Focus Enters The Hip Hop Fray
Tomeletso Sereetsi
Staff Writer
8/1/2004 7:03:06 PM (GMT +2)
As if the excitement brought about by the Botswana Hip Hop Music Awards (BHHMA), slated for August, is not enough, a new voice, Focus, is set to come firing all cylinders to pioneer a new trend for anything that breathes rhymes next month. The twelve track CD from Afrotude Records entitled ‘Focal Point’, encapsulates the 22-year-old Botswana accountancy College scholar’s experimentation with urban culture’s sister genres, Hip Hop and R’n’B.
|
|
 Focus Phaakane is an old gun in the game, which has had verse-spitting stints at the Lobatse-based Warlords Hip Hop clan after being bitten by the squeeze-a-stanza-per second bug at the tender age of twelve. His Hip Hop infested path steered him to an artistic marriage to the record’s executive producer, Jason Chiggz two years ago, resulting in the birth of ‘Focal Point’ with a little help from two other sonic surgeons, Track Studio’s Favi and Goofy from Eric Records.
Focus has roped in the talents of some of the country’s hip hop trailblazers in the mould of the celebrated Scar, Coox, Fox, Thibo Touch, Winnie and the American based Hurricane to the recording that Basic Elements, the agency charged with the promotion of the product and management of the artist, label as a genre-defining must-listen that will eclipse other projects in the market.
This young rhyme slinger is an active performer in the hip-hop live circuit with notable appearances at KBL Fanta Mega Music Party as well as emerging as finalist in the Yarona/Riverwalk Talent Search Competition. One of his dirges “Ke tla go Bolaisa Marato, which has been nominated for the song of the year award in the forthcoming BHHMA has already ascended to number three on the Gaborone based commercial youth radio station, Yarona FM’s Top 20 show. Another song off Focal Point, ‘Don’t Wanna’ has been getting a good dose of airplay on Radio Botswana II.
According to Basic Elements representative, Joconia Malunga, his establishment could not help filling the void brought about by the inexistence of a professional management and promotion service provider for performing artists in the country’s fledgling entertainment industry.
“The whole concept of sustainability, growth, capacity and encouragement of competitiveness are the principles behind the company. After hearing the album ‘Focal Point’ we decided that it is a project worth our expertise. We seek to exploit our skill and knowledge base to make the record a financially viable venture and to ensure that it reaches as much of the listening audience as possible. It definitely marks the dawn of a new era in Hip hop in the country as it is a trendsetter in many respects,” says Malunga.
|
