PilAto

Born in 1984, PilAto (real name Fumba Chama), written as PilAto (People In Lyrical Arena Taking Over) is a hip-hop artist from Zambia. He was born in Ndola city, part of the country’s Copperbelt Province. His music largely centers on commenting the social aspects affecting people. He sings mostly in Zambian languages.

His passion began when he was ten years old. His career as a musician kicked off in 2010. That same year, he won the Ngoma Awards as Zambia’s Best Poet. In 2011, he was nominated in the Best Music Video category at the Born and Bred Awards. In 2014, he was nominated (and subsequently won the award) for Best Song Collaboration at the Zambia Music Awards. In that same year, he was for the second time nominated at the Born and Bred Awards in the Most Conscious Song category.

Since then, he has released two albums. In 2014, his ‘Just Stupid’ album was nominated for the Best Zed Album at the Zambia Music Awards. He has performances not only in Zambia but other countries as well. To date, he has performed in South Africa, D.R. Congo, Tanzania and the U.K. He heightened his profile in 2014 when he performed at South Africa’s annual SANAA Festival where he performed alongside renowned artists such as South Africa’s HHP, M.I. of Nigeria and Manifest of Ghana.

In June 2015, he was arrested over a song that officials said defamed President Edgar Lungu by accusing him of drinking too much and being incompetent.