In His Own Words: Big Zulu

Looking…

My love for music in general started when I was a young’un in Bergville, KwaZulu Natal. I listened to scathamiya and maskandi religiously, never hip hop as there it was not the norm to listen to such. Hip hop was not a fashionable thing back home, it’s only coming into the forefront recently because we’re showing people that it’s something that is present in youth culture. My journey with hip hop started at school. I came to Jo’burg to further my studies and that’s when I encountered hip hop. I liked it sure, however even then it wasn’t something that I had told myself that I’d like to make a living out of or even play around with some day. My favourite rappers at that time were Zola, Pro, Mapaputsi and GP Gangster. These are the people that influenced my growing love for hip hop, but to this day, I still listen to maskandi and scathamiya. Those two are very much still my favourite genres in music in general.

Spinning Past…

As I mentioned before, hip hop was never something that I felt I would pursue as a career. I went to school and dreamt of following through with my academic route. Living in a suburb that was mostly white, I got mixed into drag racing and fell into it hard. Combined with my love for cars, it wasn’t a difficult choice to make. I took lessons and became your typical drag racer/car spinner complete with a Gusheshe 3.25. I used to spin cars on the regular. I did this for six years. Around my sixth year, I found hip hop again and left spinning to pursue it.

Crashing Into Hip Hop

I took all that energy that I had invested in spinning cars and applied it to my hip hop. I started noticing that people were receiving me well and decided that if I were to do this, I’d have to make money from it. Initially it started as something that I did to make people happy, to entertain. But as time went on, I saw that a living could be made out of this and I started taking it as a business, as my livelihood. My start was rocky. I did all the typical things that an emerging emcee does. I did the ciphers, and performed at dodgy places whose sound was terrible. I did it all.

Photo Credit: GAS Photography

Conquering Back To The City

I’ve been performing on the Back To The City stages for three years now. I applied along with many people all around Africa and reached the final stages where the public votes for their top 5. I won the Red Bull 10K challenge in my first year, which was 2013. In 2014 I made it to the main stage which happened again this year. To be honest, I don’t think that my skill or the energy I give at my performances changes. I’d like to believe that I constantly give my best. I make sure that the crowd receives what it was looking for.

Photo Credit: Facebook

Hip Hopping Forward

My inspiration still comes from maskandi music. I listen to maskandi more than hip hop because I can write from listening to maskandi, but find it difficult to write when I listen to hip hop. In as much as I get inspired by music, I’d like others to be inspired by me. I would like to be able to pave a way for those coming after me because I’ve travelled this road and know how difficult it is to try and manoeuvre through this hip hop thing. It’s really all boils down to forming alliances and forging on together. Much like how Cassper Nyovest and Ricky Rick have with Boyz n Bucks. Rappers should work together and stop this thing of leaving each other out in the cold. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen an emcee lose himself and what he was originally about because of wanting to gain a slice of the pie. Some were even more known when they were doing themselves, staying true to their identities, and people fell in love with that. Then they get to a certain level and let themselves become influenced by what everyone else is doing. That’s when the bars about champagne and hot cars and beautiful women start to creep in, that time the boy is from rural South Africa and has never even experienced any of those things. This is why I am committed to Nkabi Rap. It’s deeply ingrained into who I am, and doesn’t really allow for bragging about how many women you’ve slept with. Even with money, it would have to a concept that allows for the two to merge, not just popping champagne.

Big Zulu’s hit single 'Yith Abantu' is currently making its rounds on radio.

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