Sho Madjozi On How Rapping In Tsonga Put Her In Great Advantages

Sho Madjozi On How Rapping In Tsonga Put Her In Great Advantages. Maya Wegerif famously known as Sho Madjozi who has made a great name for herself through exposure of funky Tsonga rap and colourful traditional wear has explained how embracing her culture has put her in great advantage.

Drum Magazine had a talk with the star and took fans through a little more details about her. Her first move into venturing into music was two years ago where she approached rapper Okmalumkoolkat and asked if she could write for him. She sent him some material and he loved what he saw so much he featured her on his Gqi track, which gained popularity last year.

This gave her enough confidence to start working on her own music and even go so far as rap only in Tsonga. “I was told it would never work but I did it anyway,” she says. And now it has become her signature.

Sho Madjozi is also a skilled linguist and can switch between isiZulu, Tsonga, Sepedi and English with ease. She also speaks French and Swahili, which she learnt when she was staying in Tanzania with her dad, Marc Wegerif (49), who’s now a post-doctoral fellow at the Human Economy Programme at the University of Pretoria.

She didn’t find hip-hop, Sho Madjozi says, it found her. “It was never my dream so maybe it was just meant to be.” The creative and smooth delivery of her Tsonga lyrics has made this pioneer so popular that old and young have embraced her in a way she never expected.

“When I go back to visit my mother in Shirley Village [in Limpopo] people are so excited to see me. They hug me and others cry and thank me for making them appreciate that they’re Tsonga,” she says.

Her desire to break boundaries has led to make a song in Swahili which fans are receiving quite well. she wasn’t sure if people were ready to hear a Swahili rap song. But, she reasons, she was told people weren’t ready for Tsonga rap either and just look what’s happened there.

“It makes me feel like I’m not alone and I come from a long line of women who didn’t fail,” she says.

Now that she’s embraced her new creative path she has jobs falling into her lap. Besides wowing audiences with her rap, she also plays feisty university student and activist Tsakane Mboweni on Mzansi Magic’s Isithembiso. She landed the job after TV producer Kutlwano Ditsele saw her blowing up on social media and asked her to audition for the role. She’s also the host of Nhlalala Ya Rixaka on SABC2 and as if that’s not enough, she’s currently selling T-shirts with her face on them and is thinking about revisiting her bag-making project.

Sho Madjozi also features in a short Ghanaian film, Africa is on Fire, about a post-apocalyptic Africa with five superheroes – and the rain queen is played by this talented Tsonga star.

She’s just released her new single, Huku, in Swahili.