Who: Twenty-four-year-old rapper, DJ, graphic designer, and illustrator, born Nthato James Monde Mokgata in Soweto, South Africa, who's putting his own uniquely sly, politicized stamp on cutting-edge electronic dance music. His nom de plume is nicked from a South African sitcom and loosely translates as "Skeleton."

SPIN Music Editor Charles Aaron says: "He made the best record of 2010 that I didn't get around to appreciating fully until 2011 (Mshini Wam), and is perhaps the most exciting young artist I've yet tried to hype in this column. It's like he's masterfully reconstituting all the splintered languages of pop and politics on the fly, as if he's already internalized every pre- and post-dubstep beat permutation and every snatch of diasporic lyrical slang. To me, Mshini Wam sounds like the album M.I.A. would've made if she was more of a so-called "third world" outsider than a "first-world" cool hunter (and if she were a craftier producer, rapper, and reader of current events). And since Mokgata apparently hates being compared to M.I.A., I'll up the hype a notch and say that he reminds me more of a global-underground version of Kanye West, a peerlessly attuned production maven with a relevant motormouth who wants to make ass-quaking music with not just a message but a code-red awww shit worldview."

File next to: M.I.A., Wiley, Major Lazer, Die Antwoord

Where to start: "Control," a totally transformed cover of Joy Division's "She's Lost Control," from Mshini Wam. To go deeper, read this Fader article and Hydra feature or download this

LISTEN: Spoek Mathambo, "Song"

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