Windek!

By Matilda Nzioki

The catchy Windek song is sweeping across Kenyan dancefloors at record speed and it's all thanks to 21-year-old Ivo Manuel Lemus aka Cabo Snoop, a Kuduro artist from Luanda, Angola.

Growing up in a humble family of 13 boys, he was a shy boy who was introduced to music as a dancer in a dance group called Crazy Boyz that took part in local dance competitions.

He later joined record label and music video production company Power House as an assistant in video production. He was nicknamed ‘Snoop’ at the label due to his slim physique resembling Snoop Dogg. He started to appreciate the Kuduro style of music taught to him by in-house producer IVM Beatz.

The producer came up with the Windek beat last year and asked Cabo to sing in it. Unfortunately, Alongside Cabo’s two dancers, IVM (Ibrahim Martins), the big guy in the Windek video, passed away in April this year in a road accident in which Cabo survived with serious injuries.

Initially, Windek was shelved for a month and then it was tested on a crowd, after which it became apparent that the song had great potential. The successful single and video led to international appreciation and last year, Cabo Snoop was awarded Best Lusophone artist at the MTV MAMA Awards.

That same year he released his 14-track debut album titled Bluetooth with songs like Prakatatumba, Vamos l·, Slow motion, Windek, Walalipo and Zangala Guduma all in the Kuduro style which is a type of Angolan dance music influenced by African traditional music, zouk, house and techno.