 units sold. So, seven times platinum means DaKAR II sold 210 000 copies. DaKAR II is a double album, but according to The Recording Music Industry of South Africa (RISA), a double album counts as one unit, unlike it is in the US.

It must also be noted that according to the RISA rules, 10 songs downloaded digitally are similar to one album sold.

Confirming sales numbers in South Africa is tricky. Usually these announcements come from artists themselves, which can be hard to verify. In December 2017, Cassper Nyovest claimed he had sold 10 million records in his career.

This was met with a lot of skepticism. DJ Maphorisa was vocal about his incredulity, on Twitter. It became even more confusing when RISA, the most trusted body when it comes to verifying sales numbers, could neither confirm nor dispel the claim.

"A record sale can equal to one song, Cassper could have meant that his record has received 10 million streams/ downloads, in which Maphorisa is misunderstanding. We are all making a big issue out of nothing," RISA CEO Nhlanhla Sibisi was quoted as saying by the SABC TV show, Trending SA.

RISA is moving slowly and not keeping up with the times. The body currently doesn't have a system to convert streams into sales the way RIAA has in the States.

So, be happy for Kwesta, but keep the above in mind.

DaKAR II is a seriously great body of work—it's a great argument for the claims of being the king of African rap. At 22 tracks, it eludes monotony, which is rare for hip-hop albums. The album featured prominent names in the SA music scene including AKA, Cassper Nyovest, Kid X, Busiswa, TellaMan, Psyfo, Ameen, DJ Maphorisa, OkMalumKoolKat, among others. It led with massive singles like the groundbreaking shebeen anthem "Ngud'," "Nomayini," "Day Ones," "Ngiyazifela Ngawe," "Mayibabo" and "Mmino."

It also featured potent deep cuts like "Preacher," and "Karma."

Kwesta's been silently garnering notable accolades. For instance, "Ngud'" went quintuple platinum last year, while "Nomayini" is a gold-selling single.