Brandon Titus, otherwise revered by his pseudonym ‘illRow‘ has a firm grasp on the stethoscope that tracks the heartbeat of Cape Town’s music industry, and in 2022, he is ready to prescribe his offerings to wider audiences.
The self-proclaimed ‘Cape Doctor’ does it all. If he is not locked in a studio with SA Hip-Hop’s elite, polishing the sounds that shape the Mother City, he is delivering wisdom on wax.
The enigma of The Cape Doctor
Music has always featured as an integral part of illRow’s life. Born at the cusp of democracy in South Africa, on 21 March 1995, a day that, a year later, was declared Human Rights Day, Brandon was always wedged between two parallels of reality.
His birth came a year after South Africa’s first democratic elections, and a year before the country recognised its first-ever Constitution.
He grew up in Mandalay, a middle-class community nestled between Mitchells Plain, one of the most notorious coloured areas in the Cape Flats, and Khayelitsha, a booming black-majority township with a deadly streak for violent crimes.
“I grew up understanding and living amongst both communities and not having any sort of ignorance towards the lifestyle of either.”
iLLRow
illRow’s breadcrumbs as a mainstay in the music industry can be traced back to 2012, when he, alongside childhood friends Wanda Booi (Supreme DJ) and Tumelo Motse (Pisteuo), launched Unite The Mic (UTM), what was, at the time, a record label and talent management company.
“Me being a coloured in a black community shaped my artistry to not show any ignorance towards any race of colour.“
As frontman of the label, illRow set forth on his path to local dominance. But, for reasons he did not share in our interview, UTM’s original founders left the group. This exodus birthed a new partnership he nurtured with singer and songwriter Sanelisiwe “Sane” Mateta.
UTM was restructured as a music publisher and work got underway to deliver production on Cape Town classics.
At the time, illRow was not renowned for his jarring lyricism that depicts the nuances of life in the periphery of Cape Town. It was his drum kits. key progressions and sound engineering that earned him the “Cape Doctor” nickname.
“To explain illRow, it wouldn’t just be about someone hearing my music or not hearing my music before…it would be more about someone ever hearing or seeing the name itself because illRow is a brand.”
“If you don’t like my music or my music production, you’ll definitely like my visual production. If you don’t like my visual production…you’ll definitely like what I can do to sound as a whole. illRow is an all rounding entity in the music/entertainment industry.“
A Q&A with illRow
Perhaps, a fitting description of the 26-year-old is not to tag him as simply, “a multi-faceted artist”, but, rather, multi-dimensional.
Today, illRow is one of Cape Town’s most pronounced lyricists, a highly sought-after producer and engineer, and lately, he’s developed a reputation for his video production.
He’s, without a doubt, one of the hardest working acts to come out of the Mother City, and this year, as he casually revealed his plans to us, presents the perfect opportunity for his meticulously premeditated takeover.
We were fortunate to get an opportunity, in the 11th-hour, to probe illRow about his artistry, his relationship with Y?Gen owner and Cape Town rap icon YoungstaCPT, and his plans for the year ahead.
Check out our Q&A below:
To someone who has never heard your music before, who is illRow?
To explain illRow, it wouldn’t just be about someone hearing my music or not hearing my music before…it would be more about someone ever hearing or seeing the name itself because illRow is a brand, an entity with many skills that different types of people could be attracted to. So for example, if you don’t like my music or my music production, you’ll definitely like my visual production. If you don’t like my visual production…you’ll definitely like what I can do to sound as a whole. illRow is an all rounding entity in the music/entertainment industry.
Your most recent single is a collaboration with Youngsta CPT. How has this relationship with a prolific rapper helped your artistry?
Well, to be honest, it hasn’t really helped my artistry. In fact, I never wanted it to do anything to my artistry. I brought what I naturally bring to the table, and he did the same, and the goal from my side was to make a dope piece of art regardless of Youngsta being as prolific as he is. But if the collaboration did teach me anything, it’s that I don’t always need to compete with the next rapper on the same song, but rather to compliment as that is the only way to have a healthy collaboration, where no one outshines the other but instead the whole product does.
On “Pray” (from “The Cape Doctor”), you say, “In the place I stay, nobody wears a cape”. How has your upbringing in the Cape Flats shaped you as a musician?
Well, I grew up in a lil neighbourhood called Mandalay. It is caught between the 2 biggest congregations of communities in Cape Town which is Mitchell’s Plain (Cape Flats) and Khayelitsha (eKasi). So I am from neither the flats nor ekasi but at the same time, I am from both, as Mandalay falls under Mitchell’s Plain but is really a bridge between the two. So I grew up understanding and living amongst both communities and not having any sort of ignorance towards the lifestyle of either. Basically, me being a coloured in a black community shaped my artistry to not show any ignorance towards any race of colour.
If you could go back in time to revisit illRow at the start of his career, what advice would you give him?
“Make Amapiano in 2013 …” But on the real, I am a firm believer in what’s meant to be will be, and that everything we go through happens for a reason so I [wouldn’t] change a damn thing.
What do you have in store for this year?
[An] upcoming 3-track EP titled ”Medi-Kasi”, following up on my debut album which was titled ”The Cape Doctor”, tons of visuals for my own music, [an] international feature. I smaak (want) to make a movie too, but we’ll see lol.