Reggae band wants to take over the world

INSPIRED by the likes of Bob Marley, Roots Radics, Twinkle Brothers, Third World, Misty in Roots, Marcia Griffiths and Rita Marley, to mention just a few, Zionruts Family has managed to create their own sound of reggae music.

Zionruts Family is a reggae band that was founded by its two lead singers, Solomon “Rutsman Spice” Tokwe (37) and Thenjiwe “Ziondawta” Khumalo (41) in 2014.

They both reside in Kempon Park West.

“The name of the band was created by combining the first four letters of both our stage names,” explained Tokwe.

The two, he said, were introduced to each other by a mutual band.”At the time Ziondawta had a jazz band and was working on her first album. I had just come off a North African tour,” he added.

“We tried to combine jazz and reggae and eventually settled for reggae following persistence from our fans.”

The band consists of five members.

“We have Oliver the bassist who used to jam for Oliver Mtukudzi back in the day, Kenny the guitarist who jammed with Transit Crew, a band formed by Misty in Roots’ drummer, Munya Brown, which also used to be my band back in the day. Then we have Ras Talkmore the drummer who used to jam with Reggae Revealers from Zim.”

The two describe their sound as international reggae and want to break into the international market.

“We write music that uplifts, motivates and encourages people to stay strong because the Master, God is there no matter what you are going through,” said Tokwe.

Their debut album is titled Kip On Surviving, and is a 15-track album.

The single goes by the same name.

The album was produced by various producers from Spain, Jamaica and Africa and will be released on May 27 in Bryanston.

Tokwe is originally from Zimbabwe, while Khumalo is South African.

Zionruts infuses elements from both their backgrounds.

Their advice to young musicians is to be very careful who they sign to manage them.

“I have been in the industry since 1999 and I’ve grown wiser since then. We do our own marketing after being burnt a few times,” Tokwe pointed out.

Both singers are married and have respective families.

Khumalo is a mother of three and juggles motherhood, a full-time job, her music career and being a wife.

Tokwe has an 11-year old son and is a full-time musician, husband and father.

Today Zionruts has shared a stage with Sizzla at a Reggae Spring Festival, and they have also recorded a Xenophobia Song with Sizzla and eight other yet-to-be-released tracks with South African artists .

“Our music is all about elevating people in a dimension where there is peace, love and unity in harmony. We hope to distribute our message in music to all corners of the world to give people who are giving up on life hope as life is all we have.”

You can find Zionruts music on Youtube, Soundcloud, Reverbnation and Hocty.com.

They are also on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.