No Recipe, Just Sauce: The Rise of a Richards Bay-Born Producer Who’s Cooking Up Hits in Joburg

Sawce

03 Nov 2025  by  Ntombizodwa Dlamini

From viral high school dance moves to executive producing major projects, one Richards Bay native is proving that when it comes to sound, there’s no formula—just flair. Before the placements and the packed catalog, it all started with dancing. Back in high school, he was known for shutting down assemblies with the reverse Nae Nae. Sawce told the Mondays Magazine that by Grade 9, the rhythm shifted from moves to music.

“In grade 9, I started off as an artist with my friend Sethu we were doing RnB and hip hop most of the time, than I grew an interest in the producing side of things ever since than I've been producing,” says Sawce He said that teaming up with his long-time friend Sethu, the duo dabbled in R&B and hip-hop before he found his true calling behind the boards.

Sawce shares that, Grade 11 marked as a turning point to him as he got his first placement for a song with Votron & Andii IV which cracked open the Durban scene, and the momentum hasn’t slowed since. “Came to Joburg with my friend Sethu in 2023, ever since than my catalog has grown to big Artists like Dee Koala, Flow Jones Jnr, Tony Dayimane and etc,” added Sawce. The title says it all. No Recipe is a sonic manifesto: you can’t replicate the sauce if you weren’t in the kitchen. “Some people tried to steal my swag, my persona, my style of beats,” he says. “But they fail—there’s no recipe to what I do. It happens naturally.”

The 11-track EP is split into two sides, hip-hop/trap on one end, R&B/neo-soul on the other. It’s a nod to his roots as an R&B producer and a flex of his genre-blending versatility. Groovy drums meet dark melodies, and the bounce? Unmistakable. To top it off, one of the best TikTok narrators in the game adds a storytelling layer that ties the project together.

His production style is shaped by global icons like Metro Boomin, Wondagirl, and Wheezybut it’s his Sawciety crew (Toxbeat, Flacko, Sxnic, Andrsxn) that keeps him sharp. “They all have their own bounce. It’s amazing to witness and listen to.”

He’s fast, too—15 to 30 minutes per beat, depending on the genre. Engineering comes after. And when it’s time to DJ, he puts in the reps weekly to make sure the live sets hit just as hard. Richards Bay may not be known as a musical hotspot, but that’s changing. “We didn’t have much inspiration growing up,” he says. “But now we’ve got people killing it—Dussé Wavy, Audio Simz, Fanaticalb3ing from the Qwellers. The kids finally have someone to look up to.”

He’s collaborated with all three, and the chemistry is undeniable. “Audio Simz’s bounce is out of this world. Dussé Wavy and I click on a different frequency. Fanaticalb3ing helped shape my sound.”

The No Recipe EP is just the beginning. A launch party/listening session is in the works, and the Invaders event returns to Richards Bay on December 20. He’s also executive producing Trap Nominee by Taura Montana and co-leading Street Value, a producer project with Moëtt.

His advice to up-and-comers? “Keep working. If they reject you, don’t give up. Don’t hold grudges. And if you’re from Richards Bay and need help—DM me. I’ll give you advice and help where I can.”.