The Collaboration That Took Seven Years: Netbustar, Drimz and a Song Born in Kabwe
There are collaborations that happen because two artists happen to be in the same studio at the right time.
And then there are collaborations that seem to have their own destiny.
For me, Impelako Chance belongs to the second kind.
The story began not in 2014, when the song was finally recorded, but years earlier in the streets and studios of Kabwe, when I was still chasing a dream that seemed increasingly difficult to reach.
I wanted Drimz on one of my records.
It sounded simple.
It wasn't.
By the time the dream finally became a song, I had already spent years knocking on doors that refused to open.
Kabwe Before the Collaboration
To understand the story of Impelako Chance, you have to go back to Kabwe in the mid-2000s.
This was a different music era.
Digital distribution had not yet transformed the way musicians released their work. Streaming platforms were not driving music discovery. Social media had not become the powerful promotional machine it is today.
For young musicians, studios were meeting points, classrooms, laboratories and sometimes the only places where dreams could be converted into sound.
Luena Music Studios was part of that world.
Around that time, Emmy Roots was one of the prominent musical figures associated with Kabwe, alongside the Adonai singers and other musicians who helped give the city its distinctive musical character.
Then there was a young artist whose name was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
Drimz.
His song “Muntu Chabe” was making waves in Kabwe.
For a young musician like me, it was more than simply a popular song. It was evidence that somebody from our musical environment could make people listen.
And I wanted to be part of that story.
Not as a spectator.
As a collaborator.
2007: The First Search
In 2007, before the eventual closure of Luena Music Studios, I decided to look for Drimz.
I left Luena Music Studios with my friend Sydney, known as Molik, and headed towards Rub Cabinet Studios in Highridge, Kabwe.
The studio was situated opposite Green Grass Lodge.
At that time, Rub Cabinet was one of the places where Drimz was known to spend time.
I went there with a simple hope: I wanted to meet Drimz and make a song with him.
But when I arrived, the person I had travelled to find was not there.
Drimz was in Lusaka.
He was pushing his music and working with Roberto.
The studio door may have been open, but the door to the collaboration was still closed.
I went back.
The dream remained.
2012: Another Door
Five years passed.
The music landscape was changing, and so was Drimz's career.
In 2012, I tried again.
This time I knocked on the doors of Drimtainment, following the success of Potential Millionaire, Drimz's collaboration with Mack 2.
Surely, I thought, perhaps this was the moment.
But once again, the timing was wrong.
Drimz was away on the Copperbelt, working with Mack 2.
Another missed opportunity.
Two attempts.
Two disappointments.
But something inside me still refused to let the dream die.
Looking back, those failed attempts now feel less like rejection and more like delays.
I simply didn't know it at the time.
2014: The Door Finally Opens
Then came 2014.
This time, the circumstances were different.
Drimz and I finally had the opportunity to sit down and discuss the project.
We met at Matebeto in Kabwe town.
It should have been the beginning of a straightforward collaboration.
Instead, the conversation revealed another problem.
The producer I wanted for the project, Manase Luteke, was not on speaking terms with Drimz.
That was a serious complication.
Manase was my producer at Umoja Records.
Drimz was the artist I had spent years trying to work with.
And now the two people I needed for the same record were carrying a history that I did not control.
The project could have ended right there.
There were other pressures too.
Drimz was preparing for Chilanga Mulilo.
He had also suffered the loss of studio equipment after thieves broke into his house in Chowa.
There seemed to be one obstacle after another.
It would have been easy to walk away.
But somehow, the story kept moving.
When the Past Was Put Aside
Sometimes, the most important moment in a song's history is not the moment when the first note is recorded.
It is the moment when people decide to put their differences aside.
That is what happened.
Manase and Drimz reconciled.
And suddenly, the collaboration that had seemed impossible was alive again.
The studio atmosphere changed.
There was laughter.
There was dancing.
There were ideas being exchanged.
The tension that could have destroyed the project had no place in that room.
For a moment, the past stayed outside the studio door.
Inside, there was only music.
And that is how Impelako Chance was born.
More Than a Song
Today, when I listen to Impelako Chance, I don't hear only a recording from 2014.
I hear Kabwe.
I hear the studios.
I hear the ambitions of young musicians trying to find their place.
I remember walking into Rub Cabinet Studios in 2007 with a dream and discovering that Drimz was in Lusaka.
I remember returning in 2012 and discovering that he was away again.
And I remember the uncertainty of 2014, when even after finally getting the opportunity to work together, another obstacle stood between the idea and the finished record.
Seven years had passed between the beginning of the dream and its realisation.
Seven years of waiting.
Seven years of changing circumstances.
Seven years of wondering whether the collaboration would ever happen.
But eventually, it did.
A Song From Another Era
There is something particularly powerful about releasing an old song years after it was recorded.
The music carries the sound of its era, but the story behind it carries something timeless.
Impelako Chance is a document from a particular moment in Zambian music history.
It takes me back to a time when Kabwe's music scene was producing artists, producers and dreams in its own unique way.
It reminds me of the people who were there before streaming, TikTok and today's digital music economy changed how artists reach audiences.
Most importantly, it reminds me that music is not always created under perfect circumstances.
Sometimes it is created in the middle of disagreements.
Sometimes it survives failed plans.
Sometimes it waits years for the right people to be in the same room.
And sometimes, the story behind the song becomes just as important as the song itself.
Finally, the World Can Hear It
Today, I can finally release Netbustar featuring Drimz "Impelako Chance", produced by Manase Luteke.
For some listeners, it may simply be another song.
For me, it is a piece of history.
It is the sound of a dream that refused to disappear.
It is the story of a young musician from Kabwe who went looking for an artist in 2007, tried again in 2012, and finally got the opportunity in 2014.
And perhaps that is the greatest lesson hidden inside this old recording.
Not every closed door means “no.” Sometimes it simply means “not yet.”
Years after that first search, the door finally opened.
And when it did, the music was waiting.
Netbustar ft Drimz — Impelako Chance.
Produced by Manase Luteke.
A song born from a long wait.
A song carrying the memories of Kabwe.
And a collaboration that took seven years to find its moment.
Here is the song:
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