One of Zimbabwe’s hottest hip hop and R&B artists, Hillzy, has just crossed a massive milestone. His videos for both Chargie and Muroora crossed one million views on the online video-sharing platform YouTube. Chargie means “ride or die” and the track elaborates on ride-or-die love.
Getting a million views on a YouTube video is every creator’s dream.
Hillzy, born Hilary Chipunza, is one of Zimbabwe’s most promising and exciting upcoming contemporary urban music acts who has already built a dedicated following across the globe.
This achievement comes just a few days after the publication of a lead single and video titled Nharo from his upcoming EP, In The Building. The song was also featured on Apple Music’s African Hip Hop and New Music Daily playlists.
Music label Point Black Africa spokesperson Phil Chard said the song has had a tremendous reception. “The song already has support on Apple’s New Music Daily and the Africa Hip Hop Playlists”, he told IndependentXtra.
Chargie was released earlier this year in February and Muroora was released in 2017 where it became an instant hit and cult classic amongst Zimbabwean fans. It is an impassioned and stripped-down love ballad that dominated radio and streaming platforms.
To date, the song is known as one of Zimbabwe’s quintessential wedding songs. In the same year, he won the Best Diaspora Award at the Zimbabwean Hip Hop Awards, and secured branding endorsements and was named as one of Hype magazine’s Freshmen of The Year.
Hillzy first broke onto the scene with his T.U.T.O.R. mixtape that featured a blend of up-tempo hip hop tracks with his long-time collaborator H3nry. The project was released while both artists were still studying at the University of Cape Town (UCT). It was at UCT where he developed his skills as a producer, engineer and multi-genre artist.
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During this time, the artist managed to build his following and secured collaborations with South African rapper Cassper Nyovest and singer Jeremy Loops. He also had appearances on SABC 3’s Morning Expresso and SABC 2’s Hectic 9. Collaborations with Huawei, Castle Lite and Uber soon followed.
Upon his return back home, he undertook a campus tour dubbed The Legacy Tour alongside Afro-pop singer Garry Mapanzure where in the summer of 2019 they performed at sold-out shows across major universities and colleges in Zimbabwe. The tour is still regarded as one of the most successful tours in the country.
More success followed as Hillzy caught the eye of Nigerian Afrobeats superstar Mr Eazi whom he collaborated with on the track You Are Enough, released via Mr Eazi’s Empawa label.
His work and accolades have got the attention of American superstar producer and engineer Dakari who signed Hillzy to his Cider Music imprint where they worked on his critically and commercially acclaimed Chisikana EP. The project featured chart-topping collaborations with Sha Sha, Gemma Griffiths and Garry Mapanzure.
As a talented vocalist, Hillzy is also widely known for his song covers which have generated a great deal of interest in their own right. His cover for Big Sean’s Jumping Out The Window was featured in the 2017 MTV Music Video Awards telecast, and his covers have received stamps of approval from artists like Kehlani and American rapper and record producer P Diddy.
