Oskido

Oscar Bonginkosi Mdlongwa, popularly known by his stage name– Oskido, is a Zimbabwean recording artist, DJ, record producer and businessman. He is one of the pioneering artists to popularise the Kwaito genre of music outside the townships of South Africa thus making him to be regarded as a premier in the South African music industry. He is also the co-founder of Kalawa Jazmee Records (formerly Kalawa Records), a record label which houses musical acts like Mafikizolo and Uhuru.

Born to a Zimbabwean father, Esaph Mdlongwa, who was a politician and a South African mother, Emily Sophia Molefi, on 23 November 1967 in Letlhabile Township, Brits, North West, South Africa, Oskido spent most of his early life in Luveve Township, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe where he went on to finish his basic education after graduating from Gifford High School, Bulawayo. He returned to Brits at the age of 21 in 1988 to run a family spaza shop before he left for Johannesburg to pursue a career in music.

Career

Oskido's career came into limelight after he volunteered to perform at a night club where he used to sell boerewors (sausage) after a scheduled DJ failed to show up. After reworking some songs and formulating his own kind of sound into cassettes, he went on to release compilations like Mixmaster and Big Jam thus making him popular outside Johannesburg before he was introduced to Bruce "Dope" Sebitlo, a South African musical act who went on patner Oskido to form the Brothers of Peace band.

Under the Brothers of Peace band, Oskido released and produced eight albums between 1994 and 2004 before he went on to partner with Don Laka and Christos Katsaitis to found Kalawa Records.

Kalawa Jazmee

Kalawa Jazmee (sometimes "KJ Records") was formed as Kalawa in 1992 by Christos Katsaitis (departed in 1995), Don Laka and DJ Oskido and took its name from the first two letters of their respective surnames (Oskido often used "Warona" at the time). Boom Shaka (Lebo Mathosa †, Theo Nhlengethwa, Junior Sokhela and Thembi Seete) were the new label's first signing, with debut album "It's About Time" released in 1993. Joining with Trompie's label Jazmee in 1995 it then became known as Kalawa-Jazmee Records, later dropping the hyphen completely.

The company is currently run by Oscar Mdlongwa, Bruce Sebitlo, Zayne 'Mahoota' Sibiya, Mandla 'Spikiri' Mofokeng, and Emmanuel 'Mjokes' Matsane, with one Gao Mokone assuming the task of Label Manager.

Kwaito revolution

Kwaito is a music genre that was originally created in South Africa during the 1990s. It has been described as the music that defines the generation who came of age after apartheid. Oskido and some other artists were among the first artists to produce Kwaito songs by adding vocals to the slow Tempo house beats that went on to become popular in South Africa and beyond. His contribution to the development of music in South Africa earned him a Special Recognition Award at the 2012 Channel O Music Video Awards.

Oskido was nominated for Outstanding Arts Personality award from Outside of Bulawayo alongside Jah Prayzah and Winky D at the Roil Bulawayo Arts Award. He turned down the nomination citing that he did not qualify as he is not from Zimbabwe. This is despite his Zimbabwean heritage having been born to a Zimbabwean father and growing up in Luveve, Bulawayo. Even his surname Mdlongwa can only be traced to Matabeleland,Zimbabwe.

Compilations

This list of songs or music-related items is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• Star taxi music
• Oscar Warona: The New Testament