Catch ZUBZ tonight at Bassline
We’ll never forget the first time we saw Zubz live at the Songwriters Club in Newtown about two years ago… He had the biggest live band ever and the most awesome backing vocalists that included two of our favourite diva’s, Lois and Pebbles who simply blew us away. Zubz elevates hiphop as we know it to another level, adding layer upon layer to his songs, resulting in a multi-layered tapestry of…
colourful uplifting music. Good news is his next album is out – catch him at Bassline tonight!
Super MC Zubz launches his hot new album Headphone Music In A Parallel World this Thursday the 30th November at the Bassline in Newtown. R30 gets you in to this event that starts at 7:30.
Get your ears ready for the surreal sonic trip super talented MC Zubz will take you on with his new album Headphone Music in a Parallel World. Don’t expect the usual hip hop album; this one sees Zubz being inspired by sci – fi and quantum physics as well as the state of the world “I called it that because it’s an out worldly sort of trip where you leave this reality and get into a parallel reality running concurrently with this one.”
It’s been two years since this Zambian born, Zimbabwe raised, Grahamstown IT trained and Johannesburg based 30 year old released his SAMA nominated debut Listeners Digest, though during that time he kept on polishing his talent, “I never stopped recording – the songs on this record are tracks I recorded a year ago, and before that I was recording too.”
Whilst recording Zubz (AKA Ndabaningi Mabuye) was inspired by his travels: to Zambia for the unveiling of his fathers tombstone; Cape Town where he performed with his band The Origins who also joined him at shows in Norway and Finland. “It was a period of moving around and experiencing different aspects of music, myself and people and so then I ended up seeing things with a broader lens.”
Travelling gave him the space and time to think and see things in a new light. “When you travel you approach these things differently, when you don’t travel that much you forget they exist, you focus on day to day stuff that distracts you from the things that this album brings out&”
His outlook was altered to the extent that when he returned he changed his album, “Before I went on those trips, I was 80 percent done with my album. But after those trips, I decided to remove certain tracks, because my mind set had shifted drastically, it had really flipped. Those songs didn’t represent how I felt anymore – so it was pointless putting them out because they were not a representation of who I had become.”
So now on Headphone Music in a Parallel World, “There is a sense of patriotism throughout, patriotism to my home Southern Africa; there is a special ode to heroes.” He adds, “I’m like an orator on this album, I’m focusing a lot more on what songs actually mean, on ideas and messages.
On Headphone Music in a Parallel World “I’ve covered a lot of African related issues like poverty, neo colonialism, the frustrations that we go through as black people in Africa and just trying to shift the values and order which we prioritize, such as family and love and community and heritage man.”
And the beats? In terms of production Zubz explains that he made “A deliberate move to steer towards more spaced out beats, beats that give you a surreal feeling, that make you feel like your soul is taking off into another world, as opposed to beats that make you just want to nod your head. I was blessed to know producers like Anti – Hero; Richard III, Iko and Mizi, “They don’t produce stereotypical stuff! I love that!” featured vocalists include soul sistas Pebbles, Kheti, and Lois of Afro Z fame, “for me they have the best voices in the country&” Also adding their unique voices are Ziza and fellow Rhodes student Jon Savage of the rock group Cassette.
Zubz feels fortunate that his label – the trailblazing Outrageous Records that is also home to H20, Optical Illusion, Pebbles, Miles and Mgodoyi – gave him total freedom to create as he wished, with no barriers or formulas to follow.
“Who else would allow a quantum physics reading freak nerd by day who is an MC by night to get into studio and do whatever he likes whenever he wants? Very few record labels have that kind of courage and belief in someone, so outrageous Records is the only logical place to be at.”
For Zubz this is about, art, expression and being true to himself. Unlike so many in the game he isn’t into cheap catchy gimmicks and easy hooks:” It’s not your stereotypical boom bap hip hop, Headphone Music – In A Parallel World is for the more open minded, experimental, more searching kind of person&a lot of the material requires you to dig deeper than a song that just aims to get you jumping around does.”
“This is my most honest album to date, it’s so true to who I am” says the holder of the golden mic, before describing one of the albums’ singles ‘Victory’ “It’s a feel good, spiritual track, it’s about self affirmation and self belief, about greatness which is pretty much a summary of where I’m at now.”
