A spotlight is bright on Fresh FM radio DJ Chazz thanks to her nomination for best female radio presenter at the Simply You Magazine Lifestyle and Fashion Awards.
Hosting ‘The C Drive’ alongside veteran DJ Cheeze, the combination is certainly deadly, but who is the face behind the mic?
“I grew up in Namibia for my primary school years,” the MC and music lover, real name Charlene Mubita, tells The Weekender. “My mom passed away when I was five so I grew up with my dad and two brothers.”
Her brother strongly influenced her love for music. It all began when he watched ‘Rap City’, a music programme that originally aired on BET. “I would zone out on the music there,” Chazz says with a smile. “We had MTV so I heard a lot of rock, pop and other sounds. I don’t really like to put myself in a box when it comes to music.”
When she was in Grade 7, her father remarried and she was sent to boarding school in South Africa. “My dad was also a diplomat so we travelled a lot,” Chazz recalls.
She later moved to Botswana and admits she hated the constant relocating, but loved being exposed to cultures of all kinds. “My biological mother was half-Chinese so I used to go to China every year. I was always up and down.”
In varsity, she did law for a while but quit and moved to South Africa. “Things weren’t actually good at home. I left the house at 20 years old and lived in Pretoria with my then boyfriend, a rapper.”
In 2012, she fell pregnant with a bubbly baby boy, but things didn’t work out with her son’s father, and she returned to Namibia. “I endured a lot of emotional abuse,” Chazz says. “I was even a waitress while pregnant and it was hard because you’re always on your feet. The whole world was on my shoulders.”
Life was hard for some time but her support system, which included her older brother, was solid. “He opened a company and I worked for him for some time, but I was also working as a preschool teacher. Then someone called me and said I should go into media.”
She auditioned at Fresh FM where KP Illest assisted her by offering tips on reading a script.
“Eventually, I got an email from the station manager and was called in for an interview.” Successfully securing a job at the station, she worked hard to earn her spot alongside the seasoned Cheeze.
“I came up with a segment called ‘Guess the Sample’ and people reacted really well to it!” Since then, Chazz has appeared in the Ashwyn Mberi production ‘Tales of Roses in Concrete’, and is now being recognised as a favourite DJ at the awards.
“Top tier radio personalities are in that category! The ones I work with are just as amazing. I’ve been getting tagged online and receiving a lot of messages… I’m so grateful. Win or lose, I’m so happy for the recognition.”
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