Port Elizabeth Raps and m’Rappers are shining bright in the corner, for the Friendly City.

And much like Jozi, Port Eli houses a host of artists who weren’t born and bred in the city. An outgoing person will tell you that artists here, come from surrounding towns, and some stretch as far as different provinces. Port Eli is the playground, where all these artists meet, and mess tihs up!

The past six months have had The Blacksmithed packed with mixtape submissions. Releases that have made the mark, and raised the bar for the city’s hip hop scene. Trap Talk and D.R.U.G.S dropped early in the year, followed by Just-Aya Qha’s Blunts, Beats, and Me. And then OTE’s EezyThaDon and Lwaistar’s collaborative mixtape, The Antidote, shut down BI’s site.

Lwaistar x Eezy doing what they do best

The duo: Eezy (24) and Lwaistar (25), from East London and King Williams Town respectively, met in Port Elizabeth late 2013. They worked on a few singles where they featured each other on individual mixtapes – Pink Noise and Paradise Eventually (PE). The Antidote is the first full body of work the two have worked on together, writing process included. They started working on the project late 2015, after Night Of The Elite.

The sound is predominantly club trap, mastered in clear overtones of reverb and futurism in the vocal tones. The two manipulate their voices such that a listener even forgets their natural speaking voices – dope.

IMAGE: #Umgqibelo hit single cover

They’re first single, Umgqibelo was released mid last year. It made major social media waves, and soon after, was followed by Uber – a track that can easily have people lose themselves in a club.

Fast forward to 2017, six month into the year, and about three months since the release of The Antidote, the duo has gone from strength to strength – major hustles.

Just recently, Umgqibelo, with the help of a solid fan base won the #OMF_WhosNext competition – presented by Ofenste Mwase, a videographer based in Jo’burg. The duo will head to the ’City of Gold’ in a few days, to have an A-grade music video of Umgqibelo shot by Ofenste Mwase Films – all expenses covered.

The Antidote exudes news skool vibes, and easily transcends what one could imagine as a mixtape worked in a makeshift studio. The two are coming – and they’re coming for everything.