Kid Silobela wants to popularise Ndebele dancehall genre Kid Silobela

Mthabisi Tshuma, Showbiz Correspondent
Kwekwe’s up-and-coming dancehall artiste, Kid Silobela (real name Ronald Mpofu) who hails from Silobela Village, says he wants to popularise Ndebele dancehall.

The Zimdancehall genre, whose style borrows a lot from Jamaican reggae and ragga was started by sound systems, A1 Sound and Startime Sound who exposed artistes — Culture T, Allan Ranks and Dudz in the 80s. The artistes would perform on “riddims” mostly imitating popular Jamaican reggae artistes.

In the early 2000s, as home computers became affordable, there was an emergence of independent studios which saw the genre grow and gain more popularity. This is when artistes such as Sniper Storm, Winky D, King Labash and Badman emerged.

Years later, the genre has now become a strong movement which commands a huge following locally with new artistes being churned out almost weekly. Recent hits from the genre include Enzo Ishall’s Urikutsvireiko, Seh Calaz’s Bholato Bholato and Jah Master’s Hello Mwari. Top artistes in the genre include Winky D, Jah Signal, Tocky Vibes, Killer T and Shinsoman among many others.

However, the genre, despite its success locally, has only been in Shona, something Kid Silobela wants to turn around as he believes that dancehall in Ndebele can also thrive.

And, if Bazooka’s Umdala Wethu hit song which was released last year is anything to go by, Ndebele dancehall is possible and may just bring diversity to the local genre.

In Bulawayo and the greater part of Matabeleland, a few artistes have taken up the genre especially singing in languages other than Shona, with Jah Practice among the few.

Kid Silobela, after noticing this, has decided to give the genre a try and set himself apart by composing songs in Ndebele.

In an interview, he said he is finalising work on his second album which he hopes to release in October as part of efforts to promote Ndebele dancehall. The second album will be a follow up to his debut offering, Okulixoxo.

The young and zealous artiste said he was inspired to take up the dancehall genre because he liked the sound and wanted to infuse it with his Ndebele language.

“I liked dancehall music and I saw it fit to produce songs in my own language. At the moment, I’m working on my second album titled Who am I? This album will consist of 12 tracks with some of the songs set to have videos,” said Kid Silobela.

He said he is working with producers, Innora, BMC, Blue Master, FuryGun, Doctor productions and TRB music as well as artistes, Linny Boy, Motivation, Bk (Bright), Prince HKD, Slasher Man, Honor Vybes, Yusef and King Adiza.

Other than popularising Ndebele dancehall, Kid Silobela is on a quest to popularise the genre in the rural areas starting with his village of Silobela.

Growing up in Silobela Village in Kwekwe under Chief Malisa, the dancehall artiste started his career in 2016 when he was at Fatima High school. He recorded his first track in 2017 at TH2L studios in Silobela.

Last year he released three singles titled Lomntwana, Yenza Konke and Lomhlaba suWrong featuring King Adiza. In October he released Okulixoxo which consists of eight tracks. Early this year, the artiste tapped into the visual space after he recorded a video for his 2019 single, Yenza Konke. — @mthabisi_mthire.

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