Sean Trimz keeps his eyes firmly on the prize
THE most impressive thing about Sean Trimz is his persistence. Following a mountain of emails about this rapper from the East Rand who has a few songs out, and followup calls from a Dumisani Mlaudza, I finally asked: What’s the story with Sean Trimz?
“In Grade 11, his Afrikaans teacher would call him ‘seun’ as in boy or laaitie,” said Mlaudza.
“Seun soon became Sean and then the Trimz came because it was around the time that Kanye West and Chris Brown would have those lines in their hair.
“So then he was walking past this girl one day and she said, ‘yo, look at the way Sean trims’, and at that time he was looking for a word to go with his name and he started branding Sean Trimz.”
I was appalled that a guy would wear a du-rag in 2018 and asked the caller what Sean Trimz’s real name is. For the first time since his confident but incessant calling, he hesitated. “Dumisani,” he said. When we finally sat down for a chat, the marketing graduate that is Sean Trimz recounted the above story again and explained his fashion choices.
“You asked me about the du-rag. It’s for the waves – I don’t know if you see them. Are they visible?”
The waves in his hair could make a pirate seasick. But again, this shows his commitment to his image and persistence for his music.
The 25-year-old rapper proudly represents his neighbourhood and has released Eastside and, recently, Eastside 2.0. After his high school group, Certified Clique, disbanded, he decided to go it alone.
“In 2013, there was a project I put out and I only sold it where I was going to school, at Boston Media House,” he recalled.
“It’s crazy because I had a patent that set me back R15k and I already had the music,” he continues.
“I thought, ‘let me just sell my music at school’. The mix-tape was called Road to Riches. And it’s crazy because I paid off that patent with the mix-tape sales at school.”
I’m sceptical about him being able to raise R15 000 through selling a mix-tape solely at a small college, but he’s not dissuaded by my queries. “I made 15, on the dot,” he says confidently.
“As soon as I was done selling those mix-tapes, I paid those lawyers (for the patent).”
Then he remembers: “I didn’t only sell them at school, actually. I gave a few to my mom and dad and they sold them at work.” Persistence.
After his first single, My Turn, he put out the first Eastside, then a single called Thang for Ya that gained him more listeners. “I put out all my singles in March because it’s a strategy,” he said.
“The first quarter of the year is when the big artists are recouping energy and going on vacations so there is this fresh energy and so much space. So I always put my music out then because the compilers aren’t bombarded with music from the big artists.”
Sean Trimz and Dumisani Mlaudza definitely have the heart to be in the music business. His persistence is admirable. It will be interesting to see how he elevates his music in the next few years to ensure that he is not easy to ignore. Follow @SeanTrimz on social media