Guluveli And His Desire For Perfection

We’ve encountered many gifted creatives with expertise in their respective fields, including music, fashion, art, photography, and more.

However, coming across a creative with experience in all those domains has been a rare sighting. It’s why we were so fascinated by our link-up with Guluveli, a true Jack of all trades.

With his upcoming event, called Baby Gulu and Friends Vol. 1 (presented by Gazi Mafia) happening on Saturday the 14th of December, we thought it only made perfect sense to have a chat with the homie and unveil a little more about his experiences as a Cape Town creative and what he’s setting out to do.

First things first. Could you tell us more on who Guluveli is?

“Guluveli is a Hip-Hop artist, creative director, model, producer, and a lover of music. Born Bathandwa Robo, I’m 100% Xhosa, with roots from the Eastern Cape, but I was born and raised in Cape Town, Kraaifontein in the Northern Suburbs.”

“And yeah man, Guluveli is my persona. It’s the brand that I create all of my creative work under. I came up with the nickname, Guluveli, when looking for a stage name that spoke to who I am and where I come from in a way. I come from a Christian background, with both my parents being preachers.”

“My mom’s an apostle and my dad’s a bishop. I’m an only child as well. And because most of my family and friends know my background, I’m considered to be a rebel of some sort, that’s kind of where Guluva comes from.”

“But yeah, I’m into fashion as well, and that’s how Guluveli and Gucci came together to make guluveligucci. I love local fashion more than anything though. But yeah bro, that’s me. I make music, I like creating visuals for my music, I’m very hands on when it comes to my brand and what I put out. And yeah I’m just trying to figure this shit out and tryna take it to the highest level.”

You mention you do so much as a creative. How do you balance it all?

“I just do whatever I feel like on a particular day bro, to be honest. I wake up and if I want to focus on this, I’ll focus on that. Sometimes I’ll plan it a week ahead.”

“Like after church on a Sunday, I’ll plan my whole week. Monday I’ll try writing a song, Tuesday maybe I’ll try and get a photoshoot together, Wednesday let’s try something else, and yeah that’s how I basically balance it all out.”

“I very much like to live in the moment and I try not to plan too far ahead. I found that when I plan too much and things don’t go my way, I get frustrated. So, to simplify it, I’ll just plan for a week and try to do as much as I can in it.”

“I have things that I plan and want to be doing in the next four or five years, but for now, I’m just taking things one step at a time bro.”

With everything you do, what’s the one thing you love about being creative?

“I love expressing myself in the way that I envision. You know what I’m saying? Like, that’s such a dope thing to me.”

“I’ve come to find that when I’m creating music, music videos, and editorials or whatever, if I see something in my head, I’m seeing it in a way that’s unique to me. The next person doesn’t see or imagine it the same way that I do. No matter how much I try to explain it, it’s only me seeing it the way that I’m seeing it in my mind.”

“And the ability to bring that to life is what I love the most about being creative. Getting to express how I feel, what I think, and seeing it mentally in a way that no-one else can.”

We love everything about your music and wanted to know how you’d describe your sound?

“That’s like the worst question ever for me bro, I don’t want to lie. I can’t really say that I have a sound.”

“Whenever I get in the studio I just start fiddling with sounds and create from there, you know? I don't necessarily go into the studio and try to make a particular style of sound, unless I started working on a song prior to going to the studio and have lyrics written or a voice recording of me beatboxing some shit then I start from there.”

“Otherwise, I just go in there and look for something that’s going to get my gut feeling, intuition, and creativity flowing.”

“Sometimes when I get in the studio, I don’t know how I feel, and I have to actively go look for how I feel sonically. The creation of my music, style and sound is literally based on me doing that.”

So, can you tell us some of your music inspirations growing up?

“What has inspired my sound is the combination of music that I’ve listened to all my life. I’m from Kraaifontein, was born in the hood, I grew up as a toddler hearing a lot of Kwaito, artists like Boom Shaka, Doc Shebeleza, TKZee, and especially Alaska. “Accuse” is like one of those songs engraved into my subconscious. I really loved their sounds growing up, and that’s where I get my Kwaito style and sound influence from.”

“As I grew up, life became better for my family. We moved out of the hood and into the middle class when I was in second grade, and by the time I became a man we had moved into the suburbs. So I’ve gotten a taste of all these different environments and was obviously exposed to different kinds of music over that time. That’s what has inspired my sound, style and taste in music. That and my experiences and memories attached to the music, of course.”

“I started listening to Hip Hop through my older cousin. I originally came across it by myself when I was in second grade, but I wasn’t consciously listening to it until he put me onto it which was around fourth grade, and he introduced me to local Hip Hop.”

“He put me onto ProKid, Zola, HHP, Khuli Chana, Teargas and Skwatta Kamp. I really started tapping in from then onwards and started rapping in school, with classmates and stuff, putting people onto the latest songs and whatnot, everyone who knew me knew that I was a Hip-Hop broer.”

“By the time I went to high school Hip-Hop was a huge part of my life and I knew that I wanted to be a musician, but I was honestly still happy being a fan and consuming the music coming out at the time.”

“This was like the early to mid 2010s, I caught onto and started listening to all my favorite artists during this time, artists like AKA, A-Reece, ASAP Rocky, Brent Faiyaz, Bryson Tiller, Cassper Nyovest, Drake, dvsn, Frank Ocean, J.Cole, K.O, Kendrick Lamar, Lauryn Hill, Nasty C, Okmalumkoolkat, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Playboi Carti, Riky Rick, Shane Eagle, The Soil, Travis Scott, and Tyler, the Creator are artists that I still listen to and study to this day.”

You got anything cooking? What can we expect from you?

“I’ve got a lot cooking bro. I probably have about three projects worth of music that I’m sitting on, but right now I’m just trying to garner some attention elsehow, you get me?”

“I’ve been releasing music since 2017, but I wasn’t feeling the stuff that I was dropping around that time, you know? My voice on the mic and sound was still in its developing stages. So, over the years I’ve taken a lot of my music off the net and only started leaving my music on with my EP, “delakufa”, that I dropped in 2020 and shot my debut music video for “Tsotsi” from.”

“I’ve just been building from there. “Genesi$” which I dropped last year was my second project, my first mixtape. And yeah, I have a lot of new music coming, but I just wanna remind people of the journey thus far, hence I’m hosting the Baby Gulu & Friends show.”

“Next year I’m hoping to be dropping a project in February, on which I’m basically going to be giving a lot of insight about my love life, which will be a first. I’m actually planning on dropping two projects next year.”

“The first one is more vibey and the other is more laid back, emotional and vulnerable. I’m excited and nervous to be sharing myself with the world like that but I guess that comes with being an artist.”

Cover Art For “Genesi$”

I’ve noticed fashion is very important to you. What’s your opinion on the fashion culture in Cape Town?

“It’s very dope bro. We’ve got a nice variety of local brands qwelling it on the highest level and I think that’s a beautiful thing. I was fortunate enough to experience BROKE’s come up.”

“They used to host house parties in Kuilsriver when I discovered them, I caught onto the wave they had on Facebook pretty early. I love some of the other brands as well, like Leaf Apparel from Pot Plant Club, they’re also family to me.”

“Other homies are doing crazy stuff like Asa Sadan, Backyard Group originally from Joburg now based in Cape Town, ILLUCID Studios, Cultish etc. I love and respect all these brands and stuff, but what I yearn for and want for the city is a brand that can speak for, open a platform and help pioneer Cape Town’s Hip Hop and R&B into the mainstream creative community here and to the rest of the country. I feel like we really need that for our artists.”

Can we ask what your opinion is on the current state of local Hip Hop?

“Durban, they’re cooking. Jozi, they’re cooking. Pretoria, they’re cooking. Hayi boy, in Cape Town, we are slacking!”

“Not slacking in talent, but firstly in the general audience tapping in and supporting our artists. The promoters of events need to put more effort into marketing their events and artists to the general person all around the city.”

“We've got to connect and plug the whole city into what’s happening and qwel it on the highest. We as the artists need to up the level when it comes to the quantity and quality of the music, videos and rollouts that we put out.”

“I just feel like Cape Town as a whole needs to level up bro, we’re getting left behind. We need more platforms like Verve Magazine. That’s why I love what you guys are doing. We need more people that don’t want to be in front of the camera, but people that are willing to create and provide a platform and light for artists and creatives.”

“We need our own Kreative Korner, our own Slikouronlife, our own YoMzansi. Once we have these platforms and we’re qwelling it on the highest level, more people will engage with what we do even more.”

To close off this chat, could you tell us what we can expect from the Baby Gulu and Friends Vol. 1 event that you’re curating this Saturday?

“It’s basically a platform that I’ve created for myself and artists that I vibe with to do our thing, growing our fanbase and audience. We’re trying to constantly create an intimate experience for people to listen to our music and stories behind the music while chilling.”

“The first of many to come, you can expect vibes bro. I’ll be performing a lot of unreleased stuff, connecting to the people and whatnot. I’m from Kraaifontein bro, I’m trying to connect with what’s happening in the creative community in the CBD in my own way, to be seen doing my thing in a fresh and vibrant way.

“But I don’t just want it for myself, I’ll be inviting fellow artists that I feel are suitable for the vibe that I’m trying to create, we’ll see how it goes.”

“But yeah, that’s what Baby Gulu and Friends is about. I’ll probably name the events differently as time goes on as I intend on hosting more events that I won’t be performing on.”

As a writer, I honestly love what I do. However, the worst part about what I do is having to transfer the audio of the recording to text, leading to so many interesting topics discussed having to be cut out.

Gulu and I had such an in-depth about much deeper topics and the guy has an incredible mind regarding his stance on the creative scene in South Africa. We plan on having a more in-depth chat about the tough experiences of being a creative in this nation in the near future.

For now, pull through for his event on Saturday. Tickets are still available, and you can secure them by clicking here.

And if you can’t make it, peep his amazing discography, available on multiple streaming platforms.