MASERU – Television personality Phakiso Mokhatla, popularly known as DJ Phakzino, has embarked on an ambitious project targeting the country’s female musicians.
Mokhatla, who presents the hip-hop programme Urban Jamz on Lesotho Television every Saturday evening, has launched the groundbreaking project involving 12 female musicians through his company, House Shakedown Entertainment.
Among their programmes, he said, would be the release of a 12-track CD as well as the staging of live performances throughout the country.
“The project is called Deep Soul and was launched on January 7 with the sole aim of getting more local women and girls actively involved in the music industry,” Mokhatla told the Weekender.
“It is exclusively for female musicians and the idea came after realising so much talent was going to waste because of lack of support for such artistes.”
Mokhatla said he had already recruited seven artistes, among them keen house musician Palesa “Palycetra” Thokoa.
He said he was targeting both new and established musicians for the project.
“This is meant to present the platform for proving to the public that given the chance, female artistes can be as good as their male counterparts,” Mokhatla said.
“That is why we are also including new artistes in the project, creating conditions for them to showcase their talent.”
Each artiste is expected to contribute at least one song to the CD, which Mokhatla said would be released before the end of this year.
The artistes are set to benefit financially from the project, he said.
“It goes without saying that the artistes will benefit from the album sales as well as whatever finances will come from their participation at shows and functions,” he said.
“That is in addition to the publicity that would come from being invited for live performances at public events.”
Meanwhile, Thokoa confirmed she was part of the Deep Soul project.
“It is very true that I am one of those females who have been approached to be part of the project,” she said.
“I am not really expecting anything in return.
“Just being a part of such an interesting project was enough motivation for me to join.”
House Shakedown Entertainment was established last year “for the purpose of taking house music to a whole new level in Lesotho”, according to Mokhatla.
