Joe Nina was born Makhosini Henry Xaba on 12 June 1974 in Kwa Thema. His father, Skhuthuzi Xaba was a guitarist with a local band & his mother a backing vocalist in the same band. His proud parents used to take him to their concerts from an early age – which gave Joe early exposure to music. His father encouraged the young Joe to learn music and his first instrument was Drums. Later in his musical career he picked the keyboard as his second instrument. He was tutored on keyboard by his uncle, Mac Mathunjwa, who is also a renowned musician and music producer.

Years of success in the music industry, attention from the media, a growing fan base, parties, excessive boozing were followed by experiments with drugs which affected his health. But soon he realised he was on the road to destruction, and he decided to take a break from it all – went home and rethought his ways. During this time his career was on a downward trend. His business relationship with Ray had gone sour, which left him with little, including his musical instruments. Tough times laid ahead. Being a survivor, Joe packed his bags and headed back to the street of Jo’burg, to rekindle his ailing career. He started off, again, by doing session for other musician. Soon everyone was talking of his comeback, which lead to a recording contract with Gallo Music. Under this label he released his 1998 album titled Egogogweni, hoping to re-capture his fans in the Kwaito market. But that was not to be the case. One thing happened though; included in that album was Joe’s jazz collaboration track with Fana Zulu on Bass titled But not our souls. This track reached the top 10 of SA radio station Kaya FM, which suddenly opened up a following in Jazz lovers that never thought that Joe Nina could play jazz.

One thing lead to another and he was soon approached by Damon of “Sheer Sound”, a SA based music label that specialised in Jazz music to do a project for them. The result was the album African Cup by Lakim (featuring Joe Nina) which was released in 2001. The album features Joe on productions, collaborating with different renowned jazz musicians, the likes of the late Mike Makhalemele, US steel pan master Andy Narrel, Fana Zulu and McCoy Mrubata.

By this time Joe Nina had moved on musically, left the heavy drum beats of Kwaito music, to a more challenging genre of African music, some call it African Pop, some call it World Music – call it what you like – the music is great. His resurgence was with the track Zodwa (a song dedicated to his daughter) from the EP Sbali. Suddenly, Joe Nina was back where he belongs – on top of the charts. The EP was followed by the album Mababaza which produced two hit tracks of its own in Phuma Kimi and the title track Mababaza. The album won him a SAMA (South African Music Award) Award in the category “Best African Pop album”.

Thank you my Lord, features on the same album. Funny that Joe had written this track, for soon after the album was released he ended up in hospital after a serious car accident which resulted in him fracturing both his legs. He was to be bed ridden for six weeks in hospital. But no sooner was he discharged from hospital, on a wheel chair, was Joe back to his music. He was still on his wheel chair when he performed at the Civic theatre in Jo’burg city centre.

Not long after he had recovered, was Joe to be stuck by another blow: his father died after a long illness. This touched Joe immensely as he was very close to his dad. Still suffering the pain of his father’s loss, Joe went into the studio and composed a song dedicated to his dad, appropriately titled My father’s love. This track was featured in his 2001 release titled Nomthandazo. The album not only featured hits Nomthandazo, Twister and Ngizwile (madubula/mashaya), but also included a duet with a legend in the South African music industry in Steve Kekana remake of Bra Steve’s song Iphupho. The album was not only successful; it also earned Joe another successive SAMA Best African Pop album Award.

The duet with Steve Kekana lead to Joe featuring Steve Kekana on his live shows. It was a matter of time before Bra Steve felt the magic of the maverick producer / songwriter / engineer and asked him to produce his album in many years of absence in the music industry. The result was Steve Kekana’s African Lady album.

In 2002, Joe Nina released Pascalina [Phola Nami], an album that saw him digging deep in his soul and pushing the boundaries of his musical abilities. Tracks from that album like Gijima Nsizwa are likely to become future classics.