One of the highly anticipated music projects is finally out. Malawian rapper Gwamba’s duet with South African soul artist Mlindo The Vocalist, YazAbantu, is expected to be released today.
The multiple award-winning rapper announced the start of the project in late July and since then the local music fraternity has been waiting to sample the collaboration. The artist indicated the song will be out by first week of September.
It was little wonder that in the last few weeks, a lot of his fans started expressing their displeasure in social media spaces on the apparent delay of the release.
“This is probably the most anticipated song I have wanted to listen to from Gwamba before its release. This collabo is a good set. I can’t wait to listen and watch this song. I can only hope for the best outcome,” wrote fellow artist Patience Namadingo on his Facebook page.
It, therefore, came as a relief when Gwamba on Wednesday evening announced that the song will be released at 10am today. In an interview from his base in South Africa, the rapper said the delay was deliberate as he tried to drum up people’s interest.
“We wanted to create demand and interest for the song. This project was huge. From day one, almost everyone has been looking forward to sample this song. I think we achieved our objective going by the reaction from people,” he said.
The song itself has a chorus done in Zulu language by Mlindo with the Malawian stepping in with his rap verses in between which are done in Chichewa.
YazAbantu (a slang phrase for ‘You Know People’), has adopted the South African hip hop beat with a club feel to it, though the message is spiritual.
The song talks about how dangerous it is to trust people. The rapper is urging people to place their trust in Jesus who cannot betray them no matter the situations that they are going through.
He raps: “Aise ukadalira munthu udzakhumudwa wa bule. Mwina zinazi koma chikondi sungagule. Utha kupanga chili chonse chomwe ungatchule. Lero mnzako koma mawa kudumphadumpha ngati chule. Atha kukhala bestie, daily ma text, muli ku sukulu mumkakhala limodzi desk….”
Gwamba said of the project: “It’s a very big achievement and it represents a new level of progress. I am looking forward to more of such kind of collaborations.”
Gwamba, who months ago also collaborated with another South African artist EmTee, has revealed that in the next weeks he will be travelling to Kenya, then Tanzania and Nigeria where other collabos have been lined up.
From today the song will start beaming in all local television stations as well as on YouTube but from Monday it will screen on international channels such as MTV, Channel and Trace, according to the artist. The song was produced by Malawian producer BFB in Durban, SA.
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