(ByLwansta chat starts at 3:37 and Dope Saint Jude chat starts at 60:47). This next bonus episode is a very special one, especially since you’re essentially getting two chats for the price of one. Last year, we had a very different season of the podcast called The Passport Season, which featured us highlighting six countries across six episodes. One of those episodes was South Africa, a place that’s grown to mean a lot to me over the years due to the lovely South Africans I’ve met throughout my life. It was from doing that episode (and its playlist) that I came across today’s guests and it was from there that I immediately knew they had to be on the podcast. Those artists are JoBurg based rapper/producer/creative director ByLwansta and Cape Town based rapper/singer/producer/overall badass Dope Saint Jude.

Both of them are supremely talented artists who’re aggressively carving out their own paths, which let’s be honest; is practically a prerequisite to be on this series. But what’s incredible about the both of them is how much they live by their rhymes; and how much their art reflects the lives they’re actively living. Across both chats, they shared with me what drove them to create and how the most meaningful thing they could achieve was creating a new kind of sound in their native South Africa.