Here we have 7 projects from 3 Southern African countries (Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia) that our African contributor Naboth Rizla came across during 2014. In no particular order of preference just check ’em out and let us know what you think as we aim to fill you in on what the African continent has been on in 2014…

Cal_Vin – Perfect Balance (Album/Zimbabwe)

Cal_Vin is an emcee/producer who definitely had a great 2014. He managed to have a number 1 record on local ZiFM radio station charts for over 3months with the song Bebengakholwa (They never believed). This bilingual rapper (Ndebele and English) managed to get over 2000 downloads for his Perfect Balance album in just about 5days which was huge for him showing how much of a following he has. Homeboy definitely is putting the City of Kings aka Bulawayo on the map. This album is easily my project of the year!

Get the album here. http://itunes.apple.com/album/id845182386

Amiz – Dreams of August (Album/Zimbabwe)

Amiz is an emcee from Zimbabwe whose passion for rap music far exceeds most. You can tell he takes his time in making sure each song, each chord, each lyric is timeless. Probably one of the most slept on albums of 2014 Dreams Of August was definitely the young wordsmiths best work yet. Salute to the hard work and dope project put out!

Get the album here. https://soundcloud.com/amizmusic

Naboth RIZLA – Trace Elements (Mixtape/Zimbabwe)

Naboth RIZLA is a writer of note with lots of noteworthy contributions to magazines, websites and other hip hop publications. He has taken his pen game to the mic and has seen it getting lots of positive feedback in the form of radio interviews and magazine features with magazines in the USA to name a few. His mixtape is definitely worth listening to as we get ready for his #TheGrindNeverSleeps EP to be released first quarter of 2015!

Get the mixtape here. http://www.datafilehost.com/d/b83ac611

Holstar – God.Life.City.Time (EP/Zambia)

Holstar is a talented emcee known for pouring out solid bars all day every day. The Zambian native has a lot of content he puts out in his verses unlike most people who don’t put substance in their work. He has managed to consistently put out dope projects at the same time manage artists under his label Slam Dunk Records. If content and hard bars are your forte then check out this Ep, you won’t be disappointed!

Get the EP here. https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/god-life-city-time-the-ep/id836181034

POY – Blood Money Jacob (Album/Zimbabwe)

POY (Proud Of You) is a Zimbabwean Hip Hop artist who has consistently dropped gems for over a decade now. His project Blood Money Jacob is filled with singles that radio has proudly blasted hard. You can tell a lot of work went into this project from the sound and feature list that works hard to embrace a diverse hip hop audience. Definitely a dope listen, don’t sleep on it!

Get the album here. http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Money-Jacob-Poy/dp/B00R8OOSIG

Chaa – Delta 93 (EP/Zambia)

Chaa is a hard working female emcee from Zambia. She has a refreshing way with words that seems to never seize to amaze me. She is doing a good job about holding it down for the femcees out there in Zambia. If this project is anything to go by Chaa is going places in 2015. Big shout out to Holstar and Slam Dunk Records team for letting us in on this talented wonder girl emcee. Whatever you do make sure you listen to Memory Lane on this EP…dope!

Get the EP here. http://www.datafilehost.com/d/dedbfe81

Touch – Still (Mixtape/Botswana)

Touch is an emcee from Botswana who blends a dash of English with Setswana to give us what they Motswako. Basically he goes all out in Setswana and is a talented wordsmith at it. Though we cannot fully understand the language but as hip hop is a universal language you mos def can feel what the brother is on. His flows are so on point you can be forgiven for attempting to sing along coz it’s that catchy!

Get his mixtape here. https://itunes.apple.com/bw/album/still-touch/id925840802

Article compiled and written by Naboth RIZLA Co-founder/Editor of  www.da-grape-vine.com (Zimbabwean Hip Hop website). He is reachable at www.twitter.com/nabothrizla for all things African and Hip Hop and will be submitting articles to us here at HHLAT throughout the year ahead.