By Mohalenyane Phakela
MASERU — Lesotho’s most popular Hip Hop group D2a-Majoe will battle it out on stage with South African rappers Motswako at Netherlands Hall in Roma tomorrow.
D2a-Majoe is one of the few groups in Lesotho that produces its music in their mother tongue, calling it Sotho-Hop.
They have managed to make their mark in the music industry in Lesotho and beyond its borders as they recently rocked South Africa with their killer flows.
The show dubbed Tšepe versus Motswako is intended to entice and instill confidence in Basotho for them to realise the value of their language and culture, D2a-Majoe leader Kommanda Obbs told the Weekender yesterday.
“We only regard our movement as a representation of the Basotho nation. We find it fit to concertise with the merits of our language so as to expose it to the rest of the world.
“Motswako is done in Setswana which is similar to Sesotho so we decided to have these acts on the same platform. It is also aimed at giving local audience the chance to judge our competence against that of established Motswako artistes,” Kommanda Obbs said.
The show is the second version of the previous one that took place in Bloemfontein a couple of months back.
Kommanda Obbs said the fact that the only endorsement they could received was from the Free State government and Macufe festival, they held their first show there.
He continued: “Tšepe Records has managed to solicit enough funds for a show so we decided to bring it home. We have teamed up with Max the Individual, who is an established promoter.
D2a-Majoe will be up against the likes of Mo Molemi and Cassper Nyovest, with appearance of Lesedi FM’s anchor Ba2cada who endorsed the Tšepe mix tape.
The show is intended to be an annual event with changing themes, with Sotho-Hop versus other traditional genres like Maskandi. The show will change venues both in Lesotho and South Africa.
It is also meant to promote the projects that are being pushed by Tšepe Records.