![]() “He always had a blunt and I was always like: ‘I don’t do this stuff. “He taught me how to flow on a beat ’cause I was always like, ‘How does this guy do this?’” PdotO reveals about Shorty T. Shorty T was 10 steps ahead of me in terms of rap ’cause he listened to a lot of Biggie, and I thought I was Tupac, like, ‘Yeah, I’m tryna be like Pac, bro!’” We all chuckle before PdotO continues. “When I was still in the Eastern Cape… and it was Semiato (aka Shorty T), Masekid, Mali D, C Luv and myself… it was about four or five of us. Lethabo started speaking to the State Theatre, so we could perform there, and got sponsorships where we got paid for rapping.”Įarlier in his career, PdotO was part of a collective called Xhosa Nostra. He was like the Dame Dash of Cap City at the time.” Blaklez continues, “Yeah, we were front-line at the time. “He was an engineer at the time, and a hip-hop fiend, but he’s left the game now to pursue other ventures,” Blaklez says. For the ‘Move Over’ remix, which closed PdotO’s 2017 album Devilz Playground, he recruited DJ Capital, Buks, Kwesta, Ginger Trill and fellow Cap City Records member and frequent collaborator, N’Veigh.īlaklez and PdotO both speak fondly of Lethabo. PdotO loosens up every now and then on songs like 2017’s ‘Move Over’, a new-age kwaito single released in the Cap City Records era when the pioneers of Pretoria’s hip-hop scene formed a label/collective and made sure to continue their run into the 2010s. That duality is one Blaklez shares with PdotO, who is mostly known for his poignant reflections of the self on PdotO staples like ‘Soaked in Bleach’ and ‘Hallelujah’. ![]() Blaklez established himself as a rapper who knows how to get emotive lyrically but doesn’t mind having a good time with bouncy singles like the Cassper Nyovest-featuring ‘Saka Nyuka’ and the aforementioned ‘Don’t Be Scared’. In 2015, he dropped A Broken Man’s Dream, which led with ‘Freedom or Fame’, a mellow trap single whose remix featured Reason and PRO. His 2013 album Black Beast spawned the hits ‘Hush’ and ‘Don’t Be Scared’, which tapped into new-age kwaito, the sound of that era. He got to taste the fruits of his and other pioneers’ labours in the mid-2010s when SA hip-hop reached its peak. As I was paid for words per minute, I wrote big stories.” Blaklez solidified his name as a lyricist in the competitive Pretoria hip-hop scene, both as a solo act and as one third of the punchline-slinging group, The Anvils, alongside Mycbeth and N’Veigh.īut Blaklez refused to end it at just being a pioneer of the underground Pretoria scene. I ended up being hired full-time and used to make guap from writing. “Simone used to do them, but Mizi told him ‘let these n*ggas handle it’. N*ggas couldn’t even get on after we did that.” Blaklez joins PdotO and me in laughter after sharing that humorous historical anecdote. “We changed the whole quality up for the CDs. Simone Harris was the deputy editor, and the offices were still in Oxford Road. I wrote a lot of the covers around that time for Pro Kid, HHP, Flabba… about 15 covers I did. Miziyonke ‘Mizi’ Mtshali was the youngest editor at the time, and I was still doing my undergrad in journalism. His career coincidentally started at HYPE magazine. Having been born in Bothithong, a village in the Northern Cape, he was raised in Queenswood, Pretoria East. Lesego ‘Blaklez’ Moiloa is one of 012’s finest. ![]() Both rappers followed a similar timeline in their respective hometowns and continued until they met up and started rapping together more and more frequently.
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