Book of Proverbs, a poetic book of maxims from the Old Testament. Proverb, a short pithy saying in common or recognised use; a concise sentence, often metaphorical, held to express some general truth.
A lot to live up to if ProVerb is your non de plume as an emcee, but this guy has the goods, as he proved with his first release, Book of ProVerb, his sophomore album, Manuscript, his mixtape, Off Da Books, and now again with his latest effort, Write of Passage. This guy is never short of words, concepts or rhymes.
Hailing from Kimberley (home of the world's largest diamond crystal), ProVerb lost no time finding his footing in the “big city” of Johannesburg.
His first break came in 2003 when he collaborated with Amu, one of Jo'burg's veterans, on the track "Attention", after which he quickly battled and freestyled his way up the ranks to release albums, make a name for hmself in radio as a technical producer, and on TV as the host of Headrush, a popular African hip hop show.
A true emcee in every sense, ProVerb is always interested in connecting hip hop from different parts of the continent, hence his collaborations with artists such as Mode 9 (Nigeria) and performance with Awadi (of Positive Black Soul, Senegal) at the African presidents tour in South Africa.
A busy guy, yet he makes the time for charity work, and is involved with Unicef, activities that have taken him to India, Uganda, Ethiopia and Spain.
Of all his activities, though, what stands out is the music. ProVerb's lyrics are profound, his rhyming skills sharp, and listening to him is like reading a good book. It feeds your soul and makes you wanna write better, wanna be better.
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