LOVE BITE
According to Ndumiso Khumalo, who is recognized in Maskandi music communities as Mpotoze a moniker he earned for his capacity to woo the women of Madazane village, KwaZulu-Natal “the love of music began years ago. The 29-year-old remembers the beginnings with fondness, saying, “When I was with my mother at the shops, I would weep for a guitar, rather than a ball.”
He was privileged to receive a guitar from the family next door, which had belonged to their late grandfather, even though his mother was unable to purchase one for him. Even though it’s a beautiful, bright Saturday afternoon in late July, Khumalo is a little nervous and keeps leaving the room to talk on the phone with the vocalists who will be performing with him when his first CD album, Love Bite, is launched at the Diepkloof hostel in Soweto.
The album, which consists of ten songs, addresses a variety of topics, such as love, treachery, and the difficulties of Johannesburg life. His guitar skill is captivating, and he has an incredible ability to alter his incredible voice while singing into the microphone. Maskandi fans will be thrilled by the album’s songs, which include the title tune Love Bite, Sibuy’emnambithi, Sidalelwene, Inkunzi Yenyathi, Emcitsheni, and Ngiyajabulo. In the spacious kitchen, a bright yellow billboard of the Inkatha Freedom Party featuring the face of the organization’s founder and former the ruler, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, is displayed on a wall beyond which five dancers are practicing their routines. They don’t seem to be put off by the coal furnace in the center of the place.
An angry Chazubuhle Dladla yells at the dancers, to get things right and moving. They comply and keep doing the same actions until they are dancing together. At the dormitory, Khumalo received instruction from Celumuzi Makhanyile on how to play the guitar. He was influenced by Mgqumeni, Abafana Benkululeko, and Amashayina Amahle. Prior to going single in 2020, he was enlisted to join the maskandi group Phathaphatha. One of the artists at the launch, Njabulo “Ichwane LikaStezie” Zulu, states that “effective marketing is highly significant and a flame of impepho/incense back at home, asking forefathers for guidance, safeguards, and success” are essential for development in the tough music sector.
The pen you use to write songs should be kept in your grandmother’s house, he continues, and if your parents never married, ask your uncles to talk to your ancestors on your behalf when impepho is burning. According to Khumalo even after his father paid lobola, He called his both parents by their surnames and thanked or honored my ancestors for the talent they gave him. 6Bheki “Ihhashi Elimhlophe” Ngcobo, the renowned maskandi music godfather and numerous award winner, made history last year by being the first Maskandi artist to film a live DVD at the Soweto Theatre.
In 2017, Khuzani Mpungose and Mthandeni Manqele, two of KwaZulu-Natal’s most well-known young performers, got into a heated argument that claimed a life. Since Manqele and a few other artists accused Mpungose of stealing their work, the two have been involved in off-stage incidents. The Tribal Authority had to step in because the war-torn province was afraid that if the tension wasn’t handled, it would result in additional deaths. Sibusiso Gcabashe received a 28-year prison sentence in 2016 for imitating Khulekani “Mgqumeni” Khumalo, a 2009-deceased award-winning artist.
In 2012, thousands of followers, thinking he had been revived, rushed to his home in KwaZulu-Natal. When Gcabashe returned to the singer’s homeland three years after his passing, he claimed that a witchdoctor had abducted him, put a spell on him, and imprisoned him in a zombie-infested cave. Rape, violence, abduction, attempting to flee from lawful custody, and imitating Khumalo were among the charges against Gcabashe
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