Rapper aims to inspire Wentworth youth
Comet Harban’s love for music comes from the riotous streets that raised him.
FROM the humble and rough streets of Wentworth, a lyrical genius was born who would persevere and grow up to follow his dreams despite the odds.
Comet Harban’s love for music comes from the riotous streets that raised him. Speaking to the SUN, he clearly recalls a time when he and a group of friends would sit in a backyard listening to hip-hop classics by Tupac and Biggy Smalls or listening to the old school boomboxes back in the day. “We would play that cassette over and over until we knew the lyrics off by hear. Music has since become a part of me much like breathing
The musician and rapper grew up in Cycas Road, Wentworth for 28 years before relocating to Cape Town. “My childhood was very rough. Wentworth back then was extremely dangerous and volatile, like it is recently becoming again slowly. I remember we couldn’t go to the swimming pool because of the fear of being robbed. I remember getting chased by gangsters while playing soccer. I literally had to swop t-shirts while training to confuse the gangsters. One time they even came on the field during a Sunday game on Badulla Road grounds with knives and baseball bats for me. I couldn’t go to church or the library it was so bad.
“However, the old cliché of ‘if you can’t beat them join them’ soon applied to me as I became a gangster because I was tired of been chased. An eye opener for me was when three of my closest friends went to jail and got 25 years each for murder. It was then when I realised that this life wasn’t for me. My late father kept me grounded through sport and music was always close to my heart,” he shared.
Asked when he began to take this love for music seriously, Comet said that it was the day he heard his close friend rapping in a local club. “To tell you the truth I actually laughed at him when he walked onto the stage. But once they started rapping it was like a light bulb moment for me. I knew there and then that, this is what I needed to do. I finally figured out how I could bring all my poems to life onto a dope beat. So I went home and wrote my first song two songs. I felt alive, liberated and free ever since. I had found my purpose in life,” said Comet who used to spend a lot of time writing poems growing up. He soon joined a rap group which allowed him to enhance and expose his rapping and songwriting skills and further won first place against other groups in a competition, securing a cash prize.
Things continued to flourish on the music front until the tragic passing of the man who wanted nothing but the best for him. “I gave up on music when my father died. I had to eat and so I started working a 9 to 5 job. I am currently working for an American consulting firm in Ghana. But because I kept on writing, music kept on calling me back. I released my first mixtape called ‘Steady But Sure’. The title reflects the mind frame I was in and I gave that project out for free. I have now released my second offering called ‘All I Can Say’ and it has been doing really well. I’m just trying to show the youth including my son that all things are possible if you believe, work hard and never give up on your dreams.”
Comet’s bars have a much needed depth to showcase the content needed in today’s music, laced by silky rhymes his flow boldly distinctive and lures true hip-hop fans into his oasis of lyrical concepts featured in his music.
His raps are all about the things and aspects of his life he values most. He is currently set to shoot his music video back in his hometown of Wentworth at Cycas Road, where he grew up. “I look around and see so many youngsters getting caught up troubled way of life that has become synonymous with Wentworth. I was lucky to get out alive. I now want to show the youth that there is more to life than drugs and violence and inspire them to never give up.”
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