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"To prepare for the aural experience, that is Tha Hymphatic Thabs, put everything you ever knew and/or thought of hip-hop into a pretty pink box and ask your mom to keep it in a safe place for you. Then take a deep breath, hold your nose and plunge into his universal chaos. It's well worth it. The beats are unpredictable, the sound is industrial, his rhymes are compelling in a Roald Dahl/Clive Barker sort of way, and his performance staccato."
- Theresa Owen - TONIGHT - The Star (Nov 14, 2007)
 
 
Hymphatic Thabs embodies the essence of alternative South African Hip-Hop music. 

Thabs' journey into hip-hop began around 1994 when he was in junior high school, in Maseru, Lesotho.  Growing up in the mountain kingdom, in a musical family (his grandfather was historical choral composer J.P Mohapeloa), Hymphatic inherited the broken rhythmic patterns of the traditional oral poetry that surrounded him and developed a unique hip-hop style. 

The talented word-mangler and emcee later moved from Lesotho to Johannesburg where he submerged himself deeply and completely in the local South African scene, eventually growing to become one of the most creatively influential MC's of the era.
As one of the first local rappers to have music videos broadcast on national television, and with a string of independant albums that followed, Hymphatic Thabs took the South African underground hip-hop scene to another dimension.
 
Error Era, Thabs' first album, was independently released in 2001. The project was  a personal journey of discovery; a time of experimenting and learning from mistakes, and ropped in production from diverse producers such as Iko, Richard the IIIrd, DJ Blaze, Skwatta Kamp and Kanif, as well as live musicians such as Kyla Smith and Africa Mkhize.
His second release, (2003), ironically titled Perfect Times, also highly experimental in style, took an honest and satirical look at the state of society, reflecting anything but perfect times.

 

In 2007, Hymphatic Thabs teamed up with producer and sampletologist Kanif the Jhatmaster, at the time one half of esoteric HipHop outfit 'WitchCraft'...  Together they started conceptualising an album that would play out more as an audio film than a musical offering. the resulting project, 'The Age of Horus' was instantly hailed as a classic, recieving 4 and a half mics in the Hype magazine. The album gave birth to a whole new texture in the sound of local HipHop. Alongside crews like Groundworx, BMP and WitchCraft, a new form of HipHop, labeled dungeon rap by local heads, was born amongst the  streets.

 

Heavily involved in Iapetus records behind the scenes, Hymphatic has appeared as executive producer on releases such Robo the Technician and Zetina Mosia's 'The RoundAbout'.

Having just dropped the first single 'It Is' off his is highly awaited new project 'Centre of the Universe' , we patiently wait to hear what he who 'inhabits labs' has to tell us.
 
An animated performer, Tha Hymphatic Thabs has shared stages with many local and international artists such as the late great Robo The Technician, Gin-I Grindith, Guru (US), Jonzi-D (UK), Issues (USA), Tumi (Tumi & The Volume), Proverb, Lesego Rampolokeng, Pitch Black Afro, Dead Prez (USA), ProKid, Wordsworth (USA), Bambaataa,  Black Thought (The Roots), Mzwakhe Mbuli, Jabu Khanyile, Linton Kwesi Johnson (UK), Thandiswa Mazwai, Cappadona (Wu-Tang) and The Last Poets.

 

"I dont know, it just sort of feels fair"