Sizwe Sibiya
Gauteng will come together with KwaZulu-Natal on 16 June when two of their hottest lyricists BeastDaMaharaj and Touchline collaborate to release their first track together.
The hit is called “Gcwala ngeGosti,” which is a slang phrase which means “Go get it or Get up.”
BeastDaMaharaj, who hails from Ndwedwe in KZN, told Scrolla.Africa that they are dropping the song on Youth Day in a salute to the fallen human rights activists.
“We are commemorating the people that had to put their lives on the line to give us a better future,” said the 28-year-old rapper, radio presenter and audio engineer.
BeastDaMaharaj, who opened for Davido in 2017 on tour in Durban, said he met Touchline at a shared gig while working on SABC 1’s talent scouting rap show One Mic. The show garnered national recognition for him.
“We started exchanging ideas and beats. That is when we made ‘Gcwala ngeGosti’,” he said.
As well as talking about the development of his and Touchline’s collaborative development, he also spoke of his own beginnings as an artist.
He was not always BeastDaMaharaj; in 2012, he called himself Young Beast until a friend told him that “he met a guy called Young Beast.” So, he had to change his name to BeastDaMaharaj because Maharaj means “your majesty” in Arabic.
“I am Beast The King,” said BeastMaharaj, who also said that he started writing during bouts of depression. At the time, in 2014, he had enrolled to study Audio Engineering and Music Composition under Soul Candi at Boston City College.
The rapper’s first single was 2014’s “It’s My Party,” which was followed by a mixtape titled Ayihlome released in 2016.
He said after “Gcwala ngeGosti,” hip-hop fans can expect a few more singles to follow, before the release of an EP which he is currently working on as an independent artist.
