Tragedy of kwaito legend HHP
As the country mourns game-changing kwaito star HHP, we look back at his journey from Mahikeng to music maestro
TO HIS fans he seemed like a larger-than-life, happygo - lucky guy wi th everything to live for – a successful music career, a formidable reputation, throngs of adoring fans and a comfortable life. Everything he did had a little sheen of special to it. Thanks to him the way was paved for hip-hop heavyweights Cassper Nyovest and Khuli Chana to rhyme in their mother tongues.
After he teamed up with American rapper Nas the door swung open for the likes of Black Coffee to reach for global success. And because of him South Africans across the spectrum got to know just how fantastic kwaito could be. He was a cross-over artist with star appeal – and never was this more obvious than when he foxtrotted, quick-stepped and waltzed his way to the top of the leader board on Strictly Come Dancing in 2007.
Yet behind the talent and charm, the smiles and songs, lay a tortured soul plagued by the demons of darkness.
Now Jabulani Tsambo, aka HHP (38), is gone and a little bit of light has left the world, leaving stunned South Africans asking, “What will summer be without Jabba?”
We look back at the life and times of the inimitable Hip Hop Pantsula.
MUSIC TO HIS EARS
HHP could never sing his parents’ praises loud enough. Thanks to his dad, Robert, he began to understand music from an early age. Robert had a huge record collection at their home in Mahikeng, North West. “I could always tell what mood he was in by which LP he chose to play”, HHP told us in 2007.
Robert worked in human resources and HHP’s mom, Theriso, was a university lecturer and choral music composer who helped him cut his musical teeth.
“My parents were great,” he said. “They sent us to private schools and made sure we had everything we needed as kids.”
He played the violin as a child although he also gave rugby a go. “But I was always the one at the back, shy and quiet.”
HIP-HOP HOORAY
Watching the American Music Awards with his father made him fall in love with hip-hop.
“I saw Will Smith perform and I was hooked. From then my friends and
I would rap, beatbox and harmonise together.”
Industry boss Chicco Twala was impressed with the music created by HHP’s high-school group the Verbal Assassins and released their debut album.
HHP went solo when the group disbanded soon after he matriculated from St Alban’s College in Johannesburg. He was torn by his calling though. “My mom wanted me to be an academic and my dad believed the music world was dangerous and run by the mafia! So I studied communications and went to film school for a bit.”
Unable to ignore the beat in his heart, HHP dropped his aptly titled debut, Introduction, in 2000. Well versed in many languages, he set the scene alight as the only artist at the time who rapped mainly in Tswana.
BECOMING JABBA
As a kid HHP was overweight and was bullied because of it.
“I was called names like sgantsontso [big guy], fatty and all those nasty things,” he said.
“It upset me but in time I made peace with the fact I was just a big kid.”
He became candid about his battle with the bulge over the years and revealed he’d been body-shamed before the term had even been coined.
“Because I was a big guy with pimples all the black model-C kids used to call me Jabba the Hutt. I didn’t know who or what that was,” he said on Radio 702.
“One day we were watching TV and they pointed out who Jabba was.”
HHP was shocked to discover Jabba was a large, slug-like alien character in Star Wars, and initially found the name offensive. Yet it grew on him and later he owned it when he started using it as a stage name.
WHO’S THE BOSS?
Long before Beyoncé was making headlines for trying to patent her children’s names, HHP knew the importance of trademarks.
Believing black musicians should treat their art as business, he trademarked his catchphrase “Bosso ke mang” [Who’s the real boss] following the song Bosso’s runaway success. “No one can use it without my permission,” said the savvy businessman, who also had his own clothing line.
HHP had heard the lit line at a party one night. “People were dancing in a circle, township style, and a girl came up to me and said, ‘Bosso ke mang.’ I thought the line was fresh, so I used it. Suddenly everyone was going, ‘Bosso ke mang’.”
He had no idea it would achieve the cult status it has – even today it’s a South African party anthem.
THE DARK DAYS
Depression was something HHP had battled since his teens. He reached his lowest point in 2015 when he tried to commit suicide three times.
HHP said at the time he was troubled by thoughts of becoming irrelevant and slipping into obscurity.
But he didn’t discuss his feelings with Lerato Sengadi, his fiancée at the time, and put on a brave face whenever he was with his son, Leano Khanye.
“If I became a broke has-been, Leano would think I was a deadbeat dad. I’d rather die than live through that. And Lerato would rather marry a successful guy. I didn’t want to die a pauper, so I just thought while I still have policies, I’d rather die.”
The rapper tried to gas himself three times. The day after his first attempt he heard fellow rapper Nkululeko “Flabba” Habedi had been murdered, and after his second attempt one of his dancers died when he passed out in his garage after a night out and accidentally inhaling an overdose of carbon monoxide.
When his third attempt also failed he decided it was a wake-up call. “I felt like God was speaking to me, so I stopped.”
He checked into a rehabilitation centre to detox from the antidepressants he’d been on after meeting Zoey Kahnish. Zoey, the daughter of fellow rapper Zinzi, has a rare form of cerebral palsy.
HHP had helped Zoey with a series of benefit concerts.
FAMILY MAN
HHP leaves behind his son and wife, Lerato, whom he met when they were both students.
“When I met Lerato in a registration queue at UJ [University of Johannesburg], it was love at first sight.”
In April he shocked fans when he revealed he and his “soulmate” were heading for divorce after Lerato caught him cheating. “Bathong, before you hear it from people, me and my beautiful Motho, whom I love so much, will not be continuing with our marriage,” he wrote on Instagram, before deleting the post.
Lerato and HHP both removed photos of each other on their Instagram pages. It’s not known if they legally separated at the time of his passing.
At the time of going to print Lerato was too heartbroken to speak to the media.