LAME BOGATSU
Local Dj and scratch master Kenneth Tebele who is better known as Dj Khenzo has been selected to play at this year’s Back To The City Festival in South Africa.
The festival, which is one of Southern Africa’s growing hip hop music events, will take place on the 27th of April at Newtown in Johannesburg. Dj Khenzo who will be the first ever Motswana to perform at the event, says he will take with him as many local artists as possible to perform at the event.
“I am getting old, and because I am the first I don’t want to be the last one. The idea is to open doors for Batswana artists for future collaborations, after all if we don’t promote our own, who will?” he asked.
Dj Kenzo also expressed hope that artists like Chubb Heights, Phouboy, Fauz, Dramaboi, Faded Gang Crew would make some time to attend the festival and find out about how they can submit their works in such platforms.
“There will be a music conference in the morning part of the festival and big names such as VUZU, Channel O, Yfm and others will be present, this will be a chance for me to network. It would be nice if Batswana artists could also be present so that they find out more about how to submit their music to bigger platforms,” he says.
Commenting on how he was selected to be part of the festival, Dj Khenzo said he was approached by the festival’s organizers through a local artist manager and promoter Ontiretse “Carnido” Tshiamiso. “Carnido kept tagging the organizers on my videos online and I guess they got interested. From then on, the organizers contacted me and asked if I would like to be part of the line up and the rest is history,” he revealed.
According to statistics on the festival’s site, in 2007 when it started, 3500 people attended and it has been growing so much that by 2015, 23 000 are recorded to have attended. The festival features South African commercial and underground hip hop, live music, street art, break-dancing, art installation, skateboarding, gaming and panel discussions among other things.
“From the daytime events to the nightly performances, this is one time that the inner city comes alive with true freedom of expression providing a destination for hip hop fans, artists and industry related individuals to converge and celebrate the experience of hip hop and youth culture,” reads information from the site.