Actor and singer Ntobeko Sishi who plays the character of Ntokozo Dlamini on Mzansi Magic telenovela Gomora. He is trading the places from being in front of the camera as an actor to a life of being behind the microphone. He said ” I cam not trade acting for music or vice versa, they all coexist with me. If I go months without writing a song, I feel like I’m dying inside, the same goes for acting”. Delving into a character’s psyche is both exhilarating that’s why a break is due. However, with music, I’m narrating my stories which are easier to do”.
Since in the young age Sishi music was everything to him. ” Music is what I leave and breathe, it was something it was something I use to do before acting became a thing. He adds Yes I enjoyed the stability of getting a monthly salary seeing that I was on telenovela but one thing I noticed was that acting was king of looting most of my time because I’d be on set almost of the time. But now I am signed into recording labels, I can fully take my music career something that I have been pushing towards all my life”.
As he steadily shift the tide of getting messes who love him for his acting skills to fall in love with his music. Sishi explained that his main aim is for his fans, along with his music lovers to understand the kind of singer that he is first.
” I can not describe my sound because I’m still finding it, however, future projects are going to help me narrow that down to a sound that is best suited for me. A lot of time my music sounds more like a “ballet sounding nostalgia , something that feels like a memory that taps into your feelings and take you back in time”. He said ” My is not the most commercial RnB. There’s a funk and Pop in it, as well as trap and hip hop. There is also folks melodies which many classify as ,” White people” which I grew up listening to”.
“Seeing that people have been throwing such comments towards me, I have decided not to run away from my “White people listening self” but to enhance it because it’s an element that makes me a unique artist”.
Growing up in the Methodist Church as a child shaped the way Sishi’s ear tackle various sounds. He speaks of time when he was fixed by the Melodies of grown women of the church and the youth choir Something remains dear to my heart.
He said “I looked up to Kanye West a lot when it comes to music. He has been my biggest inspiration since I was young. Yezzy know how to infuse the gospel tunes and Melodies into his songs to effortlessly and I hope to do the same one day”. He remarked . “Drake, frank Ocean and Michael Jackson also helped define how eclectic my sound should be”.
Sishi say that he believed his fans were ready for his music as he alluded to struggle with mental health and the honest he approached with his songwriter “I am vulnerable” I am bear in my music and my true fans appreciate that.
He said, Embodying the character of Ntokozo Dlamini was a dream come true for Sishi. He, however, adds that fame was something that took him by surprise. ” I had no Inclination that all of this would happen to me so soon in my career because, I had recently graduated with my second degree.
At the same time, I told myself that I wanted to be a performing artist but I had no idea how i was going to do it. I remember getting a call from the show producer telling me that they saw an audition of me from three years ago and they and they wanted to audition for Ntokozo Dlamini character. I was taken aback, I couldn’t comprehend what was happening but I told myself it was God’s divine timing because there was nothing I could have done to see it coming”.
