Hades: Teacher-cum-rapper
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Sunday November 7, 2021 09:21
Hades is an art teacher at a local junior secondary school. “I grew up listening to conscious rap music that addressed socio-political themes that tore into actual and relatable issues. I was fascinated by the lyricism the artists of the genre possessed and exhibited when they touched on controversial topics,” he said.
This young artist said he was captivated by the underworld rap music and emulated those rappers’ approach to writing. Hades then came up with the name ‘Hades’ inspired by a mythical character who was the god of the ‘underworld’ in Greek mythology. He added that rapping was about displaying his skills. He then chose to go by Hades to symbolically levitate above the rest of the underground rap artists as their God.
Furthermore, he explained the character Set, Seth or Suetekh who was the god of war, chaos and storms was taken from Egyptian mythology to metaphorically inform the competition that indeed he was a dangerous rapper. He said a combination of those two characters became the formidable rapper that was ‘Seth Hades.’ He also pointed out that he was aware of the parallels the characters he chose to use had with that of the Bible, but his choice of names was not taken from that.
He also explained that the creative industry allowed for artists to be imaginative and unique in their artistic expression. He said for him, music was more than just an art form made for the enjoyment of the audience but it could be used to convey knowledge and tackle emerging issues. He added that it could also be an outlet artists use to decompress and vent their displeasure of the current situation, or to applaud and revere public figures that were doing an excellent job.
Dagee Records CEO DJ Dagizus saw his talent and decided to bring him onboard as one of the artists. He was then signed to the label mid-2021. Hula is the first project or release under Dagee Records and was released on October 29, 2021. This is an introductory a hip hop record that displays Hades’ talent, versality and his lyrical content. It is a must buy and listen to. The record is available online for sale.