Background

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EARGAS is made up of a vibrant, trendy, like-minded trio namely; Ntokozo “K.O.” Mdluli from Piet Retief in Mpumalanga, two brothers Ezee “Ma-E” Hanabe and Bantu “Ntukza” Hanabe from Soweto. Signed to Electromode Music in 2005, Teargas released the critically-acclaimed debut album, K’shubile K’bovu. This is a 14 track album filled with positive messages of hope, social awareness and party songs all strung together into one classic offering.

With the help of talented producers like Flux, Cat’walk, Nyambz, 635, and TEARGAS themselves, the charismatic group successfully put together an educative, motivational and an overall entertaining album that boasts with hits like Teargas Anthem, We Came to Party, the Award-winning “Chance”, and many more.

The emergence of Teargas in 2006

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he Song “Chance” was at number 1 for 4 weeks on UKhozi Fm’s Top 20 Charts (6 Million Listeners), it also went up to no.2 on the Y-fm International top 20 and was certified as the most requested song on the station. The song debuted at no.15 on the Metro Fm National Top 20, climbing all the way up to No. 5. On 19 September 2006, TEARGAS shot the video for “Chance”, which enjoyed screen-time on SABC TV, Channel-O, MTV Base to mention a few.


The video went up to No. 2 as the most requested song on SABC 1’s One Music Show, beating industry giants like DJ Cleo and Kabelo to the chase. Early 2007, “Chance” was one of the 4 nominees in the Song of The Year category at that year’s South African Music Awards. Late 2007, the music video for “Chance” was nominated in the Best Video by a Group category at the 2007 Annual Channel O Music Video Awards. The follow-up single “Teargas Anthem” debuted at No. 19 on the Metro FM Top 20 charts and subsequently shot straight to the no. 1 position, two weeks later.

The group shot the video for the final single off their debut K’shubile K’bovu, “Hold On”, a song urging young people to know their HIV/AIDS status. “Hold on” extended the lifespan of the album to a good two years and the band enjoyed the momentum throughout the 2007 festive season before their second release in 2008.

In the 2007 Media Guide South African Top 100 Playlist week 28, “Chance” was enlisted at number 51 as the most played song in the country. Again, Media Guide South African Top 100 Rams week 28, 2006, “Chance” appeared at number 12 as the most requested song in the country. “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley at number 1 and “Slow wind” by R Kelly at number 99.

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pting for a more mature and experimental sound, the CD boasts with eclectic production by the I.V. League, Don Juan, Denone, DJ Luddah, 3 Kingz and TEARGAS, who successfully bring out the high-energy signature style the group is famous for.

The set-pacing first single “champions” featuring Bongo Riot hit radio late February to much success, peaking in the top 5 of top local radio charts. The Tevin Campbell inspired “let you know” love ode subsequently followed and music videos for both singles dropped in August ’08 and enjoyed high rotation on MTV Base, SABC TV and Channel O.

In support of the release of Wafa Wafa, the group embarked on a country-wide tour called the Wafa Wafa Tour which kicked off on February 16th in KZN and ended in Piet Retief in December 2008. In addition to doing concerts, during the tour TEARGAS does charity work by visiting schools, shelters for the disabled and homeless kids. They meet fans and host in-store promotions in all the areas to strengthen fan-base.


The last official single off the album was “take u out” featuring 2lip. A video was released late March ’09 making TEARGAS one of the few artists to release three videos for one album in South African. And like its predecessors, the song and video garnered heavy rotation on radio and TV respectively.

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th ANNUAL METRO FM AWARDS 2008On the 29th of November 2008, TEARGAS also walked away with yet another accolade at the ’08 Annual Metro FM Awards for Best Group. They had also been nominated for Best Hip Hop that night.

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th ANNUAL MTN South African Music AwardsIn what seemed to be a highly contested category at the 2009 SAMA’s in Sun City on May 2nd, TEARGAS proudly emerged as victors in the Best Rap Category for the album Wafa Wafa, their first SAMA win. “Hip hop trio Teargas has proved once again why they are Kings of South African hip hop” – The Sowetan Newspaper (Monday, 04 May 2009).

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

1Prominent performances

• Ukhozi-FM’s Magic Tour 2006, Unisa.
• 7th Annual Metro Fm Awards Ceremony in Port Elizabeth 25 Nov 2006
• Chiefs Vs Pirates PSL Derby Match at FNB Stadium 09 Dec 2006
• Lo’real Year-end function at Skyrader, Germiston, 15 Dec 2006
• Kwaito Nation Music Festival, Florida Lake, 26 Dec 2006
• Metro FM Heat Wave at Mofolo Park, Soweto, 06 Jan 2007.
• FASU GAMES Opening Ceremony (All Africa University-Olympics) at TUKS (Pretoria University) 02 July 2006.
• SABC 2 Theme Song and Best of TK CD Launch 29 September 2006
• Y-FM Edgars Music series at the Bassline 01 December 2006
• South Coast Music Festival in Portshepstone, KZN 15 December 2006
• Summer Jazz Festival, at Uitenage in PE, 17 Dec ‘06 Always Keep Moving Dance Competition Search: Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, February and March 2007.
• Metro FM Heat Wave at Kempton Park Golf Course, Kempton Park, 12 Jan 2008.
• Ukhozi FM Nyusa i-Volume Tour 2008

2Charts

• TEARGAS is the only group that had two songs (Chance & Teargas Anthem) listed at the same time on the Metro-FM charts, after Bongo Muffin.
• “Chance” – Debuted at No. 1 on Metro FM’s hip Hop show hosted by Tbo Touch and stayed at No. 1 for 5 weeks, before dropping down to no. 2 for 4 weeks.
• “Teargas Anthem” debuted at number 1 on the charts as well as “we came to party”, which also debuted at number 1 on the 30th of September 2006.
• “champions” debuted at number on the Metro FM Top 40 Hits Countdown in May 08.