Phillip Tendamudzimu Nephawe well known as Mutendas is a musician, song writer and a performer of Venda Traditional music who was born in 70s in the village called Ha Muraga, and went to school at Muraga Primary school. He started to love music while he was young with the inspiration of the late David Masondo From Soul Brothers and The Living Legend Dr Thomas Chauke.
During a short interview , Mutendas said: " It was a long journey back in 1997 after releasing my first album titled: Yesu U a da ( Jesus is coming) under Gallo Recording Company and that album sold more than 100 000 copies in one month, and that has lighten my career as an artist. The late David Masondo from Soul Brothers taught me how to sing in a professional way and have learned lot of things from him as an artist ".
He further stated : " In 2001, I worked with Dr Thomas Chauke and His Son Themba Chauke from Shahumba recording Studios and released a hit song Phoshi Vho Mudadza( Portia has been surprised). That's were I gained popularity because the song was loved by the young and older people and the album turned the province upside down”.
In the year 2004 and 2005 he came back with a very strong album called Tshelede Yo Fhela and Foromane ( I'm no longer having money and Foreman ), again the album gained more popularity and it was played regularly in national and local radio stations and also on Digital platforms.
Asking about how many albums he have recorded so far, Mutendas added: "I can't mention them by names because I have more than 30 albums under my name and other albums have been recorded using my other stage name Gearbox. Our main challenge was to face the issue of Piracy, it is really discouraging bearing in mind the amount of money we spent on recording the music”.
Persuing dreams as an artist, he added that " I'm going to perform at Phalaphala FM Royal Heritage Festival Nandoni Royal Garden, one of the biggest festival in Limpopo so this is a dream come true to me since this year Royal Heritage Festival will be celebrating 10 years of existence , my music has lot of teachings, guidance and encouragement in people's lives and I sing without compromising and sometimes I sing things that I have experienced in life, my music plays important role to lots of people".
Mutendas concluded by saying: "music is my life, whenever I feel low , happy or otherwise, I grab my guitar and start to play. I encourage youth to firstly go to school because it is not easy this days to survive only by music. to all those who need my music, my music is available online. Ndaa (thank you) ".
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