Jan 9, 2017

Meet S.O.X — Zimbabwean Rapper

S.O.X. in front of “Light/Weight” by Alexander Tandy and George Howlett.

S.O.X. is a Zimbabwean rapper based in Fremantle Australia, with sweet lyrics and real context for both a party vibe and a laid-back celebration of legit social triumphs and casual political references. With connections from the ASAP MOB to Lupe Fiasco and Childish Gambino, this mellow music man is bringing some G vibes and ready to unleash his version of African-inspired rap to new listeners who want the real story of international struggle, hustling for respect. We sat down for a quick chat in REAL SESSIONS to talk about the motives behind his recent double release of “Birthday” and “Kosher” and his experiences traveling home, back to Zimbabwe.

Name?

Tinashe Geoffrey Soko.

Birthday?

26/10/1986

Where are you originally from?

Zimbabwe.

Where do you currently live?

Fremantle, Australia.

Preferred genre?

Hip-Hop.

Hobby or interest aside from music?

Sport, Basketball.

Guilty pleasures?

Girls.

Who are some of your favourite artists?

Nas, Biggie, Tupac, Craig David, Anderson Paak, Chance the Rapper, Kendrick Lamar

Favourite movie?

The Departed

Favorite book?

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Favorite song?

Anderson Paak. The water.

What is something you deeply love about yourself?

Good heart, man.

[Continued Video Interview ]

S.O.X. and I had a little chat about his recent visit home to Zimbabwe, giving back to his family, his latest double drop inspired by legit hustling and new beginnings.

[Interview Transcript]

J.L: [00:00:05] What's up. This is Jackson Lavell. I'm sitting here with my boy S.O.X. We're in front of "What is Lightweight" by Alexander Tandy and George Howllett. This is Mills-- It's Western Australia's most vibrant record store, and definitely my favorite. So man, thanks for taking the time out to have a chat and chill.

S.O.X: [00:00:28] No problem at all. Thanks for having me man.

J.L.: [00:00:31] So first off we'll start talking about your recent trip back to Zimbabwe.

S.O.X: [00:00:37] Man the trip was very very inspiring, very eye opening. Things that were there before were no longer there. You know everything changed, different. I got back in touch with my roots, and I realized where I'm from. Because, you know, you don't where you're going if you don't know where you're from. It was a really good trip.

J.L.: [00:01:06] Yeah that's true man. So, with that experience, why did you come over to Australia. What was the main reason why you came over here?

S.O.X: [00:01:17] I came over here to study. My parents sent me over here after high school. So that, You know, I could make a better life because things in Zimbabwe weren't the best. So I finished high school and my parents sent me over here for Uni, and I graduated from uni here.

J.L: [00:01:39] Cool. So what did you study at uni?

S.O.X: [00:01:45] I studied commerce, so right now I work as an accountant.

J.L: [00:01:45] Always hustling!

S.O.X: [00:01:46] Yeah definitely always. Gotta pay the bills, man.

J.L: [00:01:53] Yeah that's right.

S.O.X: [00:01:56] Gotta send back to my parents too.

J.L: [00:01:58] So you still send back?

S.O.X: [00:01:59] Yeah I still send back some money-- I still got my grandparents over there.

J.L: [00:02:06] Awesome. So with Parlay, probably my favorite track by you, with another producer I know (Shoutout to Chu!) So was that really written on the bus, man?

S.O.X: [00:02:18] Yeah it was man! Chu gave me she gave me a few beats to work on the Parlay track. So I had my headphones on, you know traveling by bus on my back home which was an hour bus ride, and I just wrote the track and sent it to him.

J.L: [00:02:40] Dude he was blown away by that. Awesome. So when he was in town you were chilling with ASAP Ferg and ASAP MOB. Tell me a bit about that.

S.O.X: [00:02:55] OK. What happened is was I was planning to do a track with one of ASAP Ferg's artists, his name is Marty Baller ASAP Ferg, so they listened to the rough draft of the song. I sent them the draft of the song and they were really impressed, they wanted to meet me. So I went Down South to one of the festivals there, and I met up with them and they were just blown away and they were like "Dude, that track was dope" and gave me some advice about music and stuff, and ever since then we've been cool and we keep in touch.

J.L: [00:03:34] That's sweet, that's a mad connection. And obviously you've got a couple other boys over in the US, I think Childish Gambino is one?

S.O.X: [00:03:45] Yeah. Yeah.

J.L: [00:03:46] Can you list off what sort have give you the most inspiration?

S.O.X: [00:03:51] Well my last EP. I worked with [S.S] as a producer, and I was in the studio with him when I did the last EP and with Childish Gambino... I've also dont intros with the whole ASAP Mob, ASAP Yams, B.O.B, Nelly, Lupe... I've opened for all those guys as well. So I've gotten the chance to get to know them.

J.L: [00:04:18] Lupe. I can definitely hear a little bit of Lupe in some of your music. With the last two tracks that you dropped, for our listeners and watchers out there, can you give us a little bit of details about what they're called and where we can find them?

S.O.X: [00:04:33] First track is called Birthday produced by Jimmy Codeine, the second track is Kosher produced by Swiff D. "Birthday" is more of a rebirth kind of track, cause Birthday was the first track in a while that I had written so the theme is rebirth and celebrating life. Him. And then Kosher is pretty much you know like the Jewish say, its something that's legitimate. So it's a salute to everyone, it's an ode to everyone that's trying to get their money straight. You know because it doesn't matter if you get your money legally or illegally. But this track is meant for people that are trying to make it legally, hustling, but kosher. In a legitimate way. That's the situation I was in when I wrote the track, I had just finished Uni and I had just gotten a normal job haha.

J.L: [00:05:49] Alright man, Thanks very much for your time. It's been a pleasure. And thanks very much guys, this has been Jackson Lavell, my boy S.O.X, Mills Records, and this has been "Real Sessions". Cheers.