Slaugh

British-Zimbabwean philosophical rapper and songwriter, Slaugh, aims to defy stereotypes. Born Themba Ben Mtwazi to a second-generation South African apartheid immigrant residing in Zimbabwe; Slaugh grew up in a unique social space, where being paternally South African by descent and maternally Zimbabwean, led to an upbringing intertwined with cultural hybridity, the effects of socio-political post-colonialism and westernisation in Zimbabwean suburbs and native townships. Orphaned at the age of 12, Slaugh and his brother Wizzy Wow took on lyrical writing and hip-hop as their outlet. Throughout his early teenage years, he continued to study the craft of rap eluding strict institutional and cultural rules. He proceeded to create the trio Ramshaklz with peers Staice and Wargazm where they recorded non released music under veteran radio and television personality Tich Mataz's Khulumani Studios in the late 90s. In his early 20s he pioneered the duos WISL (with Wizzy Wow) and BlaK MagiQ with singer CoDe, releasing an album that later fell into the shadows of the Mugabe regime's 100% local vernacular content initiative. Slaugh relocated to England in the wake of the country's economic decline, where he first studied Art and Design, then Architecture pausing it at PhD level. "Tears" is Slaugh's return to music during a break from academia - a moment where a prodigal son returns with a mind equipped with tools for positive social change, human analysis and the introduction of philosophical lyricism to Afro-European Hip Hop. Slaugh embraces his diverse past and proudly carries the unified flag of the three nations that made him (South Africa + Zimbabwe + United Kingdom) - so we say, "Salute, to his Hybrid Nation".