adminBongani Ndlovu, Sunday Life Correspondent
ZAMBEZI Magic’s (DStv channel 160) Zim Top 10 chart show has seen Bulawayo rappers Thabbz and Cal_Vin’s music video Hey Wena on rotation for the past four months.
The music video has had a brush with popular tracks — Mukoko by Tytan Skhokho and Ammara Brown, Dai Hupenyu Hwaitengwa by Souljah Love and Kazz aka Mr Boomslang — Thinking of you. In May, the video hogged the number one spot for three consecutive weeks.
While many people have been exposed to Cal_Vin, Thabbz, a 25-year-old former Mpopoma High School pupil is a fairly new player in the entertainment scene.
Sunday Life Correspondent Bongani Ndlovu (BN) spoke to the artiste to get to know him. Interestingly, he is also a poet, rapper, accounts clerk and cake maker.
BN: Tell us who Thabbz is and what makes him tick?
Thabbz: I’m a local artiste born Thabani Ndlovu. I was born on 2 September in 1991 and grew up in the old township of New Lobengula. My music mainly reflects on how I grew up.
BN: How did you get into music?
Thabbz: Like every artiste, I grew up with inspiration from deep poetic hip-hop and kwaito artistes like Tupac, Notorious B.I.G, Snoop Dogg, Ja Rule and kwaito musicians the late Mawillies, Trompies and Kortez. For my career to be unique, I chose to fuse the two genres.
BN: Hey Wena! Tell us more about that song and its video.
Thabbz: That’s my first ever commercial single. Hey Wena went viral on the first day we released it and it became a street anthem. When award-winning music video producer, Blaqs heard the song, he pledged to test his new cameras and studio by shooting the video for us. After production was complete, we sent the video to Zambezi Magic in April this year and the rest as they say is history. All I can say is that the video that was shot as an experiment has ruled the roost for the past for the past five months on DStv’s Zambezi Magic. The track got me nominated last year at the Zim Hip-hop Awards for Best Newcomer and Best Video, unfortunately we didn’t win.
BN: Why do you think the music video has stayed for so long on the Zambezi Magic Top 10?
Thabbz: I believe in visuals and I believe in quality and simplicity. Most artistes compromise on quality and that’s why their works will never make it far.
BN: Are you working on any new stuff?
Thabbz: I just dropped a single Tshona Phansi which is part of my forthcoming album. The song is already playing on local top radios including Star FM, ZiFM and Diamond FM. Also in the pipeline is a collaboration with Guluva 7. From there I hope to start shooting Tshona Phansi’s music video and then release the new album — possibly just before the year ends.
BN: Other than music, what else do you do?
Thabbz: Along the way, we get to learn of our different skills. I bake, something which I was taught by my uncle Owen Jonifani who has been baking cakes all his life. For those who attended TKP’s birthday, I’m the one who baked that cake where I wanted to express her musical zeal through a piano cake that weighed 12kg. It took me three weeks to finish that cake.
Apart from baking, I do fiscals where I assist companies to process VAT, PAYE, annual accounts and tax clearances.
Online Reporter