*Lebo, one of the members of our music team, checked out the launch of one of the hottest new hip hop acts right now, Zakwe. Needless to say, the event was lukewarm compared to his rhymes! Here’s what she had to say about her experience!*

This past Sunday, the current hot, punch-line spitting rapper Zakwe launched his self-titled debut album at Chaf Pozi in Soweto.

The entire launch was pretty average; nothing to write home about, unless you’re a die-hard hip hop fan who only cares about getting on stage and sounding some-what intelligent as you rhyme. Zakwe was literally the only rapper who gave a good performance purely because his music is on point; it’s hood, his flow is sick and he is creative in how he packages what he wants to say. Needless to say, the sound quality was bad when all the ‘nobodys’ (in musical lingo they call them supporting acts) were on stage, and it miraculously improved when Zakwe got on stage.

I know hip hop is all about love but some supporting acts were totally unnecessary because they are no longer relevant to the scene; artists such as Selwyn, who was there performing his ancient but good tracks, and Red Button, whose musical quality has just declined. F-Eezy and some newbies were there on stage as well, trying hard to sound cool with punch line after punch line. It got so bad that even a wanna-be, Eminem look-alike rapper got boo-ed off stage as he tried to rap, proving that the hip hop streets are cold to young cats trying to make it in the game on a hood level. Big Nuz was also a supporting act, which didn’t make sense because they aren’t a hip hop group, so my guess is that since the guys are all Durbanites, Big Nuz was there to support. DJ C-Live also played at the event; his set was also quite average, but because people were already drunk at that time, they had fun.

The launch was quite hood and raw to its core, the only good thing about it was the braai meat, drinks, conversation with friends and Zakwe’s performance. Hip hop needs to up the standard of their gigs if they want support from the masses; I expected more from this launch since there’s so much hype around Zakwe.