His Come Up to Music Explained
David Manda Nzapa, better known to the internet as BabyDaiz is a 24 years old rapper and content creator based in Cape Town. In fact, he is the best rapper in town, he’d wash anybody. Also, he briefly dated the South African megastar Tyla. In addition, David is the niece of Congolese legend Fally Ipupa. One wouldn’t be surprised if he was also directly related to Nelson Mandela. All jokes aside, that being said, there’s a lot of rumours floating around, none of which is ever confirmed or fact checked, of course. Interestingly, a lot of this unnecessary noise can be traced back to David himself. Let me explain;
You see, BabyDaiz’ marketing strategy isn’t anything we haven’t already seen before, as more and more artists utilize Tik Tok, Instagram reels, Facebook or YouTube short clips not only to build content around their product; but also, to garner traction.
It must have been in late 2024 when the algorithm first began to push David’s content to my Facebook feed and besides his charming appeal, like most consumers at the time, I was shocked to see that he was dating Tyla in some distant past, or was he? David never confirmed. However, what was clear is that he posted these throwback clips. I remember vividly, clicking on the profile page and being directed to BabyDaiz. Now why would anyone post about their ex? Better said, why would you post an ambiguous clip that can be easily interpreted as a past fling just to never clarify? Risky some may say, but the move overall worked because now, the rumoured ex-boyfriend drew attention and it was only a little bit of time until that attention maneuvered to the music.
Controversy sells and David learned it early on. The Cape Town rapper would consistently initiate bold statements on his Instagram stories and other social media platforms. No matter the reaction, all eyes on him were positive as long as it pushed him to the limelight and from there, he would let the music speak for itself. Clever, don’t you think? However this method did not come without any setbacks.
Around the release of his biggest single yet ‘Matisa,’ much like his previous rollouts, David needed something to start the conversation. And so, he began to share what presumably is an edited clip of content creator Kai Cenat reacting to his music video. But the content wasn’t gullible enough, people didn’t buy into it. And so, that is when images started swirling of a young David seen with Fally Ipupa. Of course, the addition of the Congolese flag on his profiles and seemingly cosign of Fally himself, only perpetuated what we all had in mind; David must be his niece, which means he is, if not, part Congolese. Again, never to be confirmed.
So many questions came flooding in our minds such as, why would he only reveal his Congolese roots now? That being said, most of the reaction of a new audience that David had garnered were well-received and only capitulated him into greater stardom, as Congolese people are known to be patriotic and die hard fans. It isn’t that the rumour was unbelievable; however, David is specifically known for starting conspiracies to draw attention, without clearing the air or ever being direct. Much like his trail in rumours, there is no evidence to back his claims, as David keeps his parents’ identity private and so, BabyDaiz was now a Cape town with Congolese roots.
This brings us to the 2026 single that everyone is seen dancing to, namely ‘Allonsy’ first pushed around the AFCON Cup with a borrowed memorable dance move that had the internet participating with great joy. At this point, the music finally began speaking for itself and what once needed controversies, rumours to push onto the algorithm could just be received majorly organically.
Whether you rate BabyDaiz’ come up or not, numbers don’t lie, the results are in and at this time, David has more than 1.80 million monthly listeners on YouTube Music. He won, he hustled and the needle fell to his favour. He is not a big cat by all means; however, the old mask of a young boy willing to do anything just for attention seems to be fading off, as an emerging artist is evolving before our eyes and setting his mark on the continent.
