The music industry is always expanding with different artists who are constantly trying to up their game. Finding new ways of gathering some kind of following from their fans is competitive as hell, especially for hip hop. Yeah we’ve heard it all before that artists are united and they work together and there is so much peace, love and all those fluffy things. But we all know about the beef, the hating and arguing about who stole whose concept and who deserves the award better than the one who received it. Mmmh! That’s a topic for another day.
It’s a Tuesday afternoon and the weather is blazing, I’m rehearsing the questions which I’ve prepared for Gift ‘Maggz’ Magubane, a talented rapper from Soweto who has worked his way up to get his music out there having worked with the likes of PRO, Da Les, AKA and many more artists. He steps into the venue at Braamfontein with his manager and it’s at that moment I realise that ish just got real.
“I dislike these so called purists,” he says after I asked him what he thinks about people who label mainstream hip hop as something that is not exactly “real” hip hop. He adds on to say that nobody has the exact definition of what real hip hop is! He feels as though it’s about sharing your experiences and telling your own story.
Having been a law student at some stage, he dropped out because he had to follow his passion. The music bug had bitten him and he couldn’t get different beats and songs out of his mind. He knew that the music industry was destined for him. He broke into the music game when he started being featured on songs and being the HYPE man for PRO. He landed up getting a recording deal and created hit singles like ‘’It’s All Good’’.
He sees himself as a musician who does not like to box himself, believing in working with other artists because that is one of the ways in which you grow as an artist. “The more you venture out and expose yourself to different types of music that is when you open yourself up to endless possibilities”. His advice to all the upcoming artists is that they should “pace themselves and not chase the fame. But rather focus on their love for music and that way everything will work out”.
Look out for Maggz new album that will be dropping sometime next year. Check out one of his hit singles titled ‘No Tweets Allowed’.
@MAGGZMaDOUBLE
Written by: Nomsa Motale
Pictures By: Nzolo Bidla
