The Sunday News
Allan Foti, Sunday Life Correspondent
EIGHTEEN years ago, if you had told Sydney Sithole that one day he would conquer Europe and play in front of a 58 000-strong crowd, he would have laughed off the possibility of playing Super Rugby.
Because until then, “Big Syd” was a rugby player out of Plumtree High School where he played alongside living legend, Victor Olonga before moving to Denmark in 1995 to pursue a pro career. And at that point in his life, his dream was to play Super Rugby in sold out arenas across the Southern Hemisphere!
Fast forward eight years and an entertainer is born instead!
Big Syd moved from entertaining crazed rugger fans to sharing the stage with some of Europe top techno and dance DJs and performers in front of tens of thousands of frenzied fans at venues across Europe and beyond.
How did the big, ex-choirboy, rugby player make the transition? How did the former Old Miltonian and Zimbabwe Under-21 player manage to rap in front of a very appreciatiative 58 000-strong St Petersburg (Russia) crowd at the Electronic Dance Music Festival in 2016?
“It was by accident actually. I had been in Denmark for eight years playing club rugby for Lindø Rugby Club when I travelled to Germany with some friends. In Germany I met some guys from the United States who were signed in that country by a local record label and we just sort of started messing around a little,” narrates Big Syd.
“I became quite close to Vic Bennet an American rapper/producer from Washington DC and we started working on a few projects. At the time, we mostly did social work like teaching kids about music while helping them with whatever social problems they were facing,” he continued.
Big Syd started making “real” music as part of the duo “Temu” alongside another American, Temu Bascot. The duo’s blend of hip hop and funk became quite popular in dance and techno crazy Europe and they recorded two albums together, Thelonius the Gemine (2008) and Rise of the Necrodancer (2015).
Although popular in the Scandinavian Europe, the duo only began to develop a more international appeal after they began working with established dance and techno producer, DJ Alligator in 2010.
“After a few years of messing around, I gradually became part of a duo called Temu which was me and an American called Temu Bascot. We came out with a hip hop/funk sound that appealed to the techno and dance music crazy European market. But we really started doing big things when we began working with DJ Alligator who is huge in Europe and has been in the game since 1999,” Big Syd told Sunday Life.
“We met Alligator at the 2010 club awards in Denmark and he liked what we were doing and began working with us,” he continued.
The duo disbanded in 2015 after the second album was released when Temu moved back to the States allowing Big Syd to go solo and start working with DJ Alligator full time. Since then Big Syd has been developing his own distinctive sound and has since performed for sold out crowds in Canada, Turkey, Australia, the US and most of Scandinavian Europe.
But the road hasn’t been easy for Big Syd. Hip-hop is not very popular in his neck of the woods and he struggled to get signed by any record labels.
“Nobody wanted to sign a local English hip-hop group. In fact, there are only two English hip hop artists that have ever been signed locally so in the beginning it was very frustrating and difficult. I had to keep playing rugby to ensure that I had an income,” Big Syd revealed.
“Fortunately after we met Alligator the doors began top open because he understood what we were trying to do and we felt him too. In the end we began to fuse our ideas together and created a hip hop/funk sound.” The Bulawayo-born rapper is currently in the studio recording his first solo album which is as yet untitled.
“It’s early days yet and I don’t have a title for it but I have recorded four tracks already for my debut solo album. It’s being produced by Alligator and J Spliff. The album is a crazy, but delicate fusion of hip-hop, dubstep and EDM. It’s going to be a killer when it drops hopefully before the end of the year,” said Big Syd.
Big Syd is working with local hip hop artistes, POY to set up a studio in Bulawayo and enable local artistes to record international quality music. He said his intention was to have local artistes signed with his studio to collaborate with international producers like DJ Alligator.
He is also planning to come home during the year to hold workshops aimed at underprivileged children. The project will also involve some of his friends from Europe and the US who will travel with him to Zimbabwe. -@AllanFoti
