Nthatuoa Koeshe
RAP battle, The Southern Rumble, was held at Café What? on Saturday lived up to its billing by attracting scores of rap disciples who came to witness MCs from Lesotho, Botswana and Zimbabwe tear each other apart in a war of words.
Although the organisers, Dirt Mouth, refrained from publicising the results of the six battles, the audience witnessed some of the rappers choke after being torn to pieces by their contenders.
The battle saw Lesotho Mc Phizzy Khor battling Eto, Futuristic battling Prometheus, Tefah against Michael Horror, Zeik against Rodnew Jibs, Nerd battling Lordwick, Kafela battling Jully Tha Black and the pick of the battle TIEHO against Osama Bin Chaplin
There were also performances from Davestone and Unkle Krack, Da Starr, Konsept and Ebonics.
This was the first matchup featuring Botswana’s Warzone Battle MCs and Zimbabwean Jully Tha Black hosted by Dirt Mouth.
One of the organisers, OG told this paper that they decided to refrain from judging the battles for neutrality reasons although they had a side panel that determined an unpublished verdict.
He said they would however, upload the battle videos on their social media pages for their followers to judge for themselves.
“We have already uploaded our first video and we want people to watch the battles and judge by themselves,” OG said.
At about this time last year, Dirt Mouth travelled to Botswana with MCs like Anonymous, Phizzy Khor, Verbal Kingpin and T.U.R.K. who battled Botswana’s rappers among them Osama Bin Chaplin.
“We came back with one victory where Anonymous won against Botswana’s Michael Horror,” OG said adding that their aim is to celebrate Dirt Mouth’s anniversaries through cross border matchups.
OG said the past two years have been a rollercoaster ride as they have encountered situations where they had to take care of heated moments where contestants would become emotional.
“We’ve had instances where we would have fully packed shows but would still be unsatisfactory and for the first year we ran the show from our own pockets,” he said adding that the upside was when Vodacom Lesotho came on board to sponsor them last year in July financially to pay for things they could not afford and to improve the prize money for the winners.
He said they saw evolution by finding hidden talent from MCs such as Kafela, Nerd and Revelation who also performed at the Southern Rumble.
“We are now exposed to a wider audience and we hope to see our artistes grow to the levels of veterans like T.I.E.H.O, Tefah and others.
“Battle rap is a growing global phenomenon and we want to play part in that growth. Some African leagues are already taking their acts to international platforms like King of the Dot, Smack and Don’t Flop and we want to be left out,” OG said.
