The beat from the street
Every city has a sound. Jozi's comes from taxi ranks and rooftop sessions, jazz basements and Sunday braais, and the radio playing in a barbershop operating from the garage. Jozi Soundtrack hands the aux cable to the DJs, musicians, curators and music lovers who shape how this city sounds. Each one builds a playlist around a season, a place or a feeling.
Press play, and hear Jozi through someone else's ears.
DJ Kenzhero is more than a DJ - a Jozi My Jozi Babize Bonke champion and a cultural connector, he's one of the people who have kept Johannesburg moving, listening and coming together for more than two decades.
About DJ Kenzhero
Kenneth Bekizizwe Nzama, known to audiences as DJ Kenzhero, is a South African DJ, promoter, music producer and event organiser whose work has helped shape Johannesburg’s live-music and club culture for over 20 years.
Born in 1976, during the youth uprising against apartheid, Kenzhero grew up in a musical household, with his grandfather among his earliest influences. He began deejaying in 1998 at Johannesburg poetry sessions, cutting his teeth in a scene powered by spoken word, live improvisation and fearless creative expression. It was the kind of space that made Jozi what it is: raw, rhythmic, resourceful and always ready to make something out of nothing.
In 2001, he relocated to Cape Town, where he held residencies at clubs including Marvel and Baraza, and worked as a headline DJ for acts such as Freshlyground. Returning to Gauteng in 2004, he built a career spanning club floors, corporate stages and radio airwaves, while expanding into television scoring and music production for local artists.
His sound is unmistakable: a fluid, feel-good blend of hip-hop, soul, funk and jazz, stitched together with deep musical knowledge and an instinct for reading the room. Whether he is warming up a crowd, holding down a festival stage or taking listeners on a late-night journey, Kenzhero moves effortlessly across genres and generations. He is also a longstanding resident DJ at Back to the City, one of South Africa’s most important hip-hop festivals.
Kenzhero’s voice and musical selections have been fixtures on South African radio. He was resident DJ on YFM’s Bad Boy Lee and Sanza Drive Time, played alongside Rudeboy Paul Breakfast and co-hosted The Bridge Hip Hop. His radio journey has also included Red Bull Radio, the Sudan Morning Show on Tuks FM, Party People Radio on UJ Radio, and contributions to Kaya FM’s Sound Supreme and What’s Wrong With Groovin’.
But Kenzhero has never only played music - he has built the platforms where music, people and possibility meet. He founded the Oranix Open Mind Sessions, the influential live jazz and hip-hop gatherings that gave rise to Tumi and The Volume. He also created and curated Party People, a national event series that ran for a decade and brought international acts together with South Africa’s leading musicians. His wider cultural footprint includes co-curating the Sipho Gumede Stage at Oppikoppi for five years, co-founding MNM Marketing - the force behind the Obrigado and What’s Wrong With Groovin’ brands - as well as serving as chief curator of the Basha Uhuru Festival for six years.
Today, he co-owns Artivist restaurant and Untitled Basement in Braamfontein, which has become an iconic venue for music, culture and people who believe the city is best experienced through its sound, stories and shared spaces.
As a Babize Bonke champion, DJ Kenzhero represents the energy that keeps Jozi alive: the hustle, the creativity, the resilience and the ability to bring everybody into the rhythm. He makes the unseen seen, turns a set into a gathering, and reminds us that this city does not stop. Through every beat, every room and every platform he creates, Kenzhero invites us to listen closer, connect deeper and experience the heartbeat of Joburg through the people who make it what it is.