The Sunday Mail
Online Reporter
US-based hip hop artiste Dumisani Maraire Jr, popularly known as Draze, continues to raise the bar with each song he releases.
His latest offering, “Born To Win”, which dropped on Friday, shows the rapper’s immense talent, as he manages to fuse his roots and sounds from his adopted country.
The song features Kingdzashe and Kenyan trumpet player Owuor Arunga, who has previously worked with Macklemore.
In an interview with The Sunday Mail, Draze said the melodic harmonies and chorus were inspired by a song taken from his father’s time directing a choir at the University of Zimbabwe back in 1994.
Destined to be a unique cultural anthem, the song highlights his experiences upon returning to America, including being ridiculed for his accent and hair texture.
“Hip Hop has always been about authenticity. I grew up in the ghettos of America, but was raised within a Zimbabwean musical family. Inside of me is where these worlds meet. That’s what ‘Born To Win’ is all about,” said Draze.
The track, which is off his forthcoming album set to be released later on this year, is raw hip hop fused with Zimbabwean music to create a new style Draze calls Ancestral Art.
“My father was one of the best marimba and mbira players in the world. Ancestral Art is really the music I learned from him and my mother fused with who I am. This is my contribution to Hip Hop culture.
“With Burna Boy winning a Grammy award and Afrobeat popping across the globe, the world is ready for other expressions from Africa.”
Draze is the son of the late Dumisani Maraire Sr and Lora Chiorah-Dye, and while he might not be as prominent as his older sister Chiwoniso on the local music scene, the rapper has been making a name internationally.
Born and raised in the US, the artiste moved from his Seattle home to Zimbabwe at the age of six, where he was immersed in traditional Zimbabwean music and began performing.
Still a youth when he returned to Seattle, Draze grew up in that setting’s Hip Hop culture and street life but continued to perform in his family’s marimba band on several continents around the globe, opening for major artistes such as Janet Jackson, Miles Davis and Jimmy Buffet.
The rapper has performed as an opening act for the likes of Snoop Dogg, Macklemore, Wale and Floetry, among others.
His music has been featured on numerous prominent TV shows, movies and advertisements, including placements on The Masked Singer, Empire, Love & Hip Hop and All American, to name a few.
