The new face of Kwaito

By Rosalia David

ARMED with the most hardcore Kwaito punchlines and lyrics, Landinus Vaino better known as Manxebe is slowly becoming a household name in the music industry as he continues to elevate Namibia’s most sought after genre locally and internationally.

In an interview with Confidente after performing in South Africa recently, Manxebe shared his experience on an international stage while touching base on his latest offering titled ‘The Rebirth of Kwaito.’

“It was a great experience being able to perform on an international stage alongside musicians such as Emtee although performing in Namibia is far much better,” he said.

Asked on what inspired the name of his latest 20-track album, he said, a few Kwaito artists who made the genre quite popular in Namibia are getting older and ready to exit the industry and he believes that he can bring a new element to what already exists.

“Most people who started doing Kwaito in Namibia and those that I have always looked up to are now starting to divert their music following the new sound, so my plan is to bring back the Kwaito we once fell in love with,” Manxebe said.

The 21-year-old artist was introduced to Namibia when he took the music industry by storm after releasing a single titled ‘Vuuma’ that went viral.

After releasing Vuuma, he featured Top Cheri on a song titled ‘Omapendafule’ which has 517 000 views so far on YouTube.

Early this year, the youngster also dropped a music video titled ‘AnoOlye’ which means ‘Who is it.

’

Now that he has released his first album, he said he has plans to drop another music video next week.

“I don’t want to give so many promises but I will be releasing a video but I want it to be a surprise.

I don’t want to reveal the title or the artist that I will be featuring,” he added.

Describing the reception for the album, he said, music lovers are impressed with his work while they can’t wait to see the music videos for the tracks on his project.

“Most comments I get are, ‘when is the video coming out’, so that is where my focus is currently”.