Gwamba to release new song tomorrow

Local hip-hop artist, Gwamba will  tomorrow Friday 10 January, 2014 be releasing a new single.

Gwamba’s latest song is titled ‘Ndiyima Pachulu’ and he continues bringing a new twist to his style; this time he has taken a rather singular approach as he raps on a Pasada beat, featuring new kid on the block, R&B singer Bucci of Transformers Music.

The song was produced and recorded by renowned urban music producer Percy Manyozo aka Pro Pee at his Pro Pee Studios in Chirimba, Blantyre. It was mastered by Wado aka Edward Kankhomba, who is also Prime Time Media CEO.

The 3:30 minute track is Gwamba’s second single from his debut album ‘Kudutsa Pakhoma’, which according to his management will be coming out within the first quarter of 2014. In October last year, Gwamba released ‘Bola Kusache’ (featuring label-mate Nesnes), the first song off the album.

“The song will be premiered by award-winning MBC Radio 2 DJ James Gumbwa on his Friday’s Breakfast Show,” discloses Kankhomba.

Speaking on the new album, Kankhomba says, “We have assembled a team of producers from both Lilongwe and Blantyre to work on this project.”

‘Bola Kusache’

is Gwamba’s most downloaded singles and is also getting good airplay and reviews on the local scene. The rapper hopes that he releases good songs in the year 2014 and he says: “I pray to God that I release better songs this year”. ‘Kudutsa Pakhoma’ is Gwamba’s second solo project, following his 2012 mixtape ‘Ghetto Attitude’.

Gwamba biography

Duncan Zgambo (born November 4, 1990), better known by the stage name Gwamba, is a Malawian rapper and songwriter signed to Prime Time Media. He started off his career when he joined hip-hop group Pittie Boys in 2007 and released an album titled “Sounds of the City” in

2010.

His 2012 solo mixtape ‘Ghetto Attitude’ received a lot of airplay on local urban music radio shows and charts. The mixtape was backed by popular singles ‘Kwacha Chaser’, ‘Mmesa’, ‘Tikakumane Kumadzi’ featuring Kalista, ‘Sindingasiye Bawa’ featuring Young Kay and ‘Swag Yachidala’ featuring Blakjak.

Gwamba was signed to Transformers Music in summer 2012 and parted ways with the label in June 2013 when he joined Prime Time Media. In August, he released ‘Ndi Ofewa’ featuring EMM-Q of Pittie Boiz, which was followed by another single, one of his most downloaded songs ‘Bola Kusache’ which he featured label-mate Nesnes, released in October.

Early life

Originally from Mwazisi in the northern district of Rumphi, Gwamba was born at Nkhoma Hospital in the capital Lilongwe in a family of four children.

His stage name was derived from his tribal language Tumbuka meaning “Someone Who Gives”. Gwamba says everyone of his tribe is bound to use the name, “so I just thought I should be exactly what I am, I didn’t wanna give myself any other name”.

He was inspired by US rapper 50 Cent and disbanded Malawianhip-hop crew The Basement.

Career

His real passion for music came in at the age of 14 during his early years at St John’s Catholic Secondary School in Lilongwe, where he joined Pittie Boys, a group founded by L.I., EMM-Q and Cyclone. The boys grew up with the rapstar feeling, which became an obsession that made them start organizing music events on campus. Gwamba recalls, “We would freestyle every time the lights went off, hip-hop became a huge part of my life, I had to grow up into the rapper I wanted to be”.

Gwamba and Pittie Boys started attracting so much interest around 2008 when they released a single called ‘Work That Thing’, which received great airplay on radio as well as TV.

The song maintained position one for several months on FM 101’s Gowelo Beatz, hosted by DJ Chris then.

While in college, at Malawi Adventist University, Gwamba started exploring his solo career, which resulted into his debut mixtape ‘Ghetto Attitude’. He has worked with Malawi’s top urban artists among them Young Kay, BarryOne, Third Eye, Piksy, Blakjak and Phyzix.

Gwamba has performed at most urban music shows across the country, including the 2013 Urban Music Party (UMP) as well as two of the country’s top festivals namely Sand Music Festival and City of Stars.