One of the late rapper Riky Rick’s aims with the festival Cotton Fest was to give the youth a platform to showcase their talents, and open doors for them.
Cape artist, Ziggy, is one of the rising stars in hip-hop music who were given an opportunity at this year's festival to showcase their talents.
Ziggy, who hails from Manenberg, has been making waves since last October on TikTok with his video of him rapping to drill beats in Afrikaans. His videos are of high quality and they demand one pay attention, it’s no surprise some have achieved 1.6 million views.
Music producer and recording artist Sebastian Jameson, popularly known as Shishiliza and his DJ duo partner Venom Nkosi, brought out Ziggy and hip hop crew, the Qwellers, during their set at Cotton Fest Joburg.
When Ziggy first rapped over a drill beat it was just for vibes while hanging out with his friends. Who knew it was going to blow up into a full-on career but it did.
Drill is a sub-genre of hip-hop music that originated in Chicago in the early 2010s. Drill rap is known to have a darker theme and emphasis on the realities of street life.
After recording a track and getting positive reviews from his circle, he decided to shoot a music video and had a screening for it, and then people began tagging and reporting on Instagram. Things started to blow up after Ziggy posted the video on TikTok.
“TikTok is a better platform to promote music or any craft, I reposted the video on Tik Tok and two days later it just went crazy. Numbers were showing like 50,000 plays, I was getting followers.
“The reception has been so positive, I feel like I’m taking this music thing to the next level, which I already did but I feel like I need to take this Afrikaans thing out of Cape Town and even out to Europe.”
With no money behind Ziggy’s release, he relied on the power of social media which has proven to be gold for him as he has gone viral for his success.
“Everything was organic, what people loved, it wasn't forced on them to listen, they went out of their way to listen, I just appreciate that more than anything else.”
People outside of South Africa’s borders are noticing the young talent, he has had Dutch, and French artists who do drill. “They love the sound and the authenticity of it.”
@ziggy4x_ #sa #southafrica #fypdong #SAMA28 #fyp #drillmusic #ukdrill #capetown #jozi #southafricatiktok🇿🇦 ♬ HONNE - Ohdatsziggy4x
While Ziggy may not like to plan his future, he appears to be on the right track to making a name for himself, aligning himself with the right team and now performing on top stages.
“For me as an Afrikaans artist, I never thought Afrikaans music would be as big as it is. We created a whole new wave, guys were doing it before me. Shout out to them but the way we did it, we certified that it couldn't be denied. With the right team around it was a success.”
“Whatever is meant for me, God will put it out for me. We’ve worked with three big mainstream artists and are getting ready to drop and I appreciate them reaching out to me.”
IOL Entertainment