When he’s around, you’re bound to find him causing a raucous on the dance floor.
Moving gently, elegantly with no aim to sweat, he commands attention when he gets down.
More often than not, he has his dim sunglasses on as he makes statements with his dance moves.
In the same mysterious way, he lets his music speak for him.
Although he humbly introduces himself, his musical strides precede him.
Tsiliso Molokoli, affectionately known as Tman Xpress, started his music career in 2009 when he was still in high school.
When his football dreams began looking unattainable, he gravitated towards making Afro neo-soul music.
After his neighbour friend noticed how much he loved singing in the shower, he was convinced to take the leap of faith and explore music more.
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“My singing was bad at the time, but I only realise this now because I’m this good. After my first recording, the guy used fruity loops. By the time I heard the final product, I was like ‘we can do this’. I liked what I heard, and I wanted to do it more, so I started.”
Between fooling around with studio recordings and finally deciding to make a career out of it, he learned that “in order to for you to do it and make it, it has to come from within”.
As soon as he started taking on gigs, he began seeing a future in the music industry and started learning the right ropes.
A few years later, the Soweto-born musician enrolled for an arts qualification in pursuit to become an all-rounded performer.
“I loved dancing so much from way back so when I got into theatre, it was more formal. I started falling in love with the arts in general, I knew I wanted to be an entertaining musician. I found myself in arts through music and as a vocalist, that’s my strong point.”
It wasn’t until 2018 when he launched himself into amapiano that he started climbing the musical ladder.
Initially, he was sceptical about it but after De Mthuda’s Shesha Geza became a hit song, he saw a gap in the market.
From his first song in the popular genre, Uyaz’dala, the 30-year-old vocalist went viral in his township.
He realised that “the platform to get into the limelight is easier through amapiano than it is with other genres” and fully committed.
The first to pick at his talent was DJ Jaivane whose mixtapes would make rounds and kept many going throughout the covid period. From one song to the next, Tman Xpress found his voice in telling township stories in the most relatable way possible, even if it meant bringing his Sotho flair to his vocals.
“People need to hear things that they experience, they need to hear inspiration, prayer and what they go through in townships. I did a song that directly spoke about my neighbours even though I didn’t namedrop, they loved it, and it blew up,” he adds.
Almost every year since 2019, he’s released at least one project for the books. From his EP called One for the Yanos in which he featured Killer Kau, Comofyder in which he featured the Major League DJs to last year’s Chukela in which he featured the big likes of Mellow and Sleazy, DJ Maphorisa, Daliwonga, Sir Trill and Kabza De Small.
As he grew, he blossomed into a spiritual era in his music.
“I’m now expanding my horizon. I’ve grown my network. I dropped my first album Ikigai in 2021 and it did well. When I started dropping music with Mellow and Sleazy, it opened another different door to my brand because I started making more spiritual music; music that matters more to me.”
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Evidently, his features on bangers such as Kwelinye, Amasango, iMali ikhona and iMnandi lento made it to hitlists.
Even with his impressive rise to stardom in the amapiano music space, he says that he’d go back to afro music any day.
“That’s my heart and soul, that’s my first home and I’ve got this love for Afro-tech and Afro-tribe, spiritual ancestral music because I don’t think we find a lot of that in amapiano. What resonates the most with me is spirituality.”
On his radar currently, Tman Xpress has an EP that he’ll be dropping soon as an album, just in time for spring.
“I have about 30 songs to release and from that, I need to choose the best 15. I want to take my time with it, I want the album to take you on a journey. It must feel like a day’s progression from the calm awakening in the morning with a prayer to the build-up to a great groove night out and the fall of events back home, ending off with another prayer.”
To mark his significant 30 years of living, he will be hosting his fourth birthday jamboree celebration in his Pimville township where he grew up.
“There are two different worlds (the township and upmarket life), I have experienced both and I want to merge those two worlds for a day so I can inspire. The goal has remained the same since the beginning. With the first birthday jamboree, I became the first person to bring a live band to my township.”
With a star-studded lineup for the event on May 31, he has gone from a mocked male vocalist – a career path that was shunned on to an inspiration that many look up to.
