Oscar Bonginkosi Mdlongwa,was born on 23 September, 1967 in Oukasie Township, Brits, North West, South Africa. He is popularly known by his stage name– Oskido, This South African artiste is not just singer but also a recording artist, DJ, record producer and businessman. He is one of the pioneering artists to popularize the Kwaito genre of music outside the townships of South Africa thus making him to be regarded as a premier in the South African music industry. He is also the co-founder of Kalawa Jazmee Records (formerly Kalawa Records), a record label which houses musical acts like Mafikizolo and Uhuru
His father, Esaph Mdlongwa, was a politician and his mother a South African woman by name, Emily Sophia Molefi. Oskido spent most of his early life in Luveve Township, Bulawayo Zimbabwe where he went on to finish his basic education after graduating from Gifford High School, Bulawayo. He returned to Brits at the age of 21 in 1988 to run a family spaza shop before he left for Johannesburg to pursue a career in music.
Oscra’s career came into limelight after he volunteered to perform at a night club where he used to sell boerewors (sausage) after a scheduled DJ failed to show up. After reworking some songs and formulating his own kind of sound into cassettes, he went on to release compilations like Mixmaster and Big Jam thus making him popular outside Johannesburg before he was introduced to Bruce “Dope” Sebitlo, a South African musical act who went on partner Oskido to form the Brothers of Peace band.
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Under the Brothers of Peace band, Oskido released and produced eight albums between 1994 and 2004 before he went on to partner with Don Laka and Christos Katsaitis to found Kalawa Records.
Kalawa Jazmee (sometimes “KJ Records”) was formed as Kalawa in 1992 by Christos Katsaitis (departed in 1995), Don Laka and DJ Oskido and took its name from the first two letters of their respective surnames (Oskido often used “Warona” at the time). The company is currently run by Oscar Mdlongwa, Bruce Sebitlo, Zayne ‘Mahoota’ Sibiya, Mandla ‘Spikiri’ Mofokeng, and Emmanuel ‘Mjokes’ Matsane, with one Gao Mokone assuming the task of Label Manager.
Kwaito is a music genre that was originally created in South Africa during the 1990s. It has been described as the music that defines the generation who came of age after apartheid. He and some other artists were among the first artists to produce Kwaito songs by adding vocals to the slow Tempo house beats that went on to become popular in South Africa and beyond. His contribution to the development of music in South Africa earned him a Special Recognition Award at the 2012 Channel O Music Video Awards.
