When you see the offspring of legends such as Will Smith or Brenda Fassie try to follow their parents’ line of work, it is easy to compare the two generations.
Bongani Fassie went through it and so will Mtho, Sihle and Buhle Dube, the sons of gospel singer Benjamin Dube. Following their father’s footsteps, the trio have responded to the music bug and released an album.
Going under the moniker Dube Brothers, the group of siblings have gone in a different direction from what their old man does when it comes to sound.
“We are open to any genre that appeals to us, so we are not strictly following what our father sounds like,” said Sihle, the middle child.
Their debut album Step Up introduced them and their sound to their intended market.
“Although we grew up listening to our father’s music, we were also allowed to listen to other types of music which inspired us to write our material,” said Buhle Dube, the youngest.
They said growing up under Benjamin Dube was not as strict as outsiders would want to believe.
“Look, he is a firm dad, so we are not saying he was simply a walkover,” said the eldest brother, Mtho.
“He had us disciplined whenever he felt the need, but I am grateful that he made us believe in him, to be our friend.”
The boys’ friend who doubled up as their father let them be his first audience in everything that he came up with musically, so much so that eventually they wanted to be just like him.
“We always woke up to his music, so there was little chance that we would do something else with our lives,” said Buhle.
Soon after discovering their love for music and writing ability, Benjamin took a chance on his sons and started recording with them.
“We have been on three of his albums so far and the people appear to have loved what we do.
“He even let us do our own thing by letting us open some of his shows. It was only a matter of time before we approached him with our own ideas of the debut project,” said Mtho.
Being the modern and savvy youngsters they are, it came as no surprise that the Dube Brothers’ music was something between Chris Rock’s R&B and Drake’s hip hop with everything in the middle.
“We call it urban gospel. It is inspired by various trending musical genres that inspire us,” said Mtho.
If you know Benjamin Dube you will know he is not the first person to come to mind when you think of “urban gospel”.
It must have been interesting when his sons approached him to be part of the project on two songs.
“Of course, dad had his traditional ideas and we had to fight hard to convince him to trust us with the direction that we are pursuing.
“Thankfully he is open-minded, so we had him do what we asked,” said Sihle.
• Step Up is available in all music stores nationwide.