Africa-Press – Lesotho. SETZ Fiesta spokesperson and a co-founder, Mr Tšeliso Maseela says they are all out to discover and uplift the talent of the youth in the ‘disadvantaged’ Southern region of Lesotho. He said this in an exclusive interview with the Informative Arts & Lifestyle.
Maseela said they have made it part of their mandate as an entertainment company to discover and appreciate raw ‘hip hop’ talent in the south of Maseru through competitions as a way to motivate young talented Basotho rappers.
Maseela said the company was recently formed by three youthful Basotho men from the Southern region of Maseru with a vision to uplift entertainment industry in the country particularly youth.
“As we all know, entertainment industry locally is more concentrated in Maseru, more so in the Central region. There are so many rappers in Maseru and most of the prominent activities that we have in the country are based in Maseru,” he said.
Maseela explained: “Not that there is no talent in other regions, but it needs to be molded and nurtured, which is exactly what we are embarking on. ”
He further continued to mention that their company is going to organize hip hop competition events from April this year starting with Maseru South then parts of Mafeteng, Mohale’s Hoek and Quthing.
Asked on why they are focusing on hip hop only, he said: “We are aware of the fact that musicians in different genres might feel neglected but the thing is, we are only starting and as we grow, everything will be possible. We might just find ourselves casting through all the genres available that side. ”
He added: “Now to answer your question, we started focusing on with hip hop because we have realized it is the second most prominent genre amongst our youth, after traditional Famo music, but we are hoping that with time, we might go for bigger scope,” he said.
Maseela who is also a student at the National University of Lesotho (NUL) said the competition participants per event will be only 15 registered rappers from which the list will be chopped to the top 3 finalists who will be announced at the later stage.
The prizes he said are quality instrumentals, recording studio sessions, a trophy and a sum of money on top. He said the prizes already tell a lot in terms of their company’s vision which is to empower the artistes in their talents.
He said one of the most prominent challenges hindering the artists progress is that they do not have access to quality recording studios and instrumentals and for that, he said they are addressing the challenge with their competition prizes.
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