Don Dada, born Menelik Gibbons can no longer be called a newcomer to the South African music scene and this has been solidified by having an official 2017 Nelson Mandela Day song titled Viva Mandela.
The 30-year-old singer recently released his first album Avant Garde with the first single coincidentally released on Mandela Day in 2016.
This brought inspiration and added to the task of writing a Mandela tribute song which has followed him ever since.
While the song is Madiba-themed and inspired by the book "MANDELA LONG WALK TO FREEDOM," it has a distinct Dada flavour incorporating hip-hop and reggae.
The song was recorded at Dada's studio and produced by SuperProducerRapz through a tight project schedule coordination by RasMoe.
Dada stuck to his Johannesburg roots by including Seed_Under, a versatile female artist he works closely with and Phiwe Romeo Phekana his close friend Being in the music industry for 17 years.
Don Dada. Picture: Supplied
Being a freestyle rap battle artist, Dada has developed a talent for throwing words together in no time.
He has perfected the art of writing songs which sometimes takes him less than an hour.
The recording of the Viva Mandela track however was a four day process and unlike most songs about Tata Madiba, Dada decided to make his special song upbeat.
"Most of the Mandela songs are sad and I wanted to make mine more upbeat. I wanted to change the way we think about the man who brought freedom to South Africans,” he explained.
* Viva Mandela is available for download and streaming on MTN Music, iTunes, Spotify, Deezer, Google Play Music.