Holding it down with Cass beats

A lifelong dream was turned into reality when Nathi Kate officially founded his very own record label in April last year.

Dubbed Cass Beats and set to release its very first tracks this January 30, the team behind the scenes has set the stage to give Newcastle a taste of its own talent.

The idea behind its inception is not an unfamiliar one; Newcastle’s aspiring artists are going out of town to make a name for themselves.

“I find that Newcastle has real talent, but there’s no structure here to keep them close to home. The idea behind Cass Beats is to give our youngsters a place right here to build up their names and create exposure for up and coming artists from Newcastle,” explained Nathi.

Determined to find Newcastle’s hidden talent, Nathi began recruiting and has put together a team of artists from every suburb of Newcastle, most fresh out of high school.

Regardless of their date and place of birth, most of the team share the same roots; they have started young.

“I started singing from around eight years old. I was first introduced to poetry in Grade 4. When I hit high school everybody was into rap, and ever since I’ve been rapping. I grew up in front of Nathi; we’re basically family,” said 19-year-old Mcbribe ‘Mac’ Mhlongo, an Arbor Park resident and one of Nathi’s first recruits.

Mthokozisi Ntshalintshali from oSizweni, added: “I was introduced to Cass Beats by Mac a few months ago. I used to just put pen to paper, and write down what I felt. I went through a lot of hardship growing up. My mother died when I was three months old. I learned to turn emotion into words. It has also been a dream of mine to motivate children on the street to never give up.”

Starting off from humble beginnings in Madadeni and now described as the ‘soul’ of Cass Beats’ music, Lindokuhle ‘West’ Zondo from Madadeni creates the beat behind every track. “I started on my grandmother’s laptop in my bedroom in the early 2000s when a friend of mine gave me some software to start making music from scratch,” related Lindokuhle, who is also 19 years old.

With a music scene that has been described as ‘selfish’, Newcastle has yet to produce a record label worth taking global. Cass Beats has aspirations to build up Newcastle’s music scene, to bring talent together and put the town on the map.

For more information on upcoming events, the crew can be contacted on: 074 7408 100 or Sbonisophiri@gmail.com