His wild and fiery hairstyle says it all. Skinny Gibbz is not here to live by the rules. This music rebel is blazing his own trail. He knew early on in his life that music was his true calling. At just 12, Skinny Gibbz was already spitting rhymes and flowing with finesse and great skill. By the time he was 16 he was a fully fledged rapper who started recording music in a makeshift studio using the virtual DJ facility where they looped parts of songs and used the Singstar microphone to record vocals.
The music was shared with his friends. He then met Blaze Deville who would be his producer and they recorded more music together and took it to the internet. The music bug had bitten so hard that Skinny Gibbz dropped out of Grade 11, but his mother was not so impressed. She gave him the ultimatum of getting a job or going back to school. Skinny opted to go to a Further Education and Training (FET) college to study financial economics and accounting.
That too didn’t last because at the end of second year he dropped out yet again and got a graphic
designer job. The music career meanwhile was fledgling in the back burner. Soon he was getting booked around Rustenburg as word got out about the hot young rapper in the ’hood, thanks largely
to social media especially Facebook where he dropped songs and captured some interest.
In no time he was signed to Gemshack Productions which has now released his debut single Uyajola, which partly samples Arthur Mafokate’s kwaito hit Oi Oi. Skinny Gibbz says in the song he shows his appreciation for girls. “It’s a fun summer track. My approach has been to take old school kwaito
and fuse it with hip hop to bring that flavour into today’s market,” he says. The infectious beat is
produced by Eazy while Skinny Gibbz wrote the rap.
Uyajola has a catchy chorus and a sing-along refrain of tshesane uyajola (skinny uyajola) and it’s headed straight to becoming a dance floor scorchers. No doubt party lovers will fall in love with this captivating entertainer and performer. He sings mostly in Setswana and points out that while his peers may chase to be top of the charts, he goes for the heart strings. “I try to trigger a
memory or some sort of emotion, happy or sad with my songs.”
Born Itumeleng Kamanyane 22 years ago in Vryburg, he grew up in Rustenburg and believes that he has been through a lot personally as well as professionally for him to dispense some valued advice in his music. “A lot of sacrifices were made along the way for me to get here. But now I’m at a great place doing what I love. It’s not everyday you meet someone who gave up everything and followed his dream and it worked out,” he says. Now Skinny Gibbz wants to use his music to inspire his mainly teenybopper audience. He also appeals to varsity students. He wishes to make a real impact in the industry and the world. “My end goal is to build an arts school for those coming behind us in Rustenburg,” he says.
But for now he is consolidating and building on his gains in the industry as he releases singles to
build up to an album that will not yield a one hit wonder, but will be laden with thumping hits.
Uyajola is released on April 1 and also be on the look out for the video due out soon.