On Kuzi Cee’s TikTok profile, there’s a pinned video of him vibing to a demo of his song “Rather Be.” He and a few others in a room with him are seen intensely snapping and nodding along to the Swizz Mafia production. The clip, shared in September 2025, went viral on the platform, garnering over 1.1 million likes.
Around that time, Kuzi was seeking a label partner that aligned with his artistic vision. “We were ready to welcome a new partnership to take things to the next level and solidify being able to tell these love songs,” Kuzi says over Zoom. The Zimbabwe-born, Calgary-based artist ended up striking a deal with Universal Music Canada.
“‘Rather Be’ was kind of the catalyst into that,” he says. “We’d been talking back and forth for some time, but overall I was [looking for] the right home that would champion the message of, ‘It’s OK to scream at the top of your lungs for the emotions you have. There’s neither good nor bad, they’re just emotions. That’s the notion of my music and they were very much on the same page.”
Since releasing “Rather Be” last October, the romantic track, which draws inspiration from early Chris Brown, has received over 1.6 million streams on Spotify alone. Now, the R&B-pop newcomer is looking to maintain that momentum with his latest single, “Rain.”
On the Aeon Wang production, Kuzi and his lover hit a rough patch in their relationship. He acknowledges the toll it’s taken on him but remains hopeful that they see it through. “When rain falls / Will you still hold my hand until the morning?” he sings.
Below, Kuzi Cee discusses his musical upbringing, how he found confidence to sing and his latest music releases, including “Rain.”
How would you describe your musical upbringing and how it informed your artistry?
I was born in Zimbabwe. I moved a lot growing up as a kid. I’m one of six. I’m the baby of the family, so my taste was sprinkled in from all the older siblings getting the aux before I could. I grew up in a very R&B household, and that was all the likes from the Mariah Careys, the Michael Jacksons, the Chris Breezys, the Ushers, all of it. My older sister had the karaoke machine and the aspirations of being musically inclined. So I was the backup [singer] and dancer for her a lot. That’s how I was exposed to the love for making music and creating.
It’s never too early to start artist development. Do you recall the moment when you decided music was something you wanted to pursue professionally?
I started playing football when I was entering junior high. I thought I was going to the league. I found out quickly that wasn’t my calling. I wasn’t that great. In the later high school years, I started freestyling with my friends and started to find that love for making music. When I was growing up, it wasn’t cool to be the guy who was the R&B singer. You had to be the strong, sporty guy. So I kept it very low-key. They found out I could sing one day. Long story short, they were like, “Bro, this whole time you could sing like this and we’ve been rapping? You’ve got to figure this out.” After that, I started exploring the singing side of things.
You mentioned that growing up, you would sing with your sister, but when you decided to pursue music, you started with rapping. Did you intentionally tuck away your singing abilities, and what kept you from leaning into them initially?
Honestly, I think it wasn’t the right time for me to lean into it. I hadn’t really found my voice for singing. I spent a lot of my childhood singing in the household, but in front of people, I didn’t have that confidence. It took the rapper’s side of things to build up the energy and strength to lean into it. I think it was one day I dropped a song on SoundCloud where I was only singing and a song where I was only rapping. The singing song hit like 300 views for the week, and the rap song had 30. So I knew right away, “I got to lock in here. This isn’t the journey that I’m on — the rapping side.” That really allowed me to gain the strength and confidence to become a singer.
When would you say you grew into that confidence?
I think I grew into my own as a singer around the time I released a song called “Puzzle.” That was the first real attempt at making a love song, like a full R&B song, front to back. Around 2020, I really started honing in as a singer. I realized I had a lot more groundwork to do. I had to become a student to get the reps in and get those 10,000 hours in.
Since “Puzzle” was such a pivotal record for you, what inspired it?
I had a little sweet thing I was feeling. She really brought out this different side of me: wanting to love, wanting to be around love and keep growing and chase that husband material. It trickled into the music. I made a lot of R&B songs and tried to find the right way to tell that, “You’re the piece of my puzzle to complete my heart.” Around that time, I got that strength and courage through her.
Tell us about your new single “Rain.”
“Rain” holds a special place in my art. In relationships, there’s the honeymoon phase. I like to describe [most] of the time, you’re going to have a lot of happiness and good moments. But there’s going to be that five to 10% of work you’re going to have to do, lace the boots up and go walking through the mud so you can have those moments. “Rain” is that understanding of I might not be perfect today. I might not be perfect tomorrow either, but I’m still going to be the best version I can be for you. That song is special to me because it’s [about] being vulnerable.
What inspired you to write it?
Just wanting to be present in relationships. Outside of love, there were a lot of relationships in my life I was reflecting on at the time: friendships that might not have worked out, family member communications that were dropped throughout the process. It was understanding that, “Yes, I feel a certain way about what this person did, but I got to hold myself accountable, too.” That’s the [mindset] I was in when I wrote “Rain.”
With “Rather Be” and “Rain” now out, is there a project we can look forward to?
We have a lot on the docket right now. There’s no real big body of work we’re chipping away towards. I really want to make sure I can get a lot of songs out this year. We’re in that bag right now of “let’s feel and dance the night away while listening to the R&B joints, maybe with a glass of wine at the club.”
If you could break down the musical DNA of Kuzi Cee, how would you describe yourself as an artist?
Kuzi Cee is truly that loverboy R&B sound. I might dance between incorporating a couple of genres with some Afro elements here, maybe on percussion, some cadences that might hit rhythm like pop. Kuzi Cee is somebody who’s not scared to feel and is very OK wearing his emotions on his sleeve. I think it’s hard to be vulnerable in this life, and that’s something I had to overcome, especially moving a lot as a kid. I want to be able to be comfortable and showcase my emotions. I found that through the music.
Stream Kuzi Cee’s “Rain.”
