Nomuzi Mabena has been at the top of her game for a decade now.
First, she broke as an MTV Base VJ before moving over to Vuzu and Channel O where she cemented her place as one of the country’s most popular TV presenters.
Then she pursued a music career under the alias Moozlie as a part of the rap group, Cashtime.
She’s since branched off as a solo rapper, become one of the most bankable brand ambassadors around, and garnered a reputation as arguably the most consistent event MC in the country.
While she hasn’t released any new music this year, Mabena has been as busy as ever. “Yho!, what a year!” she says when we speak over the phone.
“What a year it’s been, man, it’s been a really long year. I’m not gonna lie, I’m definitely feeling that year-end fatigue. But it’s been a good year, lots of exciting things got done, lots of lessons learned, so I’m happy,” she says.
Apart from continuing her stellar work MCing and hosting events this year, Mabena has explored her creativity by delving into a new role as creative director for apparel brand, Drip.
Her relationship with Drip started off with her becoming a friend of the family by showing support to the brand and attending all their store openings.
Gradually she came to find that she shared a lot of the same vision and goals for the brand with the company’s founder, Lekau Sehoana.
She explains how this all unfolded: “So we first started off with Finesse, which is a fragrance.
“And I was the creative director for the campaign for that so I basically came up with the look and feel for it, put the whole photoshoot together, got all the shooters involved, styled it and the whole thing.
“That went really really amazing, it turned into a billboard campaign,” she says.
Given this success, Sehoana and his team decided to bring Mabena in to creative direct their recent collaboration with Fila.
“I won’t lie, it was definitely intimidating,” she admits.
“I was like, ‘Are you sure you want me to do this?’. I felt like I just had no experience but it was really amazing, working with the Fila team was incredible.
“I was involved in every level — we sat with the designer from Fila and I designed the whole collection with them, and then I came up with the look and feel for the campaign, I organised the events, I chose the influencers, like, it really was my creative vision that came together with a whole lot of team work over like 11 months.
“I worked on this thing with both teams so it was really like a labour of love,” she says.
Despite the workload feeling like a full-time office job, it was something she found to be worth it and fulfilling.
Over the past year, Mabena has also delved deeper into creative direction through her work with DJ Zinhle’s jewellery and accessories brand, Era By DJ Zinhle.
“I just loved the brand,” she says. “I think the minute I started hanging out with Zinhle, I started to see it more personally and closely.
“And then I was just like, ‘Girl this thing is fire, you gotta do this, you should try this’, and I really just forced myself into the job.
“And then when she got pregnant and she wasn’t able to shoot for the brand anymore I kind of really just had to take over as the model. And then doing that really just kind of shaped my perception of how I would like people to perceive our jewellery pieces and what they mean to us and why we wear them the way we wear them.
“And after some time she actually gave me the job, which was amazing,” she says.
Mabena describes the role as a dream come true, seeing as she’s been obsessed with jewellery for a long time now.
“I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s because I had short hair and I always just wanted to just over accessorise, but I’ve always loved jewellery, so being in this position is like a crazy, full circle moment,” she says.
Given all the work she’s done, it’s hardly a surprise when she describes her work in the creative directing space as the highlight of her year.
“Working with local brands and just developing the products that they offer and just how they present them to their markets has really been something that has been eye-opening for me.
“But also we’ve been able to achieve some really amazing work with Era by DJ Zinhle, with Drip and Finesse, and now this collaboration that we’ve done with Fila.
“We’ve been doing some really incredible things, but low-key. Like you know, that one where you’re killing it, but low-key. It’s some real boss Mafia level. It’s been really dope,” she says.
This latest voyage in Mabena’s career was sparked when the first lockdown went into effect in 2020.
With not much else to do, Mabena recalls how she took the opportunity to start learning new skills.
“I kind of had to think what can I really do to not only maintain my brand but actually my business.
“And just putting in the hours of learning in that year is finally coming into fruition this year.
“It’s been a long journey, but it’s been really amazing. It’s so interesting to see how the seeds that we planted in those difficult times are starting to grow and show,” she says.