Thabbz — New kid on the block

ZAMBEZI Magic’s (DStv channel 160) Zim Top 10 chart show has seen Bulawayo rappers Thabbz and Cal_Vin’s music video Hey Wena on rotation for the past four months.

The music video has had a brush with popular tracks — Mukoko by Tytan Skhokho and Ammara Brown, Dai Hupenyu Hwaitengwa by Souljah Love and Kazz aka Mr Boomslang — Thinking of you. In May, the video hogged the number one spot for three consecutive weeks.

While many people have been exposed to Cal_Vin, Thabbz, a 25-year-old former Mpopoma High School pupil is a fairly new player in the entertainment scene.

Sunday Life Correspondent Bongani Ndlovu (BN) spoke to the artiste to get to know him. Interestingly, he is also a poet, rapper, accounts clerk and cake maker.

BN: Tell us who Thabbz is and what makes him tick?

Thabbz: I’m a local artiste born Thabani Ndlovu. I was born on 2 September in 1991 and grew up in the old township of New Lobengula. My music mainly reflects on how I grew up. BN: How did you get into music? Thabbz: Like every artiste, I grew up with inspiration from deep poetic hip-hop and kwaito artistes like Tupac, Notorious B.I.G, Snoop Dogg, Ja Rule and kwaito musicians the late Mawillies, Trompies and Kortez. For my career to be unique, I chose to fuse the two genres. Hey Wena! Tell us more about that song and its video.

That’s my first ever commercial single. Hey Wena went viral on the first day we released it and it became a street anthem. When award-winning music video producer, Blaqs heard the song, he pledged to test his new cameras and studio by shooting the video for us. After production was complete, we sent the video to Zambezi Magic in April this year and the rest as they say is history. All I can say is that the video that was shot as an experiment has ruled the roost for the past for the past five months on DStv’s Zambezi Magic. The track got me nominated last year at the Zim Hip-hop Awards for Best Newcomer and Best Video, unfortunately we didn’t win. BN: Why do you think the music video has stayed for so long on the Zambezi Magic Top 10? Thabbz: I believe in visuals and I believe in quality and simplicity. Most artistes compromise on quality and that’s why their works will never make it far. BN: Are you working on any new stuff ? Thabbz: I just dropped a single Tshona Phansi which is part of my forthcoming album. The song is already playing on local top radios including Star FM, ZiFM and Diamond FM. Also in the pipeline is a collaboration with Guluva 7. From there I hope to start shooting Tshona Phansi’s music video and then release the new album — possibly just before the year ends. BN: Other than music, what else do you do? Thabbz: Along the way, we get to learn of our different skills. I bake, something which I was taught by my uncle Owen Jonifani who has been baking cakes all his life. For those who attended TKP’s birthday, I’m the one who baked that cake where I wanted to express her musical zeal through a piano cake that weighed 12kg. It took me three weeks to finish that cake. Apart from baking, I do fiscals where I assist companies to process VAT, PAYE, annual accounts and tax clearances. MY sister-in-law based in the United States was coming over to visit for the weekend.

Of course I knew she’d want to be shown around the city but I didn’t think it would have to be on a Sunday.

Any other day would’ve been much easier — we could’ve just gone out to the club and called it a night.

But then again, it had to be something classy. We can’t have her fly all the way to a dingy lounge, I thought.

I was out of ideas until I remembered The Deck located at Banff Lodge Hotel in Hillside. I’d often heard about it, but had actually never been there myself.

In as much as it’s never a good idea to take someone to a place you’ve never been before yourself, I was willing to take the risk.

I called up a friend to ask for directions as I was clueless of where the place was located. I was soon to learn that Banff Lodge Hotel is off Cecil Avenue and right into Banff Road. It’s clearly marked, you wouldn’t get lost.

As soon as we drove into the gate, my sister-in-law remarked, “this is nice”, and I could only hope the food and service would be equally good.

We were greeted by a “billboard” marked “Banff The Deck” in stylish fashion. It would be the perfect selfie spot for a #CurrentSituaion post on Instagram. We made our way to the deck, which is built around a swimming pool with clear blue water.

The weather was perfect for taking pictures and our sun-kissed shots came out quite nicely, if I may say so myself. It was tranquil and the air somewhat smelt fresher.

It being a Sunday afternoon, the place provided a relaxed environment — quite the perfect ambience to sit down and have a decent conversation over a couple of some drinks and food.

Things were looking good for me so far and my last wish was that my sister-in-law enjoys the meal. We found ourselves a place to sit close to the bar area and as soon as we did, a waiter came to introduce himself and offer us the menu.

He was to get our drinks order first. There was an assortment of beverages available including fruit juices, beers, ciders, whisky, wine and cocktails as well as coffee and other hot beverages.

I went for a cosmopolitan, primarily because I thought the name of the cocktail sounded rather fancy. It cost $3. In it goes fresh lime juice, cranberry juice, cointreau and vodka citron. My sister-in-law ordered the same.

Some rock music played softly in the background, giving the place quite the chic feel.

Our voices weren’t competing with House or Zim Dancehall tunes — we could quite easily hear each other and catch-up on some family gossip and of course girl-talk. Our drinks order came and I was quite pleased with the glass the cocktail came in before I even tasted it.

It looked so pretty; it was a cocktail glass with a fancy spiraling stand. I was starting to feel confident about the place and had quite got into the vibe of things.

Once our drinks were served, we were ready to place our pizza order. Unfortunately because it was before 6pm and way after lunch, they were only serving pizza, deserts and drinks. But after 6pm, the joint offers a dinner menu and before lunch a breakfast menu. They are open every day.

On the pizza menu was a variety of pizzas with what I thought were fancy names. This was just the effect I wanted! The menu sounded exotic with pizzas called New Yorker, Mediterranean, Atlantis, Hawaiian and Mozambican. You had to go through the list of ingredients provided on the menu card to know what the pizza was made of. We went for the Mozambican which was made up of periperi chicken, onion, red pepper, tomato and garlic base as well as mozzarella cheese.

Before long, our pizza was out and the aroma was incredibly inviting! My first shocker was the size of it. For $9 we got what I thought was rather an extra-large pizza. A handsome helping of mozzarella cheese had melted over the pizza whose peri-peri chicken had quite the tasty kick. The garlic base was unlike any other pastry I’ve tasted — it was absolutely delectable!

It was heaven in the mouth and I knew the pizza had hit the right spot when my sister-in-law remarked, “this pizza is really good”. It was fresh; it was hot and had the most handsome helpings of toppings I’ve ever seen on a pizza!

After two slices each, the pizza wasn’t disappearing from the plate. We were both stuffed and so we sat and stared at it while we talked and sipped on our drinks.

Unfortunately, the barman was out of cranberry juice so we had to switch from the Cosmopolitan to the Jack Sparrow — which turned out to have a more palatable taste with a dash of orange and bitters. We decided to take away the rest of the pizza, which was to be my breakfast the next morning. The bill came and I only had to part with $30.

It was an afternoon well-spent. She still talks about her experience there and would kill for another visit. I was pretty sure I had treated my sister-in-law to a beautiful Sunday afternoon comprising a flavoursome pizza, sipping on cocktails and gossiping in perfect weather.

But we weren’t about to leave before a few more selfies under the setting sun.