One of the hottest hip hop exports from South Africa, ShabZi Madallion has just released his music video to his new single – Where Ya Homies At?Filmed on location around Johannesburg and Pretoria, the street-smart video showcases the messaging from the radio-playlisted single: a showcase of friends hanging out with friends. The video is directed by Nicki Walker and comes off the back of a successful release to radio and streaming of the single.
“We filmed the video over a period of a few weeks and the idea was to literally show real homies hanging with their homies, it’s very provocative in that it makes one think about ‘who are my real homies that’ll ride for me?’. We filmed in suburbs including Newtown, NorthCliff, Kempton Park, Mooikloof and I’m excited to see the response from my fans.”
The video releases to YouTube, Streaming and TV on Fri 21 March 2019.
Other songs that fans may be familiar with thanks to ShabZi’s earlier releases this passed year include Get It and It’s My House (off the EP – For The People), Dear Mo (from the joint EP with Nicki Walker called Soul’d Out) and Working Together (off the EP release, Matters Of The Past). His musical influences include, amongst others, Tupac.
“Tupac is poetic, relatable and sometimes introspective. These are abilities I possess myself and I realised that when his music started to resonate with me. Others I admire include DMX for his unique voice, Busta Rhymes for the crazy alter ego he has and Kendrick Lamar for his dedication to evolve in his art,” he states. “I’ve been writing rhymes for 18 years,” he says. “It started out as introspective poetry as I had no beats for what I wrote. I later got introduced to Tupac by my mother and then I realised I wanted to my put my lyrics to music. My love for music really started in 8th grade and I became curious about hearing myself on a beat. My mom bought me a secondhand computer with the e-jay beat-making software where I could learn how to make the beats myself and as they say, the rest is history.”
ShabZi concludes: “The big dream is to be one of the great music exports in Africa, hosting my own shows in the cities where most of my fans reside, and performing at music festivals at home, the continent and the rest of the world. I believe that dreams evolve as you keep achieving the ones you’ve conquered. In my mind, right now, I’m just really focused on getting my career to a point where I’m making a decent living and positively changing people’s lives as I grow. The next goals will come as I keep achieving them…”
ShabZi’s music is available on most digital platforms; including iTunes and Google Play (“people should also check my SoundCloud for the freestyles and more that you won’t find anywhere else”).
For more of ShabZi, join the conversation with him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (@ShabZiMadallion).