Braamfontein Alive: ALAIN - MUEPU - TSHILUMBA (KING SEVEN): THE CHAKALAKA MASTER.

Born and raised in DR Congo, Alain Muepu Tshilumba also known as King Seven, the Afro-pop and RnB musician came through to Braamfontein Alive’s office to dish out some of his Chakalaka to us.

The Chakalaka song master has been making waves across clubs in Johannesburg and with the latest official music video drop on YouTube for Chakalaka, obviously the sky is just the beginning for King Seven.

Though, the title of his single "Chakalaka" is a typical South African delicacies but many believe is a figure of speech in describing his love for 'yellow-bone woman' as seen on the video

In his interview he shared how his music journey began and what he intends to become in the next five years.

Below is the full chat (Welcome to Braamfontein Alive; King Seven):(Thank you for having me) -

Q: Can you introduce yourself to us?

A: Yeah, King 7. I’m an artist and musician. I started my music in a church choir and at the age of 15 I started to do Hiphop because in my family my big brother loves music too much also my father. They both love listening to Bob Marley’s music and Zulu’s music. They were the ones that made me to love music too much through listening to what they listened to.

And I tried to do and sing those music and people at the time loved them!

Q: When did you make up your mind to do music professionally?

A: I can say 1999 in high school. I started performing in-front of a lot of people doing Hiphop.

Q: How did the opportunity come through for you?

A: I went with a group from my high school and we performed and people loved my style of music too much and that very moment they started calling me 2Pac because when I performed and I took off my shirt. So I performed on stage without a shirt and people went crazy shouting “2Pac!”

After the show people started talking about me saying “You’re the best and you can do music!” Right after then I started to compose my own songs and then people liked it and from there I said let me just continue to do this music.

Q: When was your first time you went into a recording studio?

A: My first time in a studio if I was not mistaken was in 2009. We did this song for our country (DR Congo) while the war was still going on. So there was this project that the organizer asked notable musicians across Congo to come together to sing for the project and I was lucky enough to be chosen and the song and video went everywhere and is available on YouTube as “Le soleil de paix” meaning “The Sun of peace”.After that project, in 2010; I also entered into the studio to record my first song.

Q: What kind of music do you do now?

A: Now, I’m doing Afro-Pop and RnB. I also do other styles of music but for now I’m sticking mostly to Afro-Pop and RnB.

Q: I listened to your song titled”Chakalaka” and I love it and how did you come up with it?

A: Chakalaka is a South African food and when I’m with my baby and she’s making the food for me I always like hers more than any other person’s chakalaka so in the song I was telling my baby that!

Q: Are you also saying figuratively that you like her ‘punani’?!

A: That’s what people are saying but to me is not the punani is the food!

Q: Is Chakalaka doing good out there?

A: Chakalaka is doing good. People love it; South African, Nigerians, Congolese, I mean everywhere

they love it and is still going well.

Q: Is there anywhere you are performing Chakalaka soon?

A: I will perform the song on Friday, 8th March, 2019 in Yeoville for the International Women’s Day Celebration at Village Kin Malebo. This is not the first time that I performed there. I was also there in December, performed it also in Maboneng, here Braamfontein (De Bliss Corner)

Q: Looking at South African industry what can be done to support upcoming artists?

A: Connect me with big South African artists, hook me up with events, make my music video play on TV and radio stations nationwide.

Q: Who would you like to work with among South African music artists?