User:Sacuamusicgroup/sandbox

Early Life

Sibongile Sumati born on (2January 1996) better known by his stage name Veteran Khini is a South African based hip hop artist and song writer signed to SACUA MUSIC GROUP, born and raised in Port Elizabeth, by both his parents (Khaya Khini) and mother (Matumelo Sumati) in a place called Kwazakhele, Port Elizabeth. He has a younger brother and sister namely Siphesihle (younger sister) and Endinako Sumati (younger brother) who all grew up in Port Elizabeth. Veteran Khini was known to practice and refine his rapping skills throughout his childhood; He’d often stay up well past midnight filling notebooks with phrases and verses that he’d later draw on. At the age of 7 he then went to live with his grandmother and did his early grades of school at Phakama Primary School located in Kwazakhele, Port Elizabeth. In 2006, he was later forced to move back in with his parents because of his grandmother’s illness which resulted in him quitting school that year. He then completed his junior schooling at Emafini Primary School the following year.

Career 2009–15: Career beginnings

Veteran Khini saw the best of him when he started to take his musical talents seriously, however things turned for the worse when his parents divorced because of his father’s abusive behavior. Life became harder for him financially but throughout all the hardships his mother strived for the best and made sure there was always food on the table for them. The following year, in 2013, he joined a group called (Dream Chasers) and soon afterwards people started recognizing him and knew it from then that he was in the right path and destined to become a hit. He did a bit of theatre which helped him strengthen his stage performances. Dream Chasers didn’t last long, this is where his solo career began. In 2014 he released his debut hit single titled ‘‘Umoya’’ which shook the streets by storm and made him king in his hometown, unfortunately that same year saw the passing of his beloved grandmother which left him heavily devastated. Everybody showed love and support but he soon realized that he had neglected his studies resulting in him failing grade 10. He decided to quit school completely to focus on his musical talents and he would begin performing songs at outdoor concerts to make some money, when his mom asked him why he quit school this is what he said; “I’m not made for books I’ll chase my dreams and I believe it will work out’’, he had always been on his own at the age of 15.”I ended up moving downtown with these three dudes that I didn’t really know. I came into the house and I didn’t realize how things worked. From like fifteen to eighteen, I was just fighting them. It was every man for himself. That’s what made me a man, having to fend for myself and being in a situation where there is no dad, no grandma and no mom to help you. It changed the person that I am today", he says. He then once again started rapping, people started calling him ‘’Veteran’’, a nickname, Veteran Khini (which is a reference to his roots), and adopted it into his nickname ever since. However, he had never received any vocal training. 2015–present: In 2015 Veteran Khini came up with a new squad called Bay Gang, which included the likes of Ellz and Age Eazy and they became his family, together they produced hit singles that went huge in Port Elizabeth, but they needed something much bigger so they left PE went to Joburg not knowing anyone there, ‘’but I told myself we going to make it and I kept my faith, we slept on the streets, malls, on petrol garages, cold nights without food hustling submitting demos but they ignored us’’. Months later they met Mthembeni Ndevu known as  Emtee at Red Pepper Studious  told him bout their struggles he felt sad and took  them in, gave them shelter and food but after a while things didn’t go well since he already had his own squad to feed, in his crib. ‘’it was hard for us then we decided to go back to PE’'. When we got to PE I came up with a new song titled Chedda prod. by my friend Age Eazy and it became an instant hit in Port Elizabeth everyone went crazy over it, we performed at various festivals to raise money for transport back to joburg., we rented a room in OlivenHoutbosch paying rent was difficult, I got to perform Chedda for the first time on the CAN DO Music Festival hosted by 999 Music and I got to share a stage with various major artists, everybody went crazy turning up for cheddar got to sign autographs but still there was no airplay since we were unknown. Oct 2016 we met Andile Dyantyi who had heard about our music, we sent the track (Chedda Chedda) to him and he loved it, we met up with him and later that month he introduced us to SACUA MUSIC GROUP’s CEO Dez Bobore and they made it real. Nov 23 2016 I officially signed with SACUA MUSIC GROUP and since then life has never been the same, ‘’we on the come up even stronger than ever, and our dreams is about to come true’’. He is currently working on his upcoming Debut Album due for release later this year. His inspiration comes from some of SA’s hottest local rappers, producers  and MC’s which includes the likes of Caspper, Ifani, Heavy k, Scoop to name a few, on the international scene he says Tory Lanez  is on another level  and would like to see collaborations in the nearby future. He says the way they handling the music business its on another level, this motivates him daily to work even harder towards achieving that dream.

Musical style

Veteran Khini describes his own personal style he calls, Swavey: "Swavey is a two-adjective word. A lot of people use it as an attribute, but the real definition of swavey is a genre of music. The genre of music is the genre of fusing more than one together. I know it sounds strange, but if you ask an artist what they do they're going to say that they rap, they sing, they do rock-a lot of people are multi-talented. They get looked at confused, but I don't think that they're confused. I feel that they're just talented, swavey artists. I feel like there are so many people are more than that and they're swavey artists’’.