KONFAB

KONFAB’s journey through hip-hop started in his hometown of Maseru, Lesotho in the early ‘90s when the relatively new artform was thriving in the small town. He entered a rapping competition in school with a crew of homeys and came out tops, having never written a rhyme himself. Following this, he was invited to join a prominent local hip-hop movement called Black Mentality, and was placed in a 3-man crew, By All Means. Here KONFAB got an early exposure to the world of word, art and performance. This flow continued till 1995 when the problem child was eventually banished to a boarding school in Johannesburg. Far from destabilizing KONFAB’s firm grounding in hip-hop, the change of environment only stratified his style, giving it a more pronounced urban street feel. In 1999 KONFAB relocated to Cape Town. This is where he truly flourished as an MC, and earned his stripes in the underground. He made solo moves for a number of years locking open-mic sets and small gigs here and there, gradually infiltrating the Cape Town hip-hop movement. Over the years, KONFAB has come to be affiliated with two crews, BLKMST FXN and Writers Block (one of the most revered in Cape Town), while at the same time pushing solo projects with Dplanet, Oracle Flo and Ben Sharpa, under the Pioneer Unit banner. KONFAB has also graced mics and laced joints with the likes of tha Hymphatic Thabs, Archetypes, King Daniel, Mpisi The Monolyth and many other underground heavyweights at events such as Hip-Hop Connected and Drudge Dialect, culminating in the Tri-Continental Festival where he finished verses with the likes of Wordsworth. In 2007 KONFAB performed at a Ninja Tune / Big Dada night in London called ‘You Don’t Know’ alongside Mary Anne Hobbs, The Bug and Vex'd. Whilst in London he also performed at Jonzi D’s ‘The Surgery’ at the world-famous Sadler’s Wells Theatre. Cult BBC 1 radio personality Mary Anne Hobbs was moved to state that KONFAB is “one of the most inspired and agile lyricists in the world today.”