BEAT FROM WALUBITA IN KAOMA: DJ Waz, a budding producer, rapper and filmmaker

HE might not be a household name in the country just yet, but best believe that in Western Province, 30-year-old Mike Walubita is a household name - especially to music and movie lovers.

Born to Harrison and Grace Walubita in Lusaka’s Kamwala Township, Mike who is fondly known as DJ Waz is into music and also film.

Yes! He is a rapper, producer and filmmaker.

I caught up with the Kaoma based entrepreneur who is also a teacher by profession and he did not shy away from sharing his story.

Mike went to Kamwala Primary School in Lusaka before moving to Mulamatila Primary School in Kaoma, and later completed his secondary education at Kaoma Secondary School in 2007.

Soon after, he started learning music production skills. “In 2010, I worked with music producers such as Eddy and Radikoh at Chingola’s Danger Zone studio. I learnt quite a number of things while working with them,” he says.

From then onwards, Mike who also has a Early Education Teachers diploma he obtained from the University of Zambia (UNZA) in 2016 has not looked back. “I am not teaching and I haven’t even been applying. I just did the course as a backup plan in case music failed,” he says.

Asked who inspires him, Mike says he is inspired by himself. “I have grown up and learnt my art. Growing up, I have always been an artist. I used to paint, draw, and was actively involved in theatre as well. So, I never really had anyone to look up to.

“The visits I made to Danger Zone Studios in Chingola made me feel like I would do music better. I interacted with many artistes including Macky II,” he says.

Despite having concentrated more on making beats, DJ Waz has recorded many songs, enough to release  four albums.

“...after playing around with music production software little by little, I started getting clients and before I knew it, I was becoming good at production,” he says. He adds: “After graduating from UNZA in 2016, I opened a studio in my father’s house in Kaoma which I later came to call Immac Music.”

As would be expected, the idea wasn’t easily accepted by his parents.

“My father always believed that I could do better than music. But right now, he has seen how far I have come and he has somewhat accepted a little bit and he wishes he would have been more helpful from the beginning,” he says.

Currently engaged to get married to Bathsheba Mutata, an actress, Mike has also been actively involved in film production.

“Musically, it has been a challenge. People underrate you because you are from a less developed province. People have very little confidence in what I did at first. It was not until after 2017 that you got to visit other studios and mingle with big artistes that they started to believe in me,” he says.

To date, Mike has worked with the likes of DJ Mzenga Man. “That has, in a way, pushed the studio to where it is now,” he says. He says Western Province has many promising artistes whose only problem is that they do not want to look beyond the region.

“There is a lot of competition from within ourselves and we are not looking at the bigger picture. You find that sometimes, when you do something that is very advanced, they will say it is good but you have gone too far,” he says.

He has hope that the narrative will change. “We are going to change this narrative. That is where I even got the Immaculate name from.  We can still adopt the American style, Nigerian style and sing using our language and still sound cool. It’s all about being unique. Otherwise in terms of Western Province, we are household names there,” he adds.

As a producer, Waz is into all genres except rhumba and classical music. “As an artiste, I am so much into Dancehall and Soul,” he says. The first song he recorded was Junk Boy in 2008.

“It was talking about how underrated and useless I seemed to be in the industry. The song was poorly done and people just didn’t buy into it,” he recalls. He says he plans to re-do the song. “It’s still a good song but it wasn’t just presented in the way I would do now. I lacked skill but had the talent to compose it,” he says.

Other songs to his name are, his favourite Holy Ghost Fire featuring Stevo, My Bululu featuring Drifta Trek, Never Letting You Go featuring Jae Cash, Bolokwa featuring Willz, Take Care of You featuring Slap D, No Stress featuring BombShell and Monde among others.

“I am working on something that I am hoping to get a verse from Chef 187. Otherwise, I have a lot of songs, enough to release even four albums. But I haven’t had the time to release an album just yet because I feel that’s something you have to be adequately prepared for,” he says.

He has worked with the likes of Petersen and General Ozzy. He says he would fancy working with Nigeria’s Mr Eazi.

“Most of his productions are similar to my songs in terms of productions. Locally, I would love to work with Cleo Icequeen. She can rap and she has made quite a big name for herself,” he says. In terms of movie production, he says his studio has so far produced six movies which have been received well.

“It’s a new thing and I would say so far so good and people are willing to help and support the vision. Many people have invested hugely into the studio and we have produced movies like After Prison, Ben, Dr. Triple, Volleyball Club, and Kalavina,” he says.