Oskido holds ‘Kalawa’ parties
By Bridget Mananavire
South Africa-based award-winning disc jockey and producer Oscar Mdlongwa aka Oskido recently hosted “Kalawa All White Parties” in Kwekwe and Harare.
Oskido has been hosting annual parties in Bulawayo dubbed “Homecoming Show” which proved to be a highlight on the December holidays’ calendar although he reportedly revealed that the events were not profitable.
Oskido was in the country over the past weekend with shows dubbed “Kalawa All White Party’ at King Solomon Motel in Kwekwe on August 12.
He was in Harare on August 13 at Solomon’s Café in Glen View.
Organisers of the two events have not yet indicated if this would be a running theme or just a once off thing, with efforts to get information being unfruitful as the people responsible for giving comments to the media were not reachable.
The highly regarded musician is one of the pioneering artistes to popularise the Kwaito music genre outside the townships of South Africa, hence being regarded as a premier in the South African music industry.
The Kalawa parties are named after the record label Kalawa Jazmee Records (formerly Kalawa Records) which was co-founded by Oskido.
The record label houses musical acts like Mafikizolo, Uhuru and Busiswa and other big names.
The company is currently run by Oskido, Bruce Sebitlo, Zayne “Mahoota” Sibiya, Mandla “Spikiri” Mofokeng, and Emmanuel “Mjokes” Matsane, and Gao Mokone.
According to the information on the web, Kalawa Jazmee (sometimes “KJ Records”) was formed as Kalawa in 1992 by Christos Katsaitis (departed in 1995), Don Laka and DJ Oskido and took its name from the first two letters of their respective surnames (Oskido often used “Warona” at the time).
Boom Shaka (Lebo Mathosa , Theo Nhlengethwa, Junior Sokhela and Thembi Seete) were the new label’s first signing, with debut album It’s About Time released in 1993.
Joining with Trompie’s label Jazmee in 1995 it then became known as Kalawa-Jazmee Records, later dropping the hyphen completely. DailyNews
