Rowlene s debut album gets shout-out from Hardwick
Actor makes guest appearance on track
When a powerhouse such as American actor Omari Hardwick gives you his stamp of approval you know you have arrived.
The Power actor gave SA musician Rowlene a huge Instagram shout-out the day her long-awaited debut album11:11 dropped last Friday.
Hardwick makes a guest appearance on track seven titled Omari’s Interlude.
I’m proud of you my South African Lil Sis. For five years now I have watched you grow as an artist and as a young woman... Honoured to be a part of that force.
Keep soaring Row,” Hardwick captioned a picture of them together.
Hardwick is not the only big name on the album. Rowlene has also reunited with regular collaborator Nasty C for yet another hot duet.
The Cape Town-born songbird features the “coolest kid in Africa” on closing track on the album, Stop.
The 23-year-old singer rose to fame when she featured on Nasty C’s love song SMA in 2018. The smash hit was nominated for record of the year at the SA Music Awards this year.
It comes as no surprise that Rowlene has found herself being named by Apple Music as one of Africa’s rising artists to watch.
We are the same age and we understand each other lyrically and spiritually,” Rowlene says about Nasty C before calling him a lyrical genius. In one studio session we can create two or three songs and many others which are not released yet,” she says.
The 11-track offering is released under Nasty C’s record label Tall Racks Rock. Aside from Nasty C, she features other heavyweights including AReece, Riky Rick, Tellaman and her rapper boyfriend Gemini Major.
“I want my fans to gravitate towards the new sound that I am going for with the album, which is amixture of R&Band pop,” Rowlene says
I feel the music should speak for itself. It took me so long to drop, we have been announcing [it] for the last year-and-a-half and now we are finally here.
“I wanted the thought process to be genuine and a true reflection of myself. I didn’t want to be depicted differently to what you see on my social media. It had to be consistent.”
Rowlene grew up in a musical family in Elsies River, Cape Town. She continued with her love for music at JE Klopper Primary School, singing soprano in the school choir.
“We grew up listening to music for fun and jazz on Sundays, my father was also a DJ,” she says.