[WATCH] The hip-hop scene bows as J SIX takes the stage

Hip-hop in the townships is taking off at a far greater speed than you might have realised, with more and more fans and artists flocking to the scene.

One name that’s rocketing out among the many others is Bandile Zondi, who goes by the stage name J SIX when he’s out performing.

Listening only to Kwaito as a kid, he found the sounds of hip-hop very strange when his brothers first introduced it to him.

But by the time he reached the age of 13 everything had changed, he said.

At this point he realised he had fallen in love with the genre and especially with writing. But, back then his music was, as he put it, “Whack!”

It took many years before hip-hop became a thing, and today it seems like it’s thriving among the township youth.

It was only in high school that he met a lot more rappers and realised that people were actually getting into the genre. This is when he was introduced to street rap battles and ‘ciphers’.

At the age of 15, Bandile was noticed by a local producer in Kagiso, and was asked to record a few tracks at a studio. Since then he’s been recording, making music, ‘dropping mix tapes,’ battling rappers on the West Rand and going from performing in front of ten people to standing onstage at stadiums and community centres.

The real question is, ‘What was it about music that Bandile couldn’t drag himself away from?’

Although he has recorded a lot of music, he hasn’t released much over the years. This year, his big plan is to release many more songs.

Right now, he and his production team are doing well, going out to a lot of shows and performing with many big-name artists.

Bandile wants to inspire the youth to take their music dreams seriously. He remembers back to when he was just 13, and said that everyone at that age should give it their all, go to every singing class and rap battle they can find and start making an impression immediately.