Another tragedy has hit the South African music scene, as rapper Costa Titch dies performing on stage.
The musician, whose name is Costa Tsobanoglou, reportedly collapsed while performing at the Ultra South Africa music festival in Johannesburg on Saturday.
The 27-year-old was performing one of his songs when he collapsed on stage. Later, he stood up and continued his performance, only to collapse again and die.
Costa Tsobanoglou, better known as Costa Titch, was a rising artist from Mbombela, near the border with Swatini and Mozambique. His most successful single, Big Flexa, has received over 45 million views on YouTube, and a remix featuring US artist Akon was recently released.
Costa, who is also a dancer, was born in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga in 1995 and is known for several hits, including Nkalakatha and Activate.
The news of Costa Titch’s death was confirmed by entertainment commentator Phil Mphela on Twitter just before midnight and was followed by a string of sombre reactions from industry colleagues.
Fellow musician Junior Da Rocka and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema are among those to seemingly reference the rapper’s passing.
The passing of Costa Titch comes as music fans are still mourning the loss of fellow rapper AKA, whose real name was Kiernan Forbes. He was shot outside of a restaurant in Durban by unknown hitmen and the South African Police Service (SAPS) are still investigating the case. Interestingly, both Costa Titch and AKA have collaborated on a song called Super Soft.
