Artist: TKZee
TKZee is a South African group made up of Tokollo Tshabalala, Kabelo Mabalane, and Zwai Bala. They are Kwaito artistes. Their music also borrowed from R&B, rap, hip hop, etc. The group has disbanded now with Kabelo having a successful music career while Tokollo and Zwai are in the entertainment industry.
Their debut release was in 1996 called Take it easy. In 1997, TKZee released Palafala, which sampled Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi. They then released Shibobo before the World Cup in 1998 in collaboration with Bafana Bafana striker, Benni McCarthy. This song sampled the famous Final Countdown song and was a major hit, becoming the fastest and biggest selling CD single by any South African in history. Shibobo means to dribble or shoot the ball through someone's legs. The song became the anthem for the soccer mad South Africa which was participating in the World Cup for the first time. Coincidentally, Mzantsi's first World Cup goal was a 'shibobo' through the legs of Danish keeper, Peter Schmeichel by none other than Benni McCarthy.
One of their famous tracks, Masimbela, was a diss to Kwaito star, M'du. The word combines Mdu's surname, Masilela, and masimba, which means shit. It was a response to M'du track called Mashamplani which labelled Tokollo as a dog with no teeth, in reference to Tokollo leaving the Mashamplani group together with S'bu and Pro.
They followed this with album like Halloween, Guz 2001, Trinity, Guz hits, etc. Guz 2001 was done by the TKZee family, made up of Tokollo, Kabelo, Zwai and other musicians on their record label called TKZ Wrekords. These artistes included Gwyza, Loyiso, 2Shot and Dr. Mageu.
Tokollo is the son of soccer coach Screamer Tshabalala. Zwai became the first ever black member of the Music in Edinburgh, Scotland, trained in classical music. He was the first black member of the Drakensberg Boys' Choir. He also earned the highest grade eight voice exam results in the world and won a scholarship to do vocal studies, teaching and performance at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. His style mixed with the rapping skills of Tokollo and Kabelo, they forged a unique and fresh sound that they called Guz.
Zwai also did the musical score for Zak Dakile's movie Please Help, No Food No Money, and has been composing, producing and recording with the Fort Hare Choir. Tokollo had a solo album called Gushesa while Kabelo has released many hit albums including Bouga Luv, Pantsula for life and Exodus. Zwai also released a solo album called Lifted vol.1, a compilation of dance gospel songs.
They finally disbanded in 2001.
