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During the mid nineties Kwaito
(local version of house music) was on its way to absolute popularity
and domination in South Africa whilst Hip Hop was conquering the world
elsewhere. Achisa's release of local Hip Hop was an attempt to voice
their problems of mostly shattered homes, death and violence around
them. Achisa consisted of Thabo Matheatzie, Thembile Bam, Monde Nyamakazi, Lunga Mbethe, Suvuyo Kemele, and Sipho Mamomsi:
six young men who grew up together at the Khayamnandi Baptist Home for
Boys in the South African township of Langa, where they lived with
other boys from mixed backgrounds.
Albums:
- Achisa
- Bill of Rights
"We used to sing in the church. It
was only Thabo, Monde, Thembile and Suvuyo at first. In 1995, we met
Simpiwe Matole of Amampondo (the group famous for Marimba, singing and
dancing from South Africa and well known all over the world). The
connection was Suvuyo, 'cause he was playing in the brass band led by
Simpiwe. That year was the beginning and we sang at the Ikapa Festival:
the community clash made a noise like the elephants!" "We were singing
R&B at that time, Boyz-2-Men style, and Thabo was in charge of the
song writing. As time went on, Simpiwe used to go with us whenever we
had a gig with his brass band. As the year was about to end, Simpiwe
told us about the powerful man from overseas who maybe wanted to record
us. So we called up these two guys, Sipho and Lunga, and we made six."
The group recorded two albums, the first ACHISA in 1995 was produced by
Sheldon Isaacs and helped by Orb collaborators Kris Weston and Greg
Hunter. In the summer of '97 Achisa worked with producers of the group
Eyedentity from Los Angles - Krishna Booker (alias Chill Factor) and
Diana Booker (alias dB) on the album "Bill of Rights". The band
dissolved in 1999 when over a period of one year two members were shot
dead and became victim of what they so vividly tried to oppose in their
campaign track "Say No To Guns" |
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