This week a mostly unknown Mabale Noise artist, Du Boiz, posted a picture of himself on Fcebook with American hip-hop artist (and boyfriend to Kylie Kardashian), Tyga.
The caption for the picture of the two rappers, which had Soul Cycle Downtown Los Angeles tagged as its location, simply read, “just finished a video featuring this brother @kinggoldchains #DopeDream #Mab
He says the collaboration, on a song called Dope Dreams, is the result of his controversial record label sending a song to Tyga’s producers and the American deciding to jump on the song with Du Boiz.
And just like that, this relatively unknown 25-year-old from Newcastle in Kwazulu Natal, started catching people’s attention with followers sharing the picture on Facebook and wondering who he is.
Who is Du Boiz?
Sandile Khubeka aka Du Boiz started getting some airplay following his debut single called Celebration.
The song speaks about his days as a struggling musician and how his life has changed since then. The hit song has been played on Metro FM, Yfm, VEntertainment and Cliffcentral. He has also performed it live on South Africa’s biggest music television show, LiveAmp.
He says that his career started when he still lived in New Castle, back in 2008. He started recording with producer Thabo “Big Tzet” Mlangeni, who was also his mentor.
“Thabo was the one who pushed me to record and helped me get confidence to perform on stage. To this day I am thankful for his help because without him there wouldn’t be a Du Boiz.”
He would travel around his home province, Kwa-Zulu Natal, doing performances, with hopes to make it into the music scene.
Mabala Noise helped him rise to fame
It was in 2015 when his partnership with Mabala Noise started. Du Boiz says, “it has been all the way up since then”.
Earlier this year Mabala Noise (which is home to artists like Major League DJs; rappers Nasty C, Gigi Lamayne, Zakwe, Riky Rick; and Khanyi Mbau) took him on a trip to America to attend the BET awards. “It was my first time abroad and LA was great. Everything is different that side; the people, the vibes. Things that we get away with in Johannesburg, like jaywalking, are not allowed, so the experience was eye-opening.”
Du Boiz says the recent controversy involving Mabala Noise where the owner, Reggie Nkabinde, was accused by Economic Freedom Fighters leader, Julius Malema, of using the company as a front for money laundering has not affected him.
Malema went on to accuse Nkabinde of having given his artists not less than R5 million each.
“I don’t know anything about the R5 million. I can even show you my contract, I didn’t receive R5 million. When the news came out, I didn’t even have airtime at that time [on my phone], so I was shocked. Bab Reggie [Nkabinde] has always been a businessman. So right now what he is trying to do with Mabala Noise is just to push an African child and break boundaries.”
Whatever the real story is behind the record label, what is clear is that, this young man from Newcastle’s career is on the up and up.
