Umlazi, Durban-born rapper Usimamane in September dropped his debut album “20th: Days Before Maud”, cementing his spot in South African hip hop.
In June, Apple Music announced Usimamane as June’s Featured Artist for Rap Life Africa, and he certainly has been one to watch.
You know you got the block hot when you have the streets quoting you. Usimamane certainly has everyone saying “hawe Ma”, a known Zulu expression that has turned into pop culture gold.
A 14-track album featuring bangers that are commercially viable - with radio and club success - you know a hip hop is a hit when it gets played inside a club.
The album’s latest single “Uvalo” is dominating the charts, it has accumulated over 1,128,000 streams across digital streaming platforms since its release. Usimamane, real name Omuhleumnguni Simamane, features top musician Sjava on the tear-jerking songs that get real about the emotions around relationships.
With over half a million monthly listeners on Spotify, the album had the biggest second-day streams for a debut studio album in South Africa on Spotify by amassing over 332,000 with “20th: Days before Maud”.
He has already reached gold certification for his chart-topping song “Cheque” which not only trended on the charts, but also social media. The track has over four million streams on Spotify, while the music video released six months ago has 3.1 million views on YouTube, and the audio has been used on over 7,000 videos on TikTok.
For a debut album, Usimamane was able to round up features from the top acts in hip hop, YoungstaCPT, OkMalumeKoolKat, K.O and even Anatii who is creeping back into the industry. He also collaborated with Tony Dayiman who has several collaborations with - the two seem to have the sauce when it comes to them gelling musically.
The album has several stand-out songs such as “Vegan” featuring MashBeatz and Tellaman. There is also “Star”, featuring Mo.Rena. The music video was dropped three days ago and already has over 55,000 views on YouTube.
Usimamane’s debut album is giving fans a bit of everything that Mzansi hip hop needs, bangers for the club and social media, deep trap songs that get one thinking and a musical celebration of a rising star.
IOL Entertainment