Artist profile of Xolisa ‘’Duda a.k.a Versick’’ Duda

Childhood
Xolisa Duda, Born 28 January 1989. I know not much about my childhood years, but all I know is that I was raised by a single parent ‘’Agnes Xoliswa Duda’’ and it’s been only her since my crawling stages. I was born I Eastern Cape in a place called ‘’Emetele’’ Middle Burg Cape. At the age of two, my mother brought me to Cape Town and I have been here since then. I am Xhosa, even though I can’t really speak my own language. The reason for this is that I grew up in a hood where there lived ‘’colourds’ mostly. We only spoke Afrikaans at home, with my friends and I even went to a colourd schools. This is the reason why most people think I am colourd and are shocked when hearing me speak isiXhosa. My name ‘’Xolisa’’ was hard to be pronounced by most people and so they ended up calling me on my surname ‘’Duda’’. I got used to it and even used my surname as a name at school and so people believed that my name is ‘’Duda’’ and my surname ‘’Xolisa’’.

My family
The only family that I have is my son ’’Rushaan Duda’’, mother ‘’Agnes Duda, younger brother ‘’Johannes Mukuma and younger sister ‘’Cecilia Mukuma’’. Me and my brother and sister all have different daddies. I guess my mom went through a lot of disappointments, but the fact still remains: she did a great job raising us, because I mean ‘’LOOK AT ME NOW’’.

School years
Grade one and two, I went to a black school ‘’Mfuleni Primary School’’, because I lived in Mfuleni for two years. Grade three till four and a half, I went to a colourd school ‘’Irista Primêr Skool’’, because we moved to Kalkfontein. Grade four and a half till seven, I went to another colourd school ‘’Blackheath Primêre Skool’’, because we had to move to Happy Valley. We were always on the move since my mother got married to my younger broher’s father. They always used to fight until they got separated. School was a passion for me. I always loved to go to school especially when it was exam time because I always knew my work. In grade seven I wrote a test and I got a bursary to pay all my school fees and stationary for all my high school years. I completed my high school years at ‘’Blackheath Hoër Skool’’. All my teachers liked me, because I was always a good boy. Was a prefect in primary as well as in high school. Not that I am bragging, but I have to tell you this, because it is part of my biography.

After school
I was supposed to go and study after completing high school, because I passed well off with a merit. I did not go because I was not ready for that. In high school, I used to attend Saturday classes at PENTECH and UIVERSITY OF STELLENBOSCH. I never liked it, not because of the work that we were doing, but because I felt out. All the students had everything they wanted, like clothes, lunch, money, cars, etc. I always had the same jeans on with the same broken tekkie and the same t-shirt. If it wasn’t for the school fees that my bursary was paying, I would have dropped out long time ago. So this is the reason I never went to study further. I ended up working as a sales man, doing door to door sales for a company called West Coast Imports. I guess that’s when my shyness went away. After that I worked at Direct Axis as a call centre agent and that’s where I got my telephonic skills and typing skills. I had to leave Direct Axis because it cost me a lot to go to work and it was too far ‘’Diep River’’ and then I did some field work doing research for a survey company called ‘’Ask Afrika’’. The problem with them was that I had no transport and had to walk for more than five kilometers per day in the Cape Town weather. I went into the IT industry working as shop assistant at an internet café called ‘’Bluedowns Computers’’ and became branch manager within that year. I used Youtube as my tutor. I watched all the tutorials on how to fix pc’s, etc and so became one of the best IT technicians in Blackheath. I worked for six months without paye, but I really enjoyed each moment, because I gained a lot of knowledge in the technology industry. After the shop closed down, due to owner not having enough business knowledge and money management skills, me and a friend decided to go in partnership in opening our own internet café. We got a shop in Austinville at Austinville Supermarket We started out small, but grew bit by bit. The problem was that we did not make enough money to pay for our rent, stock, transport and also to pay us both. I decided to leave the shop to him and focus on my music career.

Music career
Music has been I me since I can remember. Since primary school, rapping ‘’Pietie Pankop’’ to rapping lyrics of my favorite artists ‘’Tupac and Eminem’’, I grew in, especially Hip Hop to writing my own lyrics for my own songs. I used to dub hip hop songs from the radio over my uncle’s Lucky Dube cassettes and he got really pissed off at me and banned me from ever using his HI-FI system. That did not stop me, because my love for hip hop constantly grew and since I had no back tracks and stuff like that, I decided to go into poetry. I still have my flip file with all my poems. In high school I got some beats from an old rapper after impressing him with one of my rhymes. I used to play the CD on the DVD player and borrow my friend’s little MP3 player, then I would record myself while spitting on the beat. The quality was not so nice, but what kept me going was that my friends loved my songs. I became a known rapper in my school and hood. In 2009, I built up a computer for myself and then I went to some recording artists in Eersteriver and bought ‘’SONY ACID PRO 4’’ a recording software for R60.00. I hooked up with some friends (Cyril a.k.a Skwat, Tyron a.k.a Virus or Bone and Morne a.k.a Scar) in my hood and started my own crew and we called ourselves ‘’The Valley Dogs’’. We wrote and recorded Afrikaans rap music on back tracks that I used to make out of a songs intro or outro beat (only the part where there were no lyrics and I used to loop that), but was still not good quality because we did not have the necessary equipment like mics, etc. In 2010 two more members (Ashley a.k.a J Man and Tshepo a.k.a Yung Ceasor) joined the crew and we decided to change our name to ‘’H.L.Y’’ meaning hard living youngsters. We recorded a couple of tight tracks, because that’s when we realized not to only stick to Afrikaans rap. Our dream was to one day rap overseas. Mid 2011, H.L.Y broke up, because of personal issues. Me and Tyron sticked together and started a new crew called ‘’Candle Light’’ and that’s where I got the name ‘’Versick’’. We recorded our first mix tape ‘’APPRECIATION’’ in only two weeks time consisting out of 10 tracks, where we featured Skwat on two of the tracks. I designed our own cover and most people were impressed. Me and Tyron pushed our music and performed at various clubs, trying to get us ‘’out there’’. The aim was to print copies of the CD and sell it wherever we performing. The only problem is that we did not have enough funds to print the cover, because we both had no job. Later we also got Scar back on board.

I had to move to Sarepta Kalkfontein and had to leave the guys behind. : ( so now I am a couple of miles away from them and we don't meet that much, but when we do we still work on some music.

I will keep you updated with my profile.

Marcus Aurel Pululu(Yung Marcus) was born on 26 December 1991 in Zaire in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Marcus moved to Cape Town,South Africa at the age of 4. Marcus speaks fluent Xhosa, English, Afrikaans and French. At the age of 13 Marcus ran away from home and stayed on the streets of Seapoint for three weeks. He was picked up from the street and was placed in a children’s home between Melkbos and Atlantis for 6 years where he attended school in Atlantis.

Marcus says “since 9 years old I have been writing poems to state what I feel and this poem’s was later turned into music. I love music in all forms but my favorite genre music will be jazz, rnb, and hip hop. Although I did live on the streets I never used drugs because I had a high self-esteem and a strong spirit. My family, good friends and my God is what keeps me going in life and my moto to all out there is to believe it and you can achieve it.”

Marcus is currently studying music at cape music institute in Kensington and according to him the college is on fire for music.

"the key to your success is your attitude towards life"
If you Love what you do then people will love who you are.


CHECK MY TEASER OF UPCOMING BEATTAPE 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtZ7Ve-3Dds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2pgN2uAO4Q

1BEAT

for more info: chathebeatcreatah@gmail.com

we are as hungry as it gets when it comes to making music

musician + sound designer based in Seattle WA + Buenos Aires AR

Pilley Bianchi, founder & producer of Bianchi Musica is an award winning pianist, singer & composer who loves music and fashion.  Soloist at 16 with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, she graduated from The Eastman School of Music with a degree in piano performance, and received her M.M. from the University of Miami in studio production.  She was a first prize winner of the Mozart Competition and  has appeared as a keyboardist/featured talent on MTV, VHI-1, BET, Oxygen, and HBO. Signed to an artist contract with Beyond Records/BMG, and VP of Mamapublooza Publishing, she is currently an industry judge for the 2011 Independent Music Awards.

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