The Sunday News
BABONGILE Sikhonjwa has had us in stiches countless times, with our ribs practically cracking from his jokes. But who would have thought that the multi–talented artiste also had a musical side to him?
Well, long before he rode on the “whacky horse”, Sikhonjwa was known as one of Bulawayo’s promising talented players in the music industry.
And perhaps releasing a track overnight should come as no surprise.
He recently recorded a hilarious but rather catchy track, which explores one of the country’s current “problems” — vendors!
The track titled khonapho khonapho, is ironically also sitting on Star FM’s top 20 charts and has been getting ludicrous requests from listeners.
He spoke about the track saying it started off as a joke.
“Basically when this thing started it was with one guy selling tooth remedies waltzing around town with a megaphone screaming dollar dollar for whatever concoction he had in his bag. However, he has been overtaken by cunning vendors in the city,” he said.
Sikhonjwa said the track was definitely inspired by the catchy but “noisy” street vendors.
“I was the MC at the Casper Nyovest show and I decided to do a little track of my own and I sang the song and the crowd went wild. I even sang it at my birthday party and the guests responded in glee. We even came up with a dance for it. When my boy Waxy came back we decided to go to the studio, came up with a beat and I dropped the lyrics. We recorded and mastered the track on a Monday and released it on a Thursday and surprisingly it’s already on the top 20 on Star FM. People need to vote for it,” said Sikhonjwa.
He said people, from Bulawayo in particular, could relate to the track as the streets are inundated with megaphone vendors, selling various items — khonapho khonapho.
“People can relate to the track, we see this everyday and what I am basically trying to do here is turn annoyance into entertainment,” he said.
Sikhonjwa added that he was working on a project that would feature prominent artistes such as Albert Nyathi, POY, Conquerors and Calvin.
“There are a couple of remixes on the album and I hope to work with the legendary Tuku so that he features on one of the albums,” he said.
Sikhonjwa said he was also working on a video for the track, as he had already choreographed a dance for the song.
In the khonapho khonapho track he talks of how Bulawayo and perhaps Zimbabwe is faced with a serious crisis with the escalating number of vendors within the Central Business District.
“Every corner khonapho khonapho . . . lase City Hall khonapho khonapho . . . kulomuthi obulala amawuwu lamagundwane khonapho khonapho,” are fragments of the lyrics on the track, which has gone viral not only on radio but on social media.
