By Matṧeliso Phulane
Various artists say they are ready to give listeners a great and fresh music this year after their different achievements and challenges they encountered last year.
In an interview, Thebe Moshabesha known with his stage name ‘Skrrtum’, born from Hlotse in Leribe district, Amapiano producer ‘Soulenoid which was released last year said: “I met a lot challenges that shaped who I am. If I may start with failures I did not personally release enough music to meet the demand but we, Random Minor Note and Producer Scutum released an Amapiano E.P.
“I missed 70 Percent of my goals but I am always improving, so today is still a great reward.
“My plan for this year is to just trust God with my annual cash flow and push Soulenoid with progressive Amapiano,” he said.
Furthemore, Tṧimoloho Pearl Lekaota, the hitmaker of ‘Umoya’, an afro-pop and gospel song featuring Kommanda Obbs, said last year was one of the victorious year for her to thank God.
“Last year was a good year, of course many artists have their ups and downs but there were a lot of victories that I thank God for,” she said.
Tṧimo said after the release of Umoya with Kommanda Obbs, she went on to work on a few more features with her fellow artists from Ghana and Nigeria and also a lot more on the afro house scene with releases from Italian and UK labels.
“As an independent artist I pushed through to put myself out there and performed at esteemed events like the Free State Fashion week along with Bloemfontein based band and production house, the “Black notes”.
“I have now signed with a label, Sne-tech media, under Mr Malungelo, who scouted me towards the end of last year, and we will have our first single under the label released in the first quarter of this year and the second single mid-year.
“I am really looking forward to this new journey! I look forward to growing as an artist and learning from Mr Malungelo and his team in the time ahead and I cannot wait to share the music we are working on
“I also hope to start a lot more performances in Lesotho towards the end of this year,” she promised.
Tṧimo added that she would not really say there were failures but there are things she had set out to achieve that did not come to pass last year.
However, she learned so much from that because she believes that whatever that is good takes time. She also learned to think and create solutions when things do not work out.
“I have also had to slow down on production in order to create quality music, and engage with more artists to learn from. So it has been a lot of work and learning in the last year and I look forward to learning a lot more
However, she managed to raise funds through bookings and performances, and she will be looking at other ways to do the same this year in order to achieve all her plans.
“My plans are to push much further and have my music heard in more places,” she said.
Rethabile Temba also known as ‘3rd eye’ from Cana in the Berea district, who also released his hip-hop song ‘Nka e etsa nyaka-nyaka’ last year said he did not record a lot of songs last year, but he is promising a lot of good music coming up this year.
“This is going to be a very busy year ever since I am already working on my three singles.
Speaking of his achievements, ‘3RD eye’said he managed to make a lot of money through various events such as in schools which were more than ten.
Temba said even though such events managed to fund him and his team, sometimes it was not so easy because to some events they used to make less money and had to use their own.
However he considered that as a motivation because he is now famous and recognised wherever he is. Temba said he even managed to be hosted on Lesotho Television program called Celeblaza and he regards that as an achievement.
