ON THE RECORD | Tadi the Great
DJ, Tadiwanashe was born in Zimbabwe in 1996 and as the youngest of the three siblings, he was able to soak up all the musical tastes of the family from the mother’s Gospel, father’s Dub, sister’s R’n’B & brother’s Hip Hop which would become very useful much later on in his open format DJ sets, influences and sample searches as the artist Tadi the Great.
Tadi has played at Festival’s such as We Out Here, WildPath’s and First Light and has opened for Zed Bias, Flowdan and many more. He was chosen to be a part of Gilles Peterson & Brownwood Music’s Future Bubblers and through this, he has had the opportunity to have his music played on Worldwide FM & perform at the Jazz Cafe.
On 10 May 2025, Tadi opened up for Broadcaster, DJ and record collector, Gilles Peterson at a Norfolk & Norwich Festival show. It was electric and Tadi set the scene perfectly. We asked Tadi to share the tracks that he feels closest to and tell us a little bit about why.
TRACK #1 | DE LA SOUL – ‘EYE KNOW’ (1989)
This track is so special to me and many other fans of hip hop, for the longest time it wasn’t on streaming platforms despite it being a cult classic and at the time it became available to be streamed, a member of the group sadly passed away. As a listener and artist who loves the art & history of sampling in hip hop, I am always mind-blown by the different layers of samples and how they all sound cohesive considering the limitations of the equipment of that time. Lastly, I thank this track for introducing me to the world of Steely Dan, via the sampling of ‘Peg’.
TRACK #2 | OSIBISA – ‘MUSIC FOR GONG GONG’ (1971)
I think for as a long as I am alive, this is a track I will always go back to. I initially came across this track via Louie Vega & Luisito Quintero’s rendition and this was early-ish days of me djing and to this day I still play both that version and the original one. A few months ago, we had some family come down to visit my parents & as usual, I was on DJing duties (it never ends) my dad revealed he actually saw Osibisa live in Zimbabwe & I was mindblown because I’ve been obsessed with them to the point where I didn’t even think of them performing to a crowd in my birth country, let alone with my dad present.
TRACK #3 | LORD NELSON – ’SHANGO’ (1978)
It’s tracks like these that push me to search beyond my peripheral, there’s no better feeling than finding music that’s new to you. I have always been fascinated by African spirituality & music that comes with it and this track is up there for me in terms of my favourites. If like me, you visualise what the music is saying then you’ll love this track as it has an abundance of lyrics that stimulate this:
I feel my spirit travelling
Into space and time
When a voice command me,
he say “Seek and ye shall find”
Beauty all around me,
pretty water for miles and miles
Then the voice inform me,
said “son you’re watching the river Nile…
These lyrics paired with the driving 4/4 beat, traditional instruments and chanting are nothing short of trance inducing, buckle up.
BRENDA RUSSELL – ‘SO GOOD, SO RIGHT’ (1979) (not available on the playlist but listen here)
I love many eras but if I had a time machine, my first stop would have to be the 1970s to figure out what was in the water.I came across this magnificent record at St Gregory’s Church in Norwich and I like the tension and release throughout its entirety. There’s moments in the track where it feels like it’s heading another direction then you get tired back in to the chorus featuring incredible harmonies and different layers of sonic goodness. Not to make this sound somber but if this is the last record I play in my life, I wouldn’t be mad at all.
Firstly, NameBrandSound is a duo made up of IG Culture and Alex Phountzi, both with heavy discographies under their belts and their works mainly exist within the Broken Beat realm. I came across this track back in 2020 when it came out and have been obsessed since, it blows my mind that this has ‘demo’ in the title because I’m like, what more does this need? It’s perfect where it’s at. The vocal pairs incredibly well and this always gets a good reception when I play it out. If you aren’t aware of NameBrandSound, please change that now.
TRACK #5 | PRINCE NICO MBARGA & ROCAFIL JAZZ INTERNATIONAL – ‘AKI SPECIAL’ (1976)
Initially, I came across Prince Nico Mbarga via their classic ‘Sweet Mother’, up there as one the holy grails of the highlife genre and has often been described as the best-selling song in history by an African recording artist (Skepta did his own of ‘Sweet Mother’ on his ‘Greatest Hits’ album back in 2007). There isn’t much I can say that hasn’t been said about ‘Sweet Mother’ and it’s brilliance however, don’t underestimate the other side of the record that features ‘Aki Special’. This track can liven up any room and bring sunshine to the darkest of places. I don’t know whether it’s intentional that they are pronouncing ‘Aki’ as ‘I care’ but that, to me brings an extra level of depth and emotion, who doesn’t want to know someone cares for them over such lively instrumentation.
TRACK #6 | FANIA ALL-STARS – VENTE CONMIGO (1980)
Fania is a New-York record label that is known for its promotion of salsa music and Fania All-Stars was a supergroup of the most elite salsa musicians and singers for joint performances and recordings. Members of Fania All-Stars already had strong discographies under their respective belts but a few members I’d recommend checking out are Ray Barretto, Johnny Pacheco, Bobby Valentin. For me, this track is perfect, the energy is unmatched and I would not change a single thing. There’s also a live performance group did of this track on YouTube and I always revisit that and hope to astral project myself to that moment in time, I mean it translates from Spanish to ‘Come with me’.
TRACK #7 | MR SCRUFF, ALICE RUSSELL – ‘MUSIC TAKES ME UP’ (2008)
Often you’ll hear people say a song ‘talks to them’, but for me, this song not only speaks to me but also speaks for me and essentially summarises what music also does to me. You can only imagine my surprise and the euphoria that ensured when I found this record out in the wild Wild West of record shop crates. Mr Scruff & Alice Russell created a masterpiece here merging elements of Soul, Jazz, Hip Hop & I could listen to this forever. I already was a fan of Mr Scruff and his Midas touch but Alice Russell’s vocal performance on this was an incredible introduction. Lyrically, the song pretty much describes what’s going on with the listener from the attention grabbing first line “think of life without music” to my favourite:
When the drums come crawling
The baseline moves you in
Sounds of regal splendour
Fit for a king and queen
Secrets of the universe
The mysteries of life
And the things that don’t make sense
All come clear
‘Cause music takes me up
Music takes me up
Yes, music takes me up