Ghetto Link Buography

Ghetto link are currently six member group, has its origins in ngombe compound of Lusaka in Zambia. The
members never planned to create this group, only circumstances led to its formation. In 2005, a music
production house own by Eathorne Choongo, called Rolet Studios was at its peak, attracting upcoming artists
from around lusaka. Among these were Cirex (Kafuna Silumbwe), Gizzi(Mbozi Mushi) and D­leo (Danny
Musonda) who came from Matero, Zanimuone and Chazanga respectively.
These artists came to sample the new sound at Rolet, and later became regulars, spending alot of time
together. One day Cirex and Eathorne made a hiphop beat for an idea they had to represent the ghetto. Gizzi
walked in while recording and the guys asked him to add a verse.

This song was later named “Chitukuko”,
meaning “progress”, which was meant to represent everyone’s struggle in the ghetto for progress.
This song became an instant hit with ngombe residents and so the guys decided to shoot a video for it. With a
home video camera, the guys left for a nearby place, in Kalundu. Together with friends from the studio, the
video was successfully shot. At that time, Rolet Studios was working on a short comedy film titled “Ghetto link”
and so the same name was adopted because the song carried a similar message.
Months later, Cirex and Gizzi walked into the studio while Eathorne was producing a rock song. The beat was
good enough that they decided to jump on it as well. It so happened Coolrman(Nathan Miti) was nearby so he
too was invited to do a verse.

This song was titled “Love ya”. The video was an instant hit as well, which was
totally unexpected, considering music sang in the English language was not popular at that time in Zambia. The
response was so good; the guys decided it was time to continue doing projects together because it gave them
the best results. And so Ghetto link was officially born. But it was agreed that each person will maintain their
independence as a solo artist and not bound by any rules.

As a result, not every project features all the
members at once. During the recording of their next project, “ilibe chorus”, which was not planned either, hence
the lack of a chorus, more artists joined in on the action, namely, D­leo, Onith(Onith Zimba), Pharo(Joe
Mulenga) and Q­rise(Christopher Silungwe) making a total of eight members.
According to ZambianMusic.Net, Ghetto Link gained increased momentum when invited by Muvi Tv to perform
at their kid star awards. this was Ghetto link’s first ever stage performance. Ghetto link continued to release hits
with titles like, “Hundred percent”, “Talk to me” and “You are my lady”.

 This marked the beginning of stage
performances which went on for a while, sharing the stage with artists like Mampi, Slapdee, Ruffkid, Exile, JK
etc. while performing at most college beauty contests, and big shows like the “rock your world” concert
organised by a then existing telecommunications company called Celtel, which even used the group’s
production as their theme song.

 By 2008, as much as the group was getting popular, financially nothing much
had changed. Even payments from shows were not enough to sustain the group’s needs because of its large
membership. Piracy meant the group made nothing in terms of album sales. This led to members opting to be
producers for other artist’s, than for the group, in order to earn a living. Slowly less members showed up for
meetings or recordings and so Ghetto link slowly disappeared from the public. During this silent period, some
members continued with solo projects, which led to songs like, “Electricity” by Eathorne and “Work it out” by Dleo.
About two years later, after pressure from fans, Ghetto link released a song titled “Ghetto link is back”. This was
an instant hit as fans were eagerly awaiting the return of the group. Unfortunately, the members were not yet
ready to commit fully to the group and so, this saw the disappearance of Ghetto link again from the public.

Aafter almost half a decade, he members of the group felt they had pursued
careers in their respective fields enough to resume their united music camp. One member, Pharo, was still at
University of Zambia and couldn’t resume with the group. Another, Cirex who had contributed greatly to the
video industry in the country with his label, Rod Dot, was still too occupied to resume the group. And so the
group resumed with only six members. Rolet Studios engineer, Poqpine (Esau Phiri), was officially confirmed as
a member, since he had previously featured in some Ghetto link projects like “Hundred percent”. Onith dropped
out after the release of “Stay” because he realised he wasn’t fully ready to get back on the spotlight, which
brought the number back to six.
And so currently Ghetto link has six members, namely Eathorne, Gizzi a.k.a Sukari, D­leo, Coolrman, Poqpine
and Q­Rise a.k.a Red Bandanna. The number may vary from time to time due to circumstances as history has
shown but Ghetto link remains united.

The end of 2015 saw the release of their video “Stay” which was
massively welcomed by their die­hard fans.