Vic Falls duo out to market resort town music industry

Mthabisi Tshuma, Showbiz Correspondent
VICTORIA FALLS duo Obhudi Be Space have gone an extra mile to popularise a genre that they claim to be theirs which is an infusion of hip-hop, dancehall, Afro-Pop and R&B.

The “Ndebele Like” genre has been incorporated on their latest work of a single titled One Day which was released on Heroes Day and is gaining ground mostly on the radio airwaves.

Speaking from their base in the resort town through their manager Donald, the Obhudi Be Space which consists of Joseph Mpofu aka DJ Ace Kater and Godwin Ngwenya aka Ras Boom said their zeal is to be different from other artistes.

“We started our musical journey in 2012 and have managed to venture in various genres such as hip-hop, Dancehall, Afro Pop and RnB. In 2016 DJ Ace Kater came up with a unique catchy sound as the producer of the duo, which is a fusion of different genres which he named ‘Ndebele Like’.

“Our recent track which was released on Heroes Day is titled One Day is about stamping our feet that we are still in the game and out to conquer the arts space.

“The song gives hope to every Zimbabwean out there that one day things will change and that they should not give up on their education or career even if it isn’t that paying well but to continue with the hope no matter how long the journey is,” said Donald.

He said the consistency of being able to hold on to their personalised genre is due to the popularity it garnered since its inception.

“Our first experimental track of this genre was ‘iZankaleli’. This song was well received regionally and internationally. The video managed to get 40 000 views in 24 hours when it was posted by Calvin Mandla Gumbo on his Facebook timeline. This hit did not end there but got nominated for Song of the Year at the Bulawayo Arts Awards’ first Edition in 2018 and they also got Four Nominations on the Skyz Metro Music Award with the same song. From there the duo has never looked back and started to release hit after hit. Apart from iZankaleli there is Madube which also has a classic video, Uwrong and now its Ilockdown to name a few tracks,” he said.

Obhudi Be Space have 25 singles and one album titled Just for Control which was released in 2018 October. This year they have released four singles, among them is Ilockdown which seems to be the people’s favourite as it is enjoying airplay across the nation.

Recently they also released a track called Imbatata which has catchy lyrics and easy to find yourself singing it.

Both artistes released singles on Tuesday. DJ Ace Kater released Kwidza Makata on which he features Trixx Kater from his upcoming album Impumalanga (The sun rise). Kwidza Makata is a motivational song which means (qansa umqanso) no matter how hard it is. Ras Boom released the single Gone places, a love song which says that after having wandered around for love finally the rightful place has been found. — @mthabisi_mthire.