Mi-Music Artist - Liz Ogumbo

LIZ OGUMBO

Join our Music Artist and Brand Ambassador, Liz Ogumbo, on her Fashion and Musical Journey

Liz Ogumbo possesses a combination of striking African looks, a sharp sense of style and her smoky sultry vocal abilities put her in a league of her own; a combination of talent that she is now sharing with the world as her KenSoul Experience.

Liz is an avid songwriter; her lyrics reflect day-to-day realities with a cheerful joy. The KenSoul album is recorded by Mi-Fone and produced by multi – talented soulful crooner, RJ Benjamin and Brother Buntu. It features Zimbabwean born rapper ZUBZ on the live recording of “Maro Pa More.” “Le Coeur qui crie….”, is a French song about a young girl looking for Love in all the wrong places features a soulful rap from, Tumi Molekhane. South African Funk doctor MXO collaborates with Ogumbo on ‘Searching’ a Reggae song dedicated to being content and in love. “Awete”, a Swahili piece, is about a slender-framed girl losing her man due to her slender-frame for a fuller-figured other. “I’m already liked,” simply tells the overly - interested brothers where to step and where the limits lie, in a fun and playful manner.

Ogumbo is an established fashion designer, her company ‘House Of Imani’ (Imani means Faith in Swahili). Was incorporated in 2006. Her clothing is available online at www.lizogumbo.com. Liz is working on building a larger distribution network for her designs as well as building her music career simultaneously.

Liz recently created a live performance concept, ‘Fashion meets Music’ here she is able to showcase her range of chic designs on models strutting the runway as she performs songs from her debut offering KenSoul. The “FASHION meets MUSIC” concept has been successfully launched in Cape Town, South Africa at the Design Indaba 2011 and in Nairobi, Kenya at the “The Fashionist” Turkel Fair 2011. 

Liz is active on Facebook and Twitter and blogs regularly on fashion and music. Join her journey today.

Watch Liz’s Music Videos:

Naima McLean

Artist: Naima McLean
Nationality: South African / United States
Age: 28
Skills: Writer, vocalist, poet, actress, producer

Background/Style: Naima is an enormously talented writer, poet and vocalist born in New York City and raised in numerous cities across South Africa by her well-known American jazz-musician father and South African mother - a visionary social and business leader.

Naima has earned a degree in theatre and performing arts from the University of Cape Town, performed, acted and sang in South Africa and Europe. She has acted in productions by internationally renowned South African directors

As a vocalist / Poet Naima’s writing skills and approach are brilliant, impressive and emotive by any standards in the industry. She infuses jazz, R&B, spoken word, and hip hop among other genres to create a distinct style that she’s calls “Poetic Soul”. Her lyrics are highly personal and throw emotional challenges in the face of the listener causing you to think while at the same time enjoying the story being weaved before you. She has just completed recording her debut album – Things I Wish – musically directed by RJ Benjamin and debuted at the Cape Town Jazz festival 2011.

Naima’s performances as poet include a tour facilitated by the British Council – Verbalized 2010 and various corporate events. She’s also performed at Urban Voices International 2009 and The African Leadership conference 2010 in Ethiopia with the collective Rite 2 Speak and will be returning in personal capacity in 2011.

Rite 2 Speak was formed on the 9th August 2004. As a group of young South African theatre practitioners, they felt that the voices of their generation were not represented in theatre. This inspired them to write material, more specifically our own stories, as a tool to redefine the way young South African women are viewed. It is critical for this group that the work bridges barriers of ethnicity, race, culture and often language in order to address the imbalance of represented identities. This is evident in the composition of the group’s members and the personal nature of the material they create. By giving voice to their experiences, they allow the audience to interrogate their own positioning in our society. The collective also fuses the performance of poetry, music and theatrical aspects as a vehicle to encourage physical engagement with the audience.

Naima was approached by Levi’s Strauss SA to represent one of the 4 faces of their Believe – Curve ID campaign in 2010. Aligned to Levi's® brand values of courage, integrity, authenticity & empathy – and a representative of 1 of the 4 distinct body shapes that characterize the new fits. The Bold Curve. This songstress, poet & actress is the face of the Levi’s® Bold Curve. As part of 4 dynamic Divas that not only feature in the local advertising campaign, Naima also worked closely with the Levi's® team on the brand’s longstanding HIV/AIDS initiative, Levi's® Red for Life. In a series of events that were held around the country, the 4 Divas hosted live gigs followed by interactive discussion groups focusing on the topic of life & love in the time of HIV and AIDS.

Naima’s TV roles have included cameo features on one of South Africa’s most watched TV dramas “Generations”, presenting for South African Coca Cola game shows. She’s currently a feature character in the internationally renowned UK TV series Wild AT Heart and has just completed shooting a feature film as leading lady in Vehicle 19 Starring hollywood celebrity Paul Walker.

Khethukubonga ‘Khethi’ Ntshangase

Khethukubonga ‘Khethi’ Ntshangase

“I’ve got to exemplify LOVE and HARMONY/ Showering you with the peace in the air/ Over the valley of a thousand hills/ Cleansing your soul with the harmonies/ In the waves flowing from the east coast/ I’ve got to exemplify!” Exemplify, Khethi

The dynamism of Khethi

Khethukubonga ‘Khethi ‘ Ntshangase exemplifies African Evolution. She was aptly born on Africa Day, 25 May 1980 in the city of Pietermaritzburg, KZN; raised by Johannesburg’s lively underground poetry scene and came of age in quaint Tanzania.

Inspired by soulful Jazz Blues giants like Miriam Makeba, Sibongile Khumalo and Nina Simone, Khethi has crossed borders on the wings of her music. She has trailed the African continent in search of clues of a cure for some of Africa’s social ills. With a powerful singing voice, potent lyrical writing abilities and deep social conscience as her catalyst; Khethi found that the biggest clue lies in travelling and gaining a deeper knowledge of self.”

Traveller

Khethi tells of her life’s turning point in the song, ‘Year 23’; where she says her father once asked her, “Who you figure you’re gonna be in the year you turn 23?...”. In 2003, Khethi made a vow on her 23rd birthday to venture fully into her music. She went on to make her mark in the music and poetry scene collaborating with numerous talents and creating opportunities.

Explains Khethi: “The urban culture scenes of Africa’s prime metropolis allow us interaction, skills development and growth on a global scale. We network, we collaborate, we inspire, we develop, we travel, we gain fresh perspective, we grow and nurture home.”

One opportunity she came across was collaboration with Malawian lyricist, Kimba Andersen, who features on her track ‘Why Don’t You’ and co-writes Lady Tupandvi. From that, her next opportunity was to travel to Blantyre, Malawi to meet sensational young producer, Qabaniso “Q” Malewezi.

After recording six songs together Q played Khethi’s music to his England-based business partners at Maestro Musik Entertainment (MME), who were so impressed they went on to record a complete album with Khethi between 2004 and 2006. Unfortunately the album never made it to shelves, due to inexplicable glitches with the release that saw Khethi ending her contract with MME -fortunately retaining the rights to her music.

In 2008, following her mothers nomadic roots of the Khoisan, once again Khethi ventured, this time into East Africa on a residency with Swiss hotel chain, Mövenpick Hotels in Tanzania; where she teamed up with a local band, creating a repertoire of jazz classics and popular music which they performed to international guest and local dignitaries. While singing five nights a week at the hotel, she got an opportunity to collaborate with both ethnic and urban musicians from Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania; this is where she got to appreciate the broader legacy of Africa’s traditional sounds within an urban environment.

In her song, ‘Traveller’ Khethi sings: “Travelling I explore the true meaning of my life, searching for what I knew before, compromise overtook us all, compelling me to find the purpose of our journey in this time.”

Coming Home

After 7 years of learning growing and giving; Khethi’s purpose-driven travels, deep connections with artists around the continent and different parts of the globe, as well as a strong sense of conviction and endurance; have led to the fruition of a classic slow-cooked album, ‘Exemplify’ licensed and released under Gallo Music Group in 2010.
“The release of this album is the greatest achievement for me because it validates the hard work and effort of this cross-cultural creative skills exchange. Proof that it is possible,” says Khethi.

“I feel it has been the foundation for a rising empire, which I prefer to instant stardom. The industry had to adjust to this new artist who fuses genres and the ears of the listener had to be tuned so that they could take it all in,” she adds.What we get from ‘Exemplify’ is a musical journal of a passionate and soulful African ambassador with a message of hope amplified by her own courage and patience.

The 16-track album features an array of upbeat and sultry soulful grooves. Her first two releases ‘Rainbow’ and ‘Khula’, both paint her achievement powerfully.
‘Khula’ (grow), stems from the Classix Vol 1 compilation executive produced by hip hop artist, Ramesh. In the Classix album version she collaborated with long-standing hip hop artist, Selwyn. Gallo liked the song and asked that she redo it as a solo. It now features as one of the emotive songs on ‘Exemplify’. “This song makes me think of evolution, makes me feel part of everything that grows and evolves. A warm and fundamental lesson everyone needs to appreciate about the mystery of life,” says Khethi.
Significant to her growth as a glowing singer and songwriter, Khethi wrote ‘Rainbow’ with her daughter, Nozizwe in mind. “Rainbow was one of those songs, for which, I had a hook for the longest time– it came one grey day in England, while seven months pregnant with Zizwe, seven colours, a rainbow suddenly came up in the sky, and years later back home the verse revealed itself” she recollects.

“In ‘Rainbow’, the words, ‘Lelalizwe lali lingiwe’ refers to the African continent inclusive of its people. Our greatest potential as a nation lives in our unity. Home is my pot of gold, my treasured space, where I will always return. Rainbows always fill me with pride because the future feels warm and bright.”

Spring Day 2010, marks Khethi’s entrance with Exemplify, which represents the favourable timing of this wonderfully woven album that transcends borders, age and time.