Emtee Headlines Shoko Festival

He is the Headline act for this year's Shoko Festival that is set to take place from the 29th of September to October 1st in both the capital, Harare and Chitungwiza.

As such, we thought we would give our readers an insight into just who exactly Emtee is.

According to Wikipedia, South African rapper Emtee was born Mthebeni Ndevu 24 years ago and is best known for his debut hit single, "Roll Up".

Emtee 'The Hustler' as he is popularly known to his multitude of followers was born in Matatiele, Eastern Cape but grew up in Rockville, Soweto, Gauteng and has been active in the music industry since 2009.

Currently signed to Ambitiouz Entertainment, a South African independent record label, Emtee's debut album 'Avery', (released on iTunes and domestic music retailers in December of 2015) was certified platinum by RISA as of July 2016.

It is said that for the better part of 2015 and 2016, Emtee became the third most played South African hip hop artist and 10th most played artist overall.

Breakthrough

It was in early 2015 that long time friend and producer, 'Ruff' produced the beat for the song that would eventually become Emtee's breakthrough single "Roll Up" and the rapper claims that the entire track was recorded and finalized in just two hours.

The track went on to receive extensive airplay in Southern Africa and peaked at the top of DJ Speedsta's hip hop chart on YFM.

He featured AKA (real name Kiernan Forbes) and Wizkid (Real name Ayodeji Balogun) on Roll Up Remix, which eMTee decided to call the Roll Up "Re-Up".

Honours

Emtee was the winner of Song Of The Year at the annual South African Hip-Hop Awards (2015). He was nominated for Best Music Video (Roll Up), Best New Artist (Avery), Best Remix (Roll Up – Re-Up) and Best Hip Hop Album (Avery) at the 15th Metro FM Music Awards.

Background

The rapper got on stage for the very first time when he was just nine years old, performing at a Yeoville primary school talent show and became the youngest choir conductor at Barnata High School where he won many provincial competitions as a member of his school’s marimba band.

The 24 year old started making money from his talent at the age of 17 when he worked as a music instructor at other schools and used his earnings to record his first mixtape titled "The Introduction".

In 2010, he collaborated with South African rapper Maraza on a song titled "In It To Win It" and they both appeared on Channel O's show "HeadRush".

Since then he has gone on to become one of South Africa's biggest and most exciting hiphop stars and songs such as 'Roll Up' and 'Pearl Thusi', among others have gone a long way in cementing his status.

Given his track record, Shoko Festival attendees are definitely in for a treat and will surely get their money's worth.