Botswana’s Very Own: Banzai
Banzai is a a 21-year-old rising star from Botswana whose music is making waves far beyond his hometown of Gaborone. With a style that can't be boxed into just one genre, Banzai has earned recognition as one of Africa's most exciting new artists, celebrated by HypeBeast Africa as one of the continents top emerging artists in 2023.
As a pivotal force behind Ascension Plea’s, a burgeoning music collective that's quickly becoming the voice of a new generation in Botswana. His music blends calming vocals with a unique production style he’s part os a new wave on the continent.
One of our team, Luchi, caught up with him:
Luchi: How long have you been making music? What’s the journey been like?
Banzai: I’ve been making music for what like…since 2018. When I started it was just something I was doing for fun, but as I just kept doing it it became this thing that I felt like I couldn’t live without, it’s just like a learning process for me, I can for sure say that it’s something I really want to be doing in the future.
Luchi: How would you describe your music?
Banzai: I would say its quite different, I can’t really pin point the genre because it’s not just one genre I make everything from rnb music to soul music to hip hop music, but most of my music is just a vibe, I’d say that.
Luchi: Where are you trying to get to with your music?
Banzai: I’m trying to leave as much of an impact as Drake, as crazy as that might sound, I believe it’s possible. So I’m just trying to be like that for my fellow Africans and leave a trail of inspiration for the ones that come after me.
Luchi: What in your life inspires you to make music?
Banzai: Whenever I think about making a song or just a project, it doesn’t really start off with me wanting to do it, it just comes through. It’s always based on what I’m feeling and just my surroundings, for example I could make a song about my daily life here in Botswana and just how life is over here compared to what it’s like outside the continent. I’m someone who likes to listen to music a lot, I’m always absorbing all these different sounds from these artists that I look up to. And another thing is that I’m always looking at success stories from people who have made it big by making music.
Luchi: What’s it like being an emerging artist in Botswana?
Banzai: I’m not going to lie, it’s quite difficult. It’s very difficult just to get noticed cos one thing I’ll tell you about the industry here is that there’s a lot of talented people out here…a lot of talented people out here. I’m part of a collective, we go by the name of Ascension Plea’s, I promise there’s no better feeling than being in the studio with these guys, we never fail to deliver at making timeless music.
Luchi: What’s your favourite track right now? Which artists are you listening to?
Banzai: I’m listening to a lot of J Cole, my favourite track from J Cole has to be ‘Love Yours’, I really resonate with the meaning behind it, it’s one of those tracks that just moves you, it’s not just a song, but it’s more of a soundtrack to life. If it’s not J Cole I’m just listening to South African Artists like A-Reece and as I mentioned before, Drake. My favourite project from Drake has to be ‘Nothing is the Same’. I’m always just listening to rappers like that cos I really relate to the massage they are trying to put out, who they are as a whole is who I am really trying to be.
Luchi: How would you define that? What would you say that is?
Banzai: Going back to that Drake Album, ‘Nothing is the Same’, there’s a song titled ‘Pound Cake’ featuring Jay Z, there’s a part where drake says something like ‘it will probably be worth showing up to a high school reunion cos of how people treated me back then’, something like that, and it’s just things like that that I want to be able to do one day, even though it sounds kinda beg, but like that’s a flex to me, cos like it just really shows that you can just win by just being who you are and just pushing with your passion, so I like that kind of stuff.
Luchi: What’s your dream collab?
Banzai: I’d love to work with Jorja Smith, also Burna Boy, DAVE for sure, Pink Panthress, there’s a lot of UK artists I’d love to work with.
Luchi: What other forms of creativity do you engage in apart from music?
Banzai: I’m not just tapped into music I also do a lot of visual art as well, I’m always editing cover art, not just for me, but also for fellow artists in Botswana’s music industry, I edit videos as well. It’s just music and visual arts.
Luchi: What would you want to tell your younger self just starting out in music?
Banzai: I’d definitely want to tell him ‘Yo, you really got to prevail being who you wanted, don’t give in to what other people think about you. It’s a really tough path I’m not even going to lie, but stand strong, hold your ground, and you’ll be the man for that’, even though it was five years ago and I wasn’t really a man, I guess that’s what I’d want to tell my younger self, if I could meet him.
Luchi: What did you want to be as a kid? Would you have imagined yourself here?
Banzai: No, not at all. When I was a lot younger I wanted to make animations and cartoons, but I didn’t really see it happening because of what the stereotypes are like here where I live. If you tell that to someone older than you they’re probably going to be like ‘You need to get more serious, you need to go to school, study and get a job’, things like that. I wanted to be a cartoonist. I never thought I would get to this point where I’m at right now. But I always had that intrinsic feeling that I’m going to be something big, just with whatever I want to do, that’s just how I looked at things.
Luchi: Does that love for cartoons and animation still live on in the work you do now?
Banzai: Here and there, like I mentioned I do some graphics stuff, I’m good with graphics. When I was younger I used to watch a lot of cartoons, just absorbing all of that, but now it’s I’m doing that with music instead.
Luchi: What do you want to tell your future self?
Right now even though the end goal is there, the path of how to get there is kind of blurry, it’s up to me to figure that out, but right now, one thing I can really say is that I know I’m headed down the right path. I would say to my future self, ‘I’mma see you soon’.
Luchi: What’s something people would be surprised to know about you?
Banzai: I think one thing people would be surprised to know about me is that I’m not really that much of a social butterfly, I don’t really like talking too much, I’m a pretty reserved person. It’s not really in me to be like a social butterfly, but I wouldn’t say I’m an introvert, I just feel like I only speak when I need to speak.
Luchi: What’s the process of making music for you? What does that look like?
Banzai: If I’m not making music at home, I’m most probably making music at a friends house, just recording over there, It’s not something I really plan, I have to be inspired by something first, otherwise I don’t feel like I would have given it my all. It’s always about the things that are happening around me, if something happens to me, good or bad, I’m just going to go to the studio and just record it. I have a home studio that I’ve set up if I want to record.
Luchi: Which of your songs/projects did you most enjoy making?
Banzai: I have an album called INFRA and to me that was the most challenging to make because of how far it pushed me outside of my comfort zone. It was really fun, I hated it as well because it took a while, it took me over 9 months to make, but after making it, it really felt like such a huge achievement because I never thought people would be listening to it overseas, that was just a crazy moment for me. It started just based on what I was feeling, just based on emotions and just the things that were happening around me, so that was just a really fun project to make. Also I got the community involved, it wasn’t just a fun thing for me, it was fun for the people around me. It was a really cool thing to me, it introduced a new side to me.
Luchi: How was that new side different?
Banzai: It kind of just showed me like how ruthless I can get over what I really want. When I was making the album a lot of really bad things were happening and initially I never knew I could use that as an outlet, and once I realised that it became a whole new thing because I began to touch on things I never knew I could touch on and there’s a lot of people that relate to what I’m saying because I was looking at it as an outlet instead of just for fun.
Luchi: Tell me about Ascenscion Plea’s and how it came about?
Banzai: Basically this group of ours started about 5/6 months ago. A friend of mine by the name of LUCAS CHUBBS and spacerover, they both live on campus at the university I’m going to, I always would go to their room to make music, one day I ended up meeting up with hookage, a friend of mine, he’s a DJ and a producer and another friend Brian BC, he’s a fellow rapper. We just started making a song, and that got the ball rolling. We enjoyed making music together, we’re all challenging each other to make the best versions of ourselves individually. I feel like I couldn’t have met anyone better to be in a band with. And it all worked out sonically, we have singers, wrappers, producers, it’s beautiful.
Luchi: What’s the vision for Ascenscion Plea’s?
Banzai: Things are headed in a good direction and it’s about to get crazy the opportunities that have been handed to us, not only individually, but as a group as well. There’s going to be more live shows, tours, it’s going to be really great. There’s so many things we haven’t done before, things that we’ve always wanted to do as artists but we just never had the chance to do.
Luchi: What’s your favourite song of yours?
Banzai: My favourite song that I’ve made goes by the name ‘faith’, a lot of my family know that song, and it’s kinda cool to see that they know the lyrics to that. The song is tied to so many deep things that have happened. I made the song when both my parents had COVID, it was such a bad time, that’s why I made that song, and I’d say it’s one of the best ones I have ever made. With the group, Ascenscion Plea’s, my favourite song has to be ‘De Beers’, after the jewellery company. Here in Botswana there’s a diamond company called De Beers,we look at our craft as really precious, what we’re making is rare, and if you listen to that song you’ll understand what I’m talking about. It’s really precious, we value it as you would a diamond.
Luchi: What’s next for you?
Banzai: There’ll be a lot of collaboraton, not just with artists, but with other creatives, not just inside of Botswana, but also different countries abroad. I’d also love to go on tour at some point.