Nitefreak Could Have Kept Releasing on Other People's Labels. Instead He Built One So Bulawayo Owns Its Own Sound.

Why did Nitefreak start his own label instead of signing again?

Bhekinkosi Mabhena, the Bulawayo-born DJ-producer known as Nitefreak, has already been through the machine once: releases via Spinnin' Deep and Higher Ground, plus management under Deep Root Records, built his name on Ushuaia Ibiza and Hi Ibiza lineups. None of that gave him control over his own catalogue. In March 2025, he and Zimbabwean, UK-based entrepreneur Terrie T launched Afroholic Records to fix that.

"His whole vision behind starting his own label was so that we could control the narrative and the music we put out, and no one could tell us if it's not good enough," Terrie T told Dancing Astronaut. It's a blunt description of the problem every Global South artist signed to a European or American label eventually runs into: someone else decides what counts as good enough to release.

Who else is on the Afroholic roster?

Afroholic's answer is deliberate. Rather than build a vanity imprint around Nitefreak alone, the label signed the Bulawayo producers around him. Murphy Cubic and MJ Sings released "Asibe Mnandi" through the label; Samuel Cosmic is also on the roster, alongside newer names like Vidojean and Oliver Loenn, who feature on "Wherever You Are." It reads less like a solo artist's side project and more like an attempt to formalize a scene that, until now, had no infrastructure of its own between Bulawayo bedrooms and the international festival circuit.

"His whole vision behind starting his own label was so that we could control the narrative and the music we put out, and no one could tell us if it's not good enough.", Terrie T

What does "Masterclass" with Roland Clark signal?

The label picked its opening statement carefully. Afroholic's debut single pairs Nitefreak with Roland Clark, the veteran house vocalist whose voice sits behind decades of genre-defining records. Putting Bulawayo's new guard next to one of house music's most recognizable voices is a credibility play as much as a creative one: it tells distributors, bookers and playlisters that Afroholic isn't a regional side hustle, it's positioning itself inside the same conversation as the labels Nitefreak used to release through.

How far does Bulawayo's reach already extend?

Nitefreak also runs HiNDE, an event brand that has taken Afro house showcases from Zimbabwe to New York, Miami and Mauritius, so the label launch isn't happening in isolation. Between a touring circuit, a label and a roster of Bulawayo producers, Afroholic looks less like one artist cashing in on a moment and more like an attempt to build the kind of ownership structure that Afro house, now selling out European and North American club calendars, rarely lets its originating scenes keep.