What the Cats Are Singing

With no kitties sharing our home these days, my husband and I often revert to vicarious feline-time on YouTube. Bob recently found David Scott, a South African musician, producer, and parody artist who goes by the name of The Kiffness. He is the founder and lead singer for the band of the same name that features Mathew Gold on vocals, Mvelo Shandu on bass, and Raiven Hansmann and Clem Carr on keyboard and sax.

Our fascination with The Kiffness began with Lonely Cat, a bluesy collaboration of cat vocalizations, human voice, strings, horns, keyboards, and percussion in three-four time. After repeatedly noting that sometimes he is alone and sometimes not, George the cat raises his eyes to heaven and punctuates his dilemma with, “Hello?”

Bob and I chuckled. We binged. We danced. We savored endorphin-releasing belly laughs. Soon, though, I pondered Lonely Cat’s heart-wrenching tale. In true blues fashion, he mournfully meows, “Said he’d be back soon, but I guess he just lied…”

Was Lonely Cat really left alone for days, I wondered, or, since some cats can be quite melodramatic, maybe just a few hours?

It doesn’t matter, for that’s the beauty of the blues—the story is in the telling.

And when it comes to stories that animals tell in simple sounds and expressions, no one is more attuned to primal temperaments than The Kiffness.

For example, there’s the casual indifference he attains in Alugalug Cat. When you don’t know what to do, and you don’t know what to say, Alugalug suggests a dismissive hand wave and, “Hey, luga luga luga, please go away.”

Then there’s disdain. To experience the indignity of being a cat subjected to a bath, check out Bath Cat, featuring Kitty Eilish doing a Billie Eilish “Bad Guy” parody.

Anxiety? Try Hold onto My Fur (I like it when the dog is barking).

Frustrated? Meet Mozart Cat, a reincarnation of the great composer, who, despite finding his way back to a piano, is struggling with the mind of a cat.

Xylophone Cat likes to collaborate at 5 a.m., Mumble Cat likes to scratch and rap, and Numnum enjoys lapping milk to a Balkan melody.

The Kiffness, though, doesn’t limit himself to cats.

Haiku the Husky pays homage to the lineage of canines who ran wild and free in Ancient Husky Melody. He implores his fellow huskies, “Don’t forget, once upon a time, you were not a pet.”

Losing My Mind features a Lulabelle, a dachshund with a built-in siren, and a nameless twerking chihuahua.

Opera Dog examines his existence in a soprano aria that questions, “Am I a Good Boi?”

And, not to be outdone by any cat or dog, Ginger the Cockatiel offers a magical cure for sadness in “Kookee Kookee”

“Is There Any Video This Musician Can’t Remix into Internet Gold?” Beverly L. Jenkins asks in an article published on Inspire More. She answers her own rhetorical question with, “We think not!”

For The Kiffness, apparently, any and every sound can be used to make music. He explains the process quite well in How to Make a Song with Your Neighbor’s Cat.

Going beyond cat jams and dog howls, however, is a talented musician who knows neither artistic nor geographical bounds.

His global reach is evident with remixes like the one with the Jamaican Brushy One String doing Chicken in the Corn; Bilal Göregen performing the Ievan Polkka; and Batzorig Vaanchig, a Mongolian throat singer, yodeling In Praise of Genghis Khan.

His unique sound is an intuitively eclectic mix of South African house music; Zulu-inspired Mbaqanga; Mongolian electronic; Caribbean reggae; American rap; and ballroom classics, like waltzes and cha-chas.

Yes, cha-cha. Watch for the cha-cha cat in It’s a Beautiful Day.  

That remix started out when The Kiffness saw a video of then-10-year-old Rushawn Ewears singing a song, in his classroom, by the Jamaican gospel artist Jermaine Edwards. The master of the remix, The Kiffness grabbed a ukulele and the rest made music history.

Rashawn, now 17, has been signed to Sony Music in the UK, alongside Edwards. Thanks to Edwards and The Kiffness, Rashawn receives the royalties he is due on his rendition of the song. In early 2023, “It’s a Beautiful Day” reached number six on the Spotify Viral Chart and has had over six million YouTube views.

Attributing the success of this remix to his fan base, The Kiffness said his fans sent him “this particular video at least 1,000 times. My initial thought was that I liked Rushawn’s delivery and I really enjoyed the message.”

The message: Whatever happens, I thank the Lord for this day.

The Kiffness doesn’t preach, but he does exude spirituality.

For example, in the midst of the 2020 shutdown, he and his wife, Jute Scott, created A South African Blessing, based on the “Irish Blessing” by J.E. Moore, as a tribute to healthcare workers.

It’s obvious through his videos that The Kiffness loves rugby, hates war, and believes in the energy of music to help and heal.

Since 2021, when he dropped the Cat Jams EP, he pledged 50% of its streaming revenue to his local SPCA. That donation has now exceeded $7,000.

His song, Oy U Luzi Chervona Kalyna with Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Boombox, raised over $100,000 for Humanitarian Aid in Ukraine

And in 2021, he created a parody of Miriam Makeba’s The Click Song to help people pronounce the names of newly changed locations.

But parodies got him in trouble, too.

Like his take on the South African anthem for a song Nkosazan’ Dlamini Trafficker. Not everyone laughed. Mayor Mzwandile Masina of Ekurhuleni, a large suburb of Johannesburg, claimed it was racist but backed down after discussing it with The Kiffness.

Lockdown Rhapsody, a lampoon of Queen’s hit is a brilliant take on the COVID lockdown. And in Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard, The Kiffness assumes the persona of Jack Sparrow in a parody of the traditional Sea Shanty, “The Wellerman.”

According to his biography, The Kiffness originally studied medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand. But once he found music, he switched to studying it and philosophy at Rhodes University, while working as a DJ and playing in a jazz band.

I, for one, think his medicine is his music. It heals the soul. And with all those endorphins coursing through your neurosystem, maybe the body, too.

Give him a listen. You may find yourself ditching your favorite book and dancing instead to what the cats are singing.