Renowned actor Israel Matseke-Zulu has shifted his focus to music as he recuperates after losing his leg last year.
Matseke-Zulu suffered from gangrene, which forced him to have one of his legs amputated. This saw him cut short his Don character on the popular weekday drama, Gomora.
He says he is still interested in acting and has already auditioned four times for different shows. However, he hopes for a production company that will understand his need to work shorter hours, with more breaks in between.
“I am working on something else now. Gomora is a question mark for me because I don’t know what will happen to my character. For now, I am focusing on music, and I can’t talk about acting yet,” says Matseke-Zulu.
The “something” else refers to a kwaito album he is working on. ‘GP MaOrange’, as he is widely known in music circles, is planning to release his new single titled Phihli Phohlo next month to stimulate mass anticipation of his upcoming album in 2023. This will mark his third studio album release since the beginning of his music career.
The Intuthwane star says the album aims to reunite kwaito artists and motivate the younger generation to keep kwaito music culture alive.
“Kwaito music is a Mzansi-founded genre, and this is the kind of music that we should learn to preserve. It stands for who we are as a country. I understand that as time goes by, people want to hear different sounds and there is always space to make it more entertaining for the people to enjoy.
“I am here to release the sounds we always loved. I am one of the kwaito musicians who are still alive, and I should play my part in preserving the sounds of kwaito,” he says.
His music career kicked off in 2000, and he worked with kwaito legend Mandoza on the Yizo Yizo 2 soundtrack, which bagged them the Best Album of The Year at the South African Music Awards in 2002.
The after that it took him six years to get back into the music limelight, with the release of his first album under Lion Heart, a record label that was founded under the South African Youth Movement (SAYM).
He says this was the greatest of times in his career as he started getting gig invitations, but still he was not in the kwaito artists’ A-list – and he wanted more.
“In all the years I didn’t release music, it was not because I was lazy. I pushed but the music journey is hard.
“I was not a favourite. I struggled to get deals and gigs. Even after the release of my album under SAYM, where I also served as a board member, there were issues of corruption and monies missing, so the record label came crumbling down,” says the musician.
He says in his journey of trying to make a name for himself in music, he met Chicco Twala, who worked with him on recording songs and compiling an album that was later turned back and Twala got him a role on Madluphuthu, a local comedy film.
He says he was in disbelief when he finally won two awards in 2018 for his sophomore studio album titled King Fruit Manamune – Last Man Standing.
“My next album is a killer, but it hasn’t been easy recording it because of my condition. Still, it will go out,” he says.
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