‘Die Hele Box’ is a cultural reset

MICHAEL KAYUNDE







WINDHOEK

You’ve probably learnt by now that Exit and Samuele Ngodji - formerly known as Qondja - recently surprised the Namibian music fraternity with the release of a joint album.

The new project, titled ‘Die Hele Box’, boasts 14 songs. Proving once again that they are true connoisseurs of the game, the project sold over 4 000 copies in four days on Viralcom – a proudly Namibian digital music store.

It further recorded thousands of streams on other streaming platforms, making it the most commercially successful album on the market currently.

Astute enough to have secured the best digital distribution deals while mobilising nationwide street teams, it’s no surprise you can access their music easily on various platforms.

Chatting to tjil earlier this week, the duo shared the making of the album and the achievements that they hope ‘Die Hele Box’ will earn them.

Clash of the titans

Exit described the recording process as the clash of the titans and admitted that he was surprised they completed it on time, taking into account how they had to tolerate each other’s creative input with a little bit of ego at play.

“It was a fun experience that I believe was meant to happen. If you put love and unity in the equation, you will always succeed,” Ngodji added.

With the album already labelled as commercially successful, the duo is still hungry for more.

Ngodji said he considers ‘Die Hele Box’ the Namibian version of ‘Watch The Throne’ – a 2011 collaboration between Jay Z and Kanye West - and wants it to reach similar milestones.

“With this album, we want to demonstrate big milestones that can be attained when musicians work together. We want all the success – endorsements, money and cars,” Ngondji said.

“It is high time we move from floppies and Chuck Taylors to suits and handling business. Namibian youth need to have role models with real success to look up, especially in music. We need private jets, ons is op soek na die hele box [we want the whole box],” Exit shared.

Going international

Abed Jona, who is credited as the project manager for this joint album, told tjil that production wise, the duo collaborated with DJ KBoz as the album’s executive producer.

Chris Wayne, Willy G, Timo Kevin, Andrew On The Beat and Appolos Shimakeleni are other producers and beat makers who worked on ‘Die Hele Box’.

As a project manager, Jona’s goal for the album is to go international.

“We want the music to be aired on music channels where Namibian music rarely plays such as Trace Urban, MTV and Sound City, to name but a few.

“Another goal with this album is to unify the Namibian music industry. This is not only a collaboration by Exit and Samuele Ngodji - look at how many producers worked on it and look at the results. Having gone gold, our next aim is attaining platinum status,” Jona said.

Physical copies are available at Antonio’s Art and Mono Music Shop in Windhoek. “To purchase it on Viralcom, simply text the name of the song you want to buy from the album to 10010,” the project manager said.