Rapper Roy Charamba’s been making beats for a quick minute, teaching himself how to work the amps and sequencers at the ripe age of 11 after his parents emigrated from his home country Zimbabwe to South Africa in search of better work. It’s been six years and after honing his skills and working his way up the ranks, including a killer remix for Frank Casino’s single “Whole Thing” Charamba is ready to switch the sequencer for the booth and get into the action himself. He’s signed to G63 Music, and has just put out his first single under the label, “You Know”.

Charamba’s music draws strong parallels to fellow Zimbabwean PatrickxxLee; both have made careers for themselves as producers, both have a taste for goth influenced melodrama as evinced by the melancholic synths that form the soul of their instrumental beats. But that is where the comparisms end. Roy Charamba is way more direct in his musings, cutting through the self introspection to the heart of the matter. And matters of the heart are at the core of “You Know”, specifically a former lover whose sudden decision to end what comes off as a destructive co-dependent relationship filled with booze and drugs wrecks Charamba’s protagonist. He wants her back, but she seems much better off without him and the protagonist parties even harder to forget her. It’s the quintessential post-millennial love story, almost impossible not to relate.

Rappers from Zim are really the new wave.

Listen to “You know” here.