Acclaimed South African Musician Jabulile Majola Returns with Second Album “IPASI”
Acclaimed South African singer, songwriter and guitarist Jabulile Majola enters a new chapter with the release of IPASI, his expansive second album that explores identity, self-discovery, growth, change, love, heartbreak, vulnerability, gratitude and connection. Developed through Majola’s continued creative evolution, the album captures an artist examining who he is, where he has come from and who he is still becoming.
Following his acclaimed debut ISITIFIKETI, Majola approaches IPASI as a continuation rather than a departure. The album asks a fundamental question, where does an artist go after documenting one stage of his life? For Majola, the answer lies in allowing the music to evolve alongside him.
“In the process of writing IPASI, trying to figure out the theme and spirit of the record, I was faced with the question, ‘Where to from ISITIFIKETI?’” he explains. “Thematically I knew that I wanted to touch on growth and change. What I see is that sonically the songs on the album are way more expansive.”
IPASI album cover | SUPPLIED
That expansion is evident throughout IPASI, which moves between Afro-Folk and Afro-Soul while introducing greater instrumentation, melody and harmony into Majola’s musical language. The album brings together intimate acoustic textures, soulful arrangements and broader musical elements, allowing the songs to inhabit different emotional spaces while remaining connected by the same central idea, becoming. “All things that live grow, and all things that grow, change,” Majola says.
At the center of IPASI is the understanding that identity is not a fixed destination. It is something shaped continuously by experience, responsibility, relationships, loss, love and the choices made along the way. Majola describes the album as “the continuous process of becoming oneself,” using personal stories to examine how identity evolves through growth and change. The result is an album that does not attempt to present a finished version of its creator but instead documents a man changing in real time.
Across its 11 tracks, IPASI moves through themes of identity, self-discovery, growth, change, love, heartbreak, vulnerability, gratitude and connection. The album draws from personal experiences and observations, using stories of love, loss, home, responsibility and the search for belonging to explore the continuous process of becoming oneself. Its emotional range moves between intimacy and reflection, vulnerability and hope, allowing difficult experiences to exist alongside moments of warmth, gratitude and resilience. Rather than presenting these experiences as isolated moments, IPASI brings them together as part of a larger story of a person growing and changing in real time. The result is a deeply personal body of work that acknowledges the weight of life while maintaining a sense of hope and possibility.
Jabulile Majola | SUPPLIED
For Majola, the songwriting process was less about following a fixed formula and more about creating the conditions for honesty. “Within the process of songwriting there is no set formula. For me, it’s just a matter of showing up with the purest intention and allowing myself to do what I love,” he says. That openness allowed the album to develop organically over the past year, with the music recorded across Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal, Johannesburg and London. The project features collaborators including Ross Dorkin, Gregory Abrahams and Akeedah Keet, alongside Thando Zide and Lia Butler. The album was produced primarily by Ross Dorkin, with Gregory Abrahams also producing “UZE WAZI.”
The creative process also allowed Majola to understand the album in relation to his own changing life. “In terms of the spirit of the music I managed to capture the continuing story of change and growth and hope which is what pulls these projects close to each other. The same man growing and changing in real time,” he explains.
That idea becomes especially powerful when considering the album’s title. IPASI, roughly translating to “ID Document,” is an appropriate metaphor for a project concerned with identity. But rather than treating identity as something that can be permanently documented, Majola uses the album to question whether anyone can ever truly be finished becoming themselves. IPASI is therefore both a record of who he is and evidence that he is still changing.
Jabulile Majola | SUPPLIED
The release of IPASI will be accompanied by a series of live performances across South Africa, giving audiences an opportunity to experience the album in a setting where Majola’s intimate songwriting and performance style can unfold in full. The tour begins today at Gallery on Produce in Gqeberha, followed by performances at House 87 in East London on 12 September, Emperors Palace in Johannesburg on 13 September, Homecoming Centre in Cape Town on 17 September, Guga S’Thebe in Cape Town on 20 September, and Playhouse Theatre in Durban on 25 September.
With IPASI, Jabulile Majola offers an album that is deeply personal without becoming insular. Its stories of love, heartbreak, responsibility, grief, home and gratitude become part of a broader reflection on what it means to grow into oneself. Sonically broader than his previous work, the album captures an artist refusing to remain fixed in one version of himself. IPASI is the sound of that transformation in progress and is available now through Quiet Life Co and distributed by Platoon: insert streaming link
TRACKLIST:
- Umuzi Okhanyayo (Libo)
- Ubukho Bakhe
- Mandla
- Hope
- Ithole Lenyathi
- Baba Wethu
- S’bani Sami
- Uze Wazi
- Unikelwe
- Sonke (Ekapa)
- Ububele Bakho (Nala)