Pitch Black Afro on his own two feet these days
Club attack crippled rapper’s promising career -- but he’s on his way back
PITCH Black Afro is back — and it’s hard to miss him.
Still sporting his eye-catching, voluminous hairstyle, the lanky rapper is working on a new album that will reflect on the hard lessons he has learnt since being “cast out” of the limelight five years ago.
The artist (real name Thulani Ngcobo) was at the top of his game with hits such as Ntofontofo before an attack outside a club in Rosebank, Johannesburg, in 2011 left him with a serious ankle injury that cut short his career.
“Gigs dried up because I couldn’t perform with the cast on my leg. Every time I tried to stand, my leg would swell so bad and that forced me to stay at home and I lost out on hundreds of thousands of rands from this.
“[Before the attack] I was naive, I was blowing money like it’s nobody’s business, I had no clue how the business worked and went through ups and downs with various managers.
“I went from living in expensive suburbs, chowing money on expensive shirts and shoes, to living in a cottage, and real life dawned on me.”
He moved back to his mother Gerlie Vilancula’s home in Orlando East in Soweto. He tried to start two recording studios and even opened a spaza shop, but all his ventures failed.
The 40-year-old musician — who studied music in high school to help him overcome his stutter — said he had learnt many lessons and now chose to walk his new path independently.
“My ankle injury forced me to learn the business of music and I opted to start again,” he said.
He taught himself the “technicalities of a recording desk” while investing in his own studio equipment, which he is now using to record his album.
“I never knew how all these things worked. I used to rock up in a studio, do my sessions behind the microphone, and leave. Now I am doing all this, thanks to what I have taught myself through Google and influential recording label bosses who helped me along the way,” he said.
Lately he has been playing at The Orbit in Braamfontein alongside a 12piece band called Bomb Shelter Beast, every second Tuesday.
“I have chosen to start from scratch. I am recording my own album and working with my wife and manager, Bheki, to try this music thing again.
“It’s what I love, it’s what I want to die doing. If I fail this time, I will have no one to blame but myself.”
Pitch Black Afro said his new style was a fusion of soul and hip-hop — something he referred to as izinto zama grootman (things for grown people).
But his latest album would “remain the same Pitch Black Afro that people know and love” and would reflect on his trials and lessons of the past years. He hopes to release it this year.
He has travelled a long road, starting at the age of 16 when he and his pals would walk for hours from the Johannesburg CBD to Bryanston in the hopes of making it in the music industry. It was the Rap Activity Jam competition in 1998 on YFM that gave him his break.
“This was during DJ Oskido and
It’s what I want to die doing. If I fail this time, I will have no one to blame but myself
Rudeboy Paul’s show. Every day you battled with another caller and whoever was left standing that day would battle the next day and be crowned MC of the week. That week I won, these guys gave me a break in hip-hop at a time when the craft wasn’t taken seriously.
“I’ll never forget hearing myself on radio rapping. It was in a taxi. When I told people it was me, no one believed me because I stuttered and when I rapped I didn’t stutter.”
It was through his debut album Styling Gel in 2004 that he became a household name.