Lwaistar – The Paradise Collection

Earlier this year, I got a chance to speak to Lwaistar. We hadn’t seen each other in a while and recently I had been listening to a lot of ‘Paradise Eventually‘, one of his earliest tapes. The only thing I wanted to know is if he thought the songs there were before their time. With a tracklist like ‘I Want You‘, ‘Amazaza‘, ‘The Story‘ The title track ‘Paradise Eventually‘ and ‘Big Brother‘, imagine the impact The Story would make in 2020?

Lwaistar had a response ready for me like he had anticipated the question. Paradise Eventually the album: not only that, but the roll out before the album.

From the music, the sound, the fashion. Paradise Eventually will be a destination. Soon after our conversation, the roll out began. He teased us with the track Makhaya Ntini. The beat on that song could have easily been on Paradise Eventually. The album is coming…

Lwaistar also dropped a photoshoot on his IG. Further exploring the aesthetic of the music. Besides the album, he has a number of projects and ideas he wants to put out.

This is all based on a conversation we had before the lock down. Fast forward: Easter Weekend comes around and Lwaistar sends us a link to ‘The Paradise Collection‘.

There are songs on there I really like, songs I think he could have saved (there is still an album on the way). My Brodie and Not Sorry being my top 2.

The project is 9 tracks deep and it goes by quickly, so quick we decide to talk to Lwaistar and find out more about this project and everything else he’s up to.

The Blacksmithed: My G you good?

Lwaistar: I’m going through a lot!!!… Me as a person, I don’t really hide #ish, I don’t really hide how I feel. I open up a platform to talk about things. But yeah man, I’m going through a lot. It’s emotion. It’s really amplified by le project ndiyenzayo… To tell you the truth… everything will kinda of make sense when I drop this project, like, that is one thing I know. I can’t really make people understand what I’m going through, its every complex that I had to put it on this project.

The Blacksmithed: When you say this project. Are you talking about Paradise The Collection? And explain that.. We have Paradise Eventually, we expecting an album… What’s the collection?

Lwaistar: Paradise Collection is all the greatest hits that I’ve done that had a story. Relocate, W.H.I.T.E, High Reception, those songs had a story. Then you get the ones that were never released, those are the songs I’m not going to use for the album. But they also have a meaning.

My Brodie‘, the beat was made by Eezy, in my room when we were living in Summerstrand. When he did the beat, I sent it to Gus and he did a verse. Then I recorded it when I was back home. All the songs besides ‘Relocate‘ were recorded in King. One of my homies approved the song and what is so special about that song is, soon after he approved the song, the homie passed away. So I kept the song for so long for that odd reason. This is the only time me and Gus could let it go.

The project I’m talking about is not Paradise Collection, The Collections are all the songs that mean something to me. When it comes to the project I’m working on now, it a whole different type of feel. It has to do with a lot of things. It has to do with my personal life so much that it makes me emotional.

The Blacksmithed: You dropped #HlalaEndlini, a hard track… Now you are dropping the collection. How do you determine the right time to drop? What are your indicators? Is there a plan?

Lwaistar: It’s nice being independent, because you independently think about… the #ish you want to create, the concepts and when to drop it. The control. It might seem like I’m dropping a lot music but I really have a lot of music I haven’t even dropped. It’s about how I feel when it comes to dropping a song. If I feel like dropping a song, I’m going to drop it because that feeling is the reason… With Paradise Collection, the feeling I got there is, I want take people on a journey. I want to take people from where it started to where I am now. Then continue on the journey with the project I’m working on now.

The Blacksmithed: You worked with Eezy. Panthers has hard beats on here! He definitely has one of my highlights on this project.  Who else did you work with?

Lwaistar: Beat producers: Panther, Eezythadon, KY$ and Arno Steez. Isaac Wilson, Eezy and I produced ‘Couga‘.

The Blacksmithed: What does the rest of the year look for Lwaistar?

Lwaistar: Only God knows!… I have a lot of things planned for the year. I’m bring all the events that I was doing in PE to Joburg. I have a venue, people I can contact. Musically, the project is what you can look forward to. That’s what I’m looking forward to. I would like to drop it like right now.

The Blacksmithed: I hear you… No a side note, I’m a self-proclaimed Day One… But I haven’t been there for all the drops. Does that take away from my Day One status?

Lwaistar: I don’t really think it’s about ‘Day Ones’ anymore bro. I have ‘Day Ones’ I haven’t spoken to in years. It’s more about who has been around and The Bl has been around.

The Blacksmithed: Last question, can we expect merchandise?

Lwaistar: Yeah imerchandise ikona. We were show casing it last year. So its ready!