Okmalumkoolkat Finalises ‘Itheku Ethekwini’ With DIY Artwork
Okmalumkoolkat Finalises ‘Itheku Ethekwini’ With DIY Artwork. Okmalumkoolkat is getting hands-on with his next chapter. In a new Instagram post, the Umlazi-born creative reveals he’s physically crafting the album artwork for his forthcoming project, Itheku Ethekwini, “developing [the] album cover collage by hand” and “mixing photography and old tech” to capture the unmistakable Future Mfana pulse.
He adds that he wants control of “all elements from jump,” while keeping the door open for collaborations on merch. “Itheku Ethekwini is almost ready for submission,” he teases, signing off with a warm “thokozani!”
The announcement is classic Okmalumkoolkat—part design lab, part cultural memory card. Beyond being a genre-blurring rapper, he’s a trained visual mind whose aliases (including “Future Mfana”) mirror a career spent bending sound, style and software into distinctly Durban innovations.
While he’s tight-lipped on the final tracklist, the album has been brewing in public view. Over recent months, the artist has shared studio breadcrumbs, including sessions for a track titled “Boet Partytime,” framing Itheku Ethekwini as a spirited return to form powered by hometown energy and global textures.
The cover-collage approach is more than an aesthetic choice; it’s a statement of authorship. By splicing photography with “old tech,” Okmalumkoolkat is channelling the tactile ingenuity that shaped his early wave, translating it into a present tense that feels both archival and futuristic. Expect the visuals to extend the sound: angular, playful, street-coded, and rooted in Durban’s restless pace.
Equally telling is his open call for merch partners. It hints at a broader ecosystem around Itheku Ethekwini: wearable graphics, collectable drops, maybe even limited-run prints that mirror the handcrafted collage, an invitation for designers to riff on the album’s visual DNA while the artist keeps the core story intact.
For a figure who’s long treated culture as a multimedia playground, this moment feels like a full-circle reset. The message is simple: build it yourself, from sleeve to sound, and let the city’s rhythm do the rest. With Itheku Ethekwini “almost ready for submission,” the runway is clear—and the Future Mfana is steering every pixel, every bar, every beat.
