Zimbo DJ Lighting Up Hong Kong Parties

One thing the Chinese leisure industry lacks is an African sound, a niche that Zimbabwean-born DJ, Kofi Beam (real name Trevor Hove) is covering in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region base.

“That African DJ” is a moniker given to KBeam back in the day when he was spinning the wheels in clubs. He started DJing in 2019 when he moved to China and laughingly attributes a drunken stupor as a perfect springboard to his career. KBeam said:

“How I started DJing was a funny experience as I had no plans to be a DJ. I was actually on a junk boat with my friends and after the party, a drunk me will ask the DJ on the night to teach me how to use the decks and even offered to pay but he taught me the basics straight away for free.

“A week after, I then met DJ Zimo and under his tutelage I got to learn eight classes on how to mix different genres of music. I then developed a serious interest in the craft and started hanging around like-minded individuals. I started getting more bookings and made a name for myself here in Hong Kong.”

Besides wheel spinning, DJ Kofi Beam is a music producer and a drama teacher. He is also a Cyber Security student at Xccelerate Global Hong Kong Limited.

“I’m grateful to be part of the first teachers to introduce such a class and the experience has been pretty good. This is an untapped territory in Hong Kong local schools, so it recently got introduced by a number of schools, but it’s a great course to teach as the work intensity is manageable and I’m able to do other things like DJing and studying,” he said.

DJ Kofi Beam has gained a lot of momentum in the Hong Kong party scene as he has displayed a unique mixing style, blending hip-hop and Afrobeats. Apart from that, he has also shown versatility with his multi-genre sets, the most notable one being the one which lasted for 8 hours, a fit most DJs would not dare to attempt.