HE ventured into music more than a decade ago.
When he got his first award in 2021, he thought his music career was blossoming.
But it was the beginning of poverty and hardships that he was forced to go to the taxi rank in the Durban CBD and start hustling by selling skopo, just to put food on the table.
Ggom star Zinaro, whose real name is Nduduzo Ngema (34), said that was when he learnt that the music industry is not rosey and glamorous.
He said after winning the South African Music Awards (Sama) in 2021, under the Best Gqom Album category for his album titled Inzalo Yekwaito, he thought his music career was going to highly blossoming.
But to his surprise, that wasn't the case.
Gigs didn't come in, and he struggled financially.
"Everything just went south. Firstly, I was bullied on social media, with music fans asking who I was after winning the Sama award. Yet, I beat Babes Wodumo, Que and DragerNation in the category that I was nominated for. As if that was not enough, I also went broke. I'm not the begging type, so I had to find a way of surviving instead of asking for handouts.
"I took just a little break from music, swallowed my pride and went hustling at a taxi rank. That happened a few months after winning the ward. And it was my first award since I started music," said Zinaro.
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The singer from Melmoth in KZN said his skopo business did well and that he managed to save some money to record an EP.
"Other artists supported me by buying inhloko. They didn't gossip or laugh at me. They also encouraged me to work hard so that I'll be able to continue making music. It was hard, but it was worth it. Today, I have an EP which I recently released.
"I stopped selling inhloko late in 2023 after I had saved enough money. But I support people who are running this kind of business. I visit them at their hustling place, and I even made friends at the taxi rank who are now my fans," said Zinaro.
He said his EP has five songs featuring various artists, including Joocy, DustN, DJ LuSoul, Thando Nyameni, Zenzele, Soxman, as well as Africa The Voice.
Zinaro said he went to the taxi rank to shoot a video for the song Mula (from the EP), to show how much he respects the street hustlers.
He said in his spare time, he volunteers at the Blossom Beauty Princess, a non-profit profit organisation that helps orphans with school supplies.
Zinaro said his EP is out on digital platforms.
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