By Mohalenyane Phakela
MASERU — The streets of Maseru have been abuzz with the feud between events and apparel movement Black Affluence and Basali hit-maker crew MIP.
Sources close to both movements told the Weekender MIP’s All-Stars wanted to perform at the Black Affluence’s show “The Takeover” but were denied access.
The furore started when one of MIP’s protégés, Pule Lehloara, better known by the stage name Shuffle, made derogatory comments on Facebook about “The Takeover” show which he later removed.
In the Facebook post, Shuffle had stated that he does not attend such shows as “The Takeover”, setting off a war of words on the social networking site.
Rapper Pizzy of hip hop group Ghetto Iz (under K.O.L productions) confirmed the beef to the Weekender on Tuesday, saying that Shuffle has been “dissing” them.
“It is true that Shuffle has been on our case since some of our tracks became club anthems until yesterday (Monday) when he posted on his Facebook timeline that we are his homeboys,” said Pizzy.
“We decided to ignore him because we are not into issues that will not benefit us. We are focused on making good music for our fans.”
Shuffle had since written a conciliatory message on his Facebook page saying: “Didn’t you know Ghetto Iz are my hommies? There’s no beef, ask them.”
“The post I made on my timeline sometime in December was not directed to the Black Affluence guys, I removed it because I realised it created a lot of confusion.
“I believe 2014 has so much in store for me so I have decided to bury the hatchet with everybody I had bad blood with, mostly the K.O.L crew. I have even sent them a request for me to collaborate a track with one of their artistes Pizzy to show my remorse,” stated Shuffle.
MIP leader, Thulo Monyake (Lemekoane), said their intention was to perform at the Black Affluence show and not cause any trouble.
“MIP is focused on promoting the love of hip hop in the country,” said Lemekoane. “That is why I contacted Black Affluence to give us a slot at their event so we could perform with the All-Stars.”
“After they refused, we decided to let go and focus on making more beautiful songs that are appreciated by most people. We are not trying to create any beef with anybody,” he added.
In response, the Black Affluence movement said they had denied MIP access because the two groups are pursuing different agendas.
“We are more focused on blending hip hop tracks with deejays and producing T-shirts, while the MIP are rappers,” said Black Affluence.
“So we are travelling on different lanes, that is why we could not have them performing at our show.
“We are not feuding with anybody. Such things are done by rappers and we are not.
“We just felt it did not make sense to have them at our show. We do not hate anybody.”
