SA-born Congolese rapper and singer Manu WorldStar quit his full-time job in advertising to pursue his passion – music.
It has all paid off for the 25-year-old musician, real name Emmanuel Mutendji.
Now that the national lockdown restrictions have been relaxed, he’s cheerful as he performs for the first time in a while for a live audience at the launch of Flying Fish’s lifestyle platform The Clubhouse in Rosebank, Johannesburg.
The crowd lose their mind when he performs his groovy love tune Nalingi that made people first notice him in June 2018.
Manu quit his job in adverting on his birthday in April last year.
“I gave myself a birthday present and that was to quit my job,” Manu says.
“But I had planned it out for a whole year and I had saved a lot because I told myself on my birthday I’m quitting my job and going full force into music.
“It was challenging for me because I had to balance a whole lot of stuff including both my work and music.
“It got to a point where I needed to choose one because I was starting to get emotionally and creatively sick. I needed to choose my direction and I chose my passion.”
Manu admits that 2020 has been a challenging year, but dropping his debut album Molimo at the beginning of the month made it all worth it. He worked on the offering for two years.
“I had a lot of financial and emotional ups and downs, but 2020 has been good to me overall. Even with inspiration there were days that I wasn’t inspired,” Manu says.
“Low energy has been very present, but we are finally finding our feet. I’m at a place where I feel consistent about what I’m doing in life and who I’m meant to be.
“I used all that energy and put it into my debut album. So I get to finish the year strong and the album has been doing amazing.”
The Afrofusion hip-hop album features guest appearances by Anatii, Rouge, Rowlene and Gemini Major.
“It’s a 12-track body of work that represents my spirit and what I hold true to myself. You will get to learn about my family values, what love means to me and who I want to be in the next five years.
“There are some songs that are made to make people dance and that’s what I wanted to do. As much as it was important for me to have that spiritual vibe, I also wanted to make people dance and just be playful.”
Born in Berea and later moving to Windsor East, art is something that has always been close to Manu’s heart.
“In high school I focused on everything but my school work,” Manu says.
“I didn’t understand maths, science and all of that. But when it came to art I was always top of my class. The creative side has always been there.”
After high school he studied at the AAA School of Advertising, where he graduated top of his class and won campaign of the year.
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