...A lover boy with a great pen
There's a blunt going around, smells good, low light, and Taonga Nkhata is not puffing because the only thing he gets high on is beats.
Better known as Tweezytwer he is a quiet lad, not shy quiet the way people are before they decide you're worth talking to.
Then something shifts, the smoke clears a little, and the quiet guy who walked in becomes someone entirely different.
Funny, animated, talking with his hands about beats and bars and everything in between. Sometimes annoying if you are friends with him, like we are.
This is apparently how it goes with Taonga. You get the quiet version first. You have to earn the rest.
"I'm a creative visionary and a funny guy. Just the quiet guy until he talks and is free around you." He says by way of introduction.
He calls himself a producer-artist, someone who likes bringing different concepts to life musically.
It's a modest way to describe someone who also runs a newsroom section and now builds his own sound from the ground up.
From the Newsroom to the booth
Before the studio, there is a newsroom. Taonga works as a Sections Editor a job built on deadlines, angles, and knowing what makes a story land.
He never really left that instinct behind, he just changed the medium. His most recent release, out March 29, is proof of that.
"The music comes from things around and within me. My profession has allowed me to see things that I put into a musical manner." He points to his latest drop.
'Toxic' as an example a song that could be about a bad work environment or a bad relationship, depending on which feeling you're following that day.
That kind of duality, he says, comes straight from journalism.
"There's no good or bad publicity that's how I plan my drops. I find a relevant angle and dive in. Media is a great tool. But social media is a perfect one,"he explains.
Three influences, One sound
I ask him about his sound and three names come up immediately, Lil Wayne, Drake, Tory Lanez. Not as a mood board as a formula.
"In my head I always say if I can rap like Wayne, make girls relate to the music like they do with Drake, and make flows like Tory then the song is done. Put all three in one pot, and I make beautiful slaps, anytime, anywhere," he says.
That formula is most visible on 'Go Off', 'Don't You Know'
According to Taonga, a song without emotion never reaches the people it's meant for so the goal was always to say things slick, the way Wayne would, while carrying Drake's emotional weight and melody. "Still keeping it me. Not losing me," he adds.
Beat first, Always
For a producer-artist, the chicken-or-egg question is unavoidable beat or lyrics first? For Taonga, there's no debate.
"I'm a music-first type of artist. The bass has to bass it gives the vibe and direction." He says.
Whether he's building the instrumental himself or pulling one from a friend, the beat leads. For him, the groove comes before the words.
That instinct is all over his body of work on somgs like'Don't You Know' which he describes as a double life in one record.
"I mix hip-hop bars with R&B romance, mainly over Afro beats," he says.
He grew up on Lil Wayne that's his hip-hop backbone and built everything else around it over time.
"On a song like 'Go Off,' you're listening to real emotions over Afro beats, but it sounds romantic for what's actually a sad song.
'Don't You Know' is the party joint but the pen underneath it is still hip-hop, still Afro. I always fuse the sounds. That's what makes me, Tweezytwer," he states further.
Going Independent
I ask him about the industry and the tone shifts slightly still upbeat, but more candid.
He emphasizes thay being independent means wearing every hat. Engineer, producer, marketer and strategist.
It's rewarding, but it also means progress can sometimes feel slower than it really is.
As an independent artist, Taonga is his own engineer, his own producer, his own everything.
"The pace getting into the industry is slower. As an Afro beats artist it almost feels like I'm a pioneer but it also feels like I'm not doing much. I guess that comes with the independence," he admits.
Still, the pull of the work never lets up. "Even when I'm tired from work, the music has me on speed dial," he says in between my second blunt.
See the only thing Taonga smokes, is Niggas on a song. Meanwhile, on the subject of beef a constant in hip-hop he doesn't flinch.
"Beefs cultivate the culture. Hip-hop is a sport. You can't claim king and be afraid to put peasants in their place. We need more beef but on the music side, not escalated beyond that. Beef is like training, of some sort," he says flatly.
As for staying true to himself in a competitive space, his answer is both simple and encouraging.
"Know who you are, what you can't do, and what you won't do. It's easy to pop off on what's trending but maintaining that is where most people get lost, because it wasn't them to begin with. Just do you. And love how you do it. And when you do it," he says.
The Message
When asked what he wants people to take from his catalogue as a whole, Taonga doesn't hesitate.
"I think I'm a lover. If you listen to the discography and no one comes to mind, then I haven't done a good job. The message is love the vibes are love. I'm just a lover boy with a great pen," he says mid sip of his Jacobs coffee.
A Few Off-the-record, On-the-record questions
Is he dating anyone right now? He laughs it off. "I don't kiss and tell. But whatever vibe the music is giving that's what Tweezy's saying," he says lightly.
Is there a song secretly about someone specific? "
Almost all of them. But check out 'Maryjane.' If you know, you know," he says.
What's on loop that isn't his? "'Drop the Lo' by Bryson Tiller has me in a chokehold right now," he admits.
Dream collaborator, dead or alive? Drake comes up first.
"That Drake stimulus works heavy.AKA would have been a moment," he says in between pauses.
Which gives him a bigger adrenaline rush a studio session or a newsroom deadline?
"I work well under pressure, so nothing's really given me a rush yet. I approach the newsroom the same way I approach the studio I create the feel of what you're about to read. Being a creative has made me flexible enough to handle both," he concludes.
And the headline he'd never want to see, versus the one he'd love to?
He shrugs, callback fully intact. "Like I said all publicity in media is good publicity. You just have to know how to play it. So bring me any headline. I'll make fire music out of it,"
Which is, in the end, exactly what this one's about, and just like my state of sobriety we end our interview session with Taonga on a high.
Stream and discover Tweezytwer's music here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3jjYokIXIKjmT2CuRQybCl?si=8Kflr_dNSaCgrJg7v8UFWA
