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Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Reporter
When Asaph turned 25 on January 11, 2017, his life was at a crossroads.
Tears of sadness rolled from his eyes when he woke up as it dawned on him that he was hurtling towards 30 years and his life was not coming together.

His career has had splinters of success, but nothing major had happened. He was popular among the urban youth, but he was hopeless at the prospects.

In fact, Asaph had a bout of depression and that was part of the reason he cried.

These are some of the personal things that the Bulawayo-based rapper shared during his interview with Chronicle Showbiz last week.

Born Tafadzwa Tarukwana, Asaph grew up in Selbourne Park. He attended SOS, Baines and completed his Advanced Level studies at Petra High School. His father served in the army working at Llewellyn Barracks (Lookout Masuku Barracks).

His love for hip-hop music started at Petra High School, where he and Blazy Boy (who featured in songbird Alaina’s hit Juice Box) used to do rap battles at school.

“My first friends were girls because I couldn’t play soccer. So, during break time, I would be by the bags and when the girls passed by, they’d ask why I wasn’t playing with others and I’d tell them I couldn’t. They’d then invite me to chill with them,” said Asaph.

“With Blessing ‘Blazy Boy’ Maseko, we would do rap battles at school during sports days and other functions.

Everyone would watch us in amazement. We then formed a crew which we called Rap Smith Poets. In my school years, I was honing myself into being a rap artiste not a scholar.”

A Christian, Asaph said he was influenced by the likes of 50 Cent, Nas, Jay Z, Ludacris, Kanye West. Locally it was Tehn Diamond, POY and Kortney Antipas.

Reflecting on his 25th birthday, Asaph said it was an emotional one. These emotions were to inspire his most emotional album thus far aptly named 25.

“When I woke up that morning, I cried like a baby. In my mind, I was like, my life isn’t where it’s supposed to be. And I was kind of depressed actually,” shared Asaph during a wide-ranging interview about his life before and after his fame.

“I didn’t know where I was going to record, or if I should continue recording.”

Luckily for Asaph, during that time he met creative director, Saimon Mambazo Phiri who was planning something big that year. He shared what he was going through with Mambazo who then told him to come up with an album that would be launched at the end of the year during the Live in Byo. Eleven albums and 11 music videos were to be launched in one night on November 11, 2017.

“Mambazo was doing an album launch for artistes under Sabela Music so he suggested that I get into the studio.

Twenty-five was a turning point as I told myself that I was doing this to be famous as a rapper here — or this is actually who I am (famous rapper).

“That’s why every song in that album was my last call, my last expression and punch in this music industry. It turned out to be a pretty good album as people loved it,” said Asaph.

The album featured songs — 26, Altezza Music, Fede, Plugz, Body, Keep Ya Up and Brighter Days.

Asaph said 25 was like the boost and building blocks that he needed, as the following year he was to release Mambo, a track that catapulted him to fame and earned him several awards at the Zim Hip-hop and Bulawayo Arts Awards.

He topped various radio charts with this track as well.

During the interview, Asaph also addressed his beef with the late rapper Cal Vin saying it was a misunderstanding between two brothers.

But what caused the clash? According to Asaph, theirs was somewhat a clash for the throne.

He said things really got tense between the two and lyrics were sometimes misinterpreted and taken as attacks on one another.

“After I lost the Skymaz (Skyz Metro FM Music Awards), I’d put out a song called Obvious and it didn’t win. I was so hurt as I felt that people loved it. I did a freestyle about that and Cal Vin felt I was targeting him because of the lyrics,

‘Obvious got me love from Ekasi, but it’s funny probably never win awards, I’m Tafadzwa, not Thabani’,” narrated Asaph.

Through this song, Asaph said he basically meant that he would have won if his name was Thabani and not Tafadzwa. He said Cal Vin then released a diss track and their beef escalated from there.

“He then released a diss track for me. And everyone was saying I’m done and I’m dead. Thereafter, I released Mambo after winning the Bulawayo Arts Awards. In my opinion, this song ended the situation. But whenever we met, we’d talk about what was being said by the other and the like.”

So tense was the situation that Asaph said he was threatened with violence by someone at Cal Vin’s funeral in 2020.

“It was real for some people. I remember that there was some guy who really wanted to beat me up at his funeral saying I wasn’t welcome. Imagine, I was mourning and someone wanted to beat me up.”

Asaph paid tribute to rapper POY who gave him a platform to perform and was the first person to pay him for the gig.

“The first show that I actually got paid for, POY, is the one who invited me. He was performing at the gallery and invited Ganyaz and I to perform. After that, he gave us money.

Although it wasn’t much, we still got paid for our performances and it was all thanks to POY.

“People like Orthodox Six were also very influential in my career. I was featured on his music video when I was eight years old. The song was called Akaoma. Seeing them doing their thing as a kid in a bandana shouting out Six was enough motivation. I’m sure if they weren’t there, I’d have found it impossible to do this,” said Asaph.

In 2019, Asaph performed at Queens Sports Club alongside South Africa’s Nasty C, De Mthuda, Killer Kau Mafikizolo and Zimbabwe’s Winky D and Cal Vin. At the time, he was rocking the nation through various tracks that included Mambo and Vibe is Correct. Unknown to Asaph was the fact that a team from Universal Music Africa had been sent to the show that was organised by Skyz Metro FM to scout for local talent.

Asaph made the cut and had been in contact with Def Jam representatives since the hosting of the gig.

Now, he has been signed by Universal Music Group’s Def Jam Africa and is waiting to release his first song under the label. The song titled Thebelele features Loki from South Africa and is expected to be released at the end of this month.

As part of the deal, Def Jam will be managing his career.

“Basically, I’m officially a Def Jam artiste now so all my recordings, videos and shows will be handled by the label and the team that they’ve built around me. It’s like putting a jetpack on my back shooting me straight to the stars,” said Asaph.

Now that he is mature, Zimbabwe and Bulawayo in particular is waiting with bated breath for his music from the Def Jam Africa label to see how far Asaph can reach for the stars, or if he can surpass them. – @bonganinkunzi