From Harare’s Highfield township (where Robert Mugabe used to live…long ago), to Essex, to Camberwell, to Hackney, to the centre of our affections.

We predict big things for Zimbabwean afriPOP! star on the rise Tinashe whom we put you up on a few weeks back, and whose debut EP Mayday we just can’t leave alone.

Vintage Brit-pop, Soukouss, the mbira thumb piano, the djembe drum…all are part of his compelling music make up. It’s been about an age since we heard pop music this original and good.  So, of course we’re excited!

Electro producer/DJ and BBC Radio 1 presenter Kissy Sell Out collaborates on Come On Over (This Could Be Love), German DJ So Shifty, who remixed The Very Best’s Warm Heart of Africa, also contributes a remix of Mayday.

In our video interview Tinashe talks about being black and producing guitar music in the British music industry, his musical influences, xenophobic unrest in South Africa and partying it up in Cape Town.

Wait, there’s more: Get to know: Tinashe // Zimbabwe’s first ever fashion week // Shingai Shoniwa in Essence Mag