Langalakhe Mabena
It’s a very rare opportunity to sit down with Oscar “Oskido” Mdlongwa for a good two hours and forty minutes.
His business and music production schedule don’t allow that.
However, to hear him narrating his tale was worth waiting for and it’s one of the epic interviews that has attracted over a quarter of a million views in three days in the history of Podcast and Chill with Mac G as Oskido bared his soul.
“The mainstream media is hurt right now because for the first time in his life, Oskido has given ‘juice’ to Mac G,” commented one follower Ndabenhle Hadebe.
Episode 316 of the podcast is more like a documentary on South African music and popular culture narrated through the life of Oskido.
Published on 13 January, Oskido discussed on the revolution of kwaito music, establishing Kalawa and later collaborating with Jazmee (to form Kalawa Jazmee), his relationship with DJ Zinhle, DJ Tira and Maphorisa, to mention a few.
Oskido revealed that he had a rough path before becoming a household name he is today.
He used to sale russian sausages and tapes along Small Street, a place in Jozi which is in the early stages of gentrification and not safe unless one is accompanied by someone who knows the area.
This is the first time that his fruitful relationship with Kaizer Chiefs legend Doctor Khumalo was born.
“I used to make a living through different means including selling tapes at Small Street. I used to have a great collection of music, but there was also a kid who was good like me back in Soweto and that was DJ Ganyani.
“One day while doing my business on Small Street, a Gusheshe (BMW) packed in front of my stall and inside was the legend Doctor Khumalo. He was huge back then because in 1994 there was Nelson Mandela and then there was Doctor.
“He approached and said he was told that I have the greatest mixtapes in town and I offered him the best, since then he became my best customer and I became famous because of that,” said Oskido on Podcast and Chill, which was hosted at his Daruma By Oskido restaurant.
In the early 90s, disco music was the “in” thing, and it was the likes of Oskido and Arthur Mafokate, who owns 999, who pushed so hard to come up with kwaito and popularised it.
However, just like hip-hop, the Kwaito sector in Jozi was polarised and violence was the order of the day.
“Black kids from eKasi had an identity crisis and in order to solve that, we had to come up with our own genre that will tell kasi stories as they are, the lifestyle, culture and even violence.
“I remember Hillbrow and Yeoville was almost like the East Coast and West Coast. Kalawa and 999 were on top of the game and I remember we used to have some fights.
“Arthur called himself the King of Kwaito and we didn’t like that. We had Lebo Mathosa from Boom Shaka and they had Queen, so we felt like we were being copied and this caused so many fights.
“The late Makhendlas (Arthur’s brother) was the one who always wanted a fight and he was not scared of anyone, he was gangster like that.
However, my feud with Arthur was cracked by our daughters who became friends and we started easing our beef,” said Oskido.
Kalawa Jazmee has survived for twenty-six years because of one rule: to sign something rare that has never been signed on the stable.
“We have survived this long because we don’t recircle artistes or craft.
We had numerous groups and they are all different. Boom Shaka had more of a disco feel.
Bongo Maffin was created in the age of kwaito and they sticked to the genre so well.
“Then there is Mafikizolo who mainly started on a kwaito slate, but they fused pop in their craft and this shaped the popular culture in the 2000s with their RnBeish songs like Ngihamba Nawe, Emlanjeni and Masthokoze,” said Oskido.
From all the people he worked with, he cherishes the relationship he has with DJ Zinhle.
“I started knowing Zinhle back then when she was still working for an events company, so I can say she was some sort of like a promoter.
“After years of knowing her, she approached me and said she wants to resign from her profligate job and become a DJ and this it was a hard decision to make, I mean she was earning almost R20 000 a month and driving a company car yet she wanted to be a “female” DJ for that matter.
“However, I guided and told her to follow her dream.
One day I took her to the studio and DJ Maphorisa and Clap were in the studio and they had this beat (which became Zinhle’s signature song My Name Is), I called Busiswa too, and the rest is history,” said Oskido.
Oskido is always open to learn new things from younger artistes.
“Zinhle is the one who opened my Twitter account, remember she has a strong background in public relations so she also came up with the name of the restaurant Daruma By Oskido.
“Music marketing is now different these days and I am not afraid of approaching DJ Maphorisa or Tira to learn a few things.
“He (Maphorisa) always tells me to shoot videos and go live on social media while in studio like what he does with Kabza because fans now want something organic,” said Oskido.
He also opened up about his relationship with Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) founder and President Julius Malema and how he got arrested alongside Boom Shaka after peeing at the airport.
