James Manzi mostly known as Humble Jizzo, a member of the renowned ‘Urban Boyz’ music band has once again stepped into the spotlight of his solo career, after his former bandmates Nizzo Kaboss and Safi Madiba on separate music paths.
Humble Jizzo officially confirmed his solo venture with the release of his fresh banger dubbed ‘Ifi’(Fish) a creation born out of mutual agreement with Nizzo Kaboss, his supposedly active mate in the duo formed shortly after Urban Boyz was disbanded.
Ifi is his second song after ‘Twuzuzanye’, his debut track released in 2007 before creating the band while still at campus, University of Rwanda (UR).
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Speaking with The New Times, the Kenya-based artiste clarified that this decision was a conscious choice to explore individual music since distance has poised a big challenge for the duo to work together.
"See, right now I am based in Nairobi, Nizzo is based in Kigali. That itself has become a challenge because as much as we’re still a group, as much as we want to work together, there are some difficult conditions that are out of our control, and it's hard to work together.
Even this one, we were thinking of doing it together. I recorded it and sent it to my brother [Nizzo] . He liked it but the challenges of meeting were still there. Like should I fly over to Rwanda? That was actually a challenge to us and then we came up with this conclusion that, the group is there, we’re still the Urban Boyz and our platforms as a group.
For us not to be dormant and inactive, we need to come up with this strategy of where I can release something and so can Nizzo in order to give our fans what they need. Whatever can be done, is still under Urban Boyz,” he said.
On the other hand, given the changes and challenges faced by the group in recent years, Humble Jizzo’s perspectives on the collective commitment to reunite in the future, is something he said is uncertain.
He said: "I’ll be lying if I say that coming back together is an easy thing. Things have changed, we’ve moved to places, things we’re pursuing are totally different including family affairs and everything.”
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About his latest track he said, ‘I wrote, I sang, I knew good music and other various things. I was in the group where everyone had to give his participation and people liked it that way. I would just come and crash things, I’m sure people expected that thing. In this song I showed people that I can do something new and they can like it.”
"Therefore, I expect people to understand who Humble J is, what I am capable of doing, what I can deliver and show them that Urban Boyz is still there,” he added.
Despite the physical distance and varied commitments, Jizzo assured fans that both his and Nizzo’s works will continue to be distributed through their music platforms associated with Urban Boyz.