Monika Amunyela 

Gonkenda Isai Sipunga, also known as FortyEight (MoneyBagzz), is creating a space for himself in the hip hop scene, turning personal struggle into a unique sound. 

The artist is originally from Tsumeb.

 “Whenever I felt sad or afraid, I turned to music, it became my therapy,” he said. Raised in a home filled with music, where his father was a musician and his brother is still in the music industry, his artistry was shaped long before he understood it as a career path. 

Sitting beside his father during recording sessions as well as being around friends, cousins and a variety of sounds have fuelled his passion for creating sound.  Over time, sound became a section of his passion he felt he needed more.  He then began writing out his feelings, slowly transforming emotion into song.  He explored all this without any formal training.

 FortyEight taught himself to play the keyboard and learned how to record, mix and engineer using little more than a computer and whatever tools were available.

 “I did not know what I was doing. I had an idea, though, so I was just putting drum samples and instruments together,” he said.  Trusting his instincts became part of his creative identity all while allowing the universe to guide him through his work.  Although simple, his stage name carries symbolic weight. The number 48 represents prosperity earned through struggle in Chinese numerology. 

This fits in perfectly with his latest single, ‘The Pressure’, from his project ‘Double Us (W’s = Wins)’.

The making of his single began in 2022.  It took time to find its final shape – one could call the process the wine’s élevage  “I just could not find the right beat and chorus for it. One day it came to me in my dream. I jotted it down the minute I got up and recorded it later that day,” he said. The song confronts the pressure that comes with masculinity, expectation and endurance. 

At the time of writing, FortyEight was carrying immense pressure. 

“The societal pressure of having to own things that would place you at a certain level, I was chasing it, but I kept failing,” he said.

 With his job not working out and at one point losing his car, studio and home, he felt as though he had reached the end of the rope.

“I was about to self-destruct, but something kept pushing me, and I made it eventually,” he shared.

This experience became the heartbeat of the track. “That’s why I wrote the song to motivate and inspire anyone who has been through hell or is still going through it,” he said.

While the song feels widely relatable, he said it began with himself – being honest with himself about his feelings and turning them into iconic bars.  For FortyEight, ‘The Pressure’ represents the struggles that come before the win – “the unseen effort behind success that most people never notice,” he said.  

Releasing such an honest hip-hop track in Namibia comes with risk.

 He admitted that the biggest risk was not getting streams.

He added that vulnerable rap is often underappreciated locally. 

Still, he believes there is space for the genre in Namibia. 

“There’s definitely a lot of room for it. But ultimately, it’s up to us as rap artists to create high-quality songs and flood the market with great music,” he said.– mamunyela@nepc.com.na