Open letter to Tshepiso Molapisi
Thalefang Charles | Friday May 20, 2016 14:40
In Setswana custom we say ‘morogo wa ngwana gao tlholwe ditlhokwa’, but this is hip-hop, not kindergarten. There is no baby-sitting here. If you suck, they tell you to your face and that is what makes it such an exciting movement.
TlatsaLebala flopped, Tshepiso. You know this. You can admit and go on. The rain probably saved you, and you know this too because it gave you the reason to blame the weather for the flop. Numbers do not lie Tshepiso.
The show was ‘postponed’ with just hours before the gates were scheduled to open with a handful of tickets sold committing one of the biggest transgressions in show business. This is show business Tshepiso, and you must know that in this business they say, The Show Must Go On, come rain or sunshine.
But before we get there, let us get to the concept of TlatsaLebala.
So one day you were just scrolling through Twitter and you came across this young cat from Mafikeng who has taken South Africa by storm and wanted to prove that he is the hottest thing in Mzanzi by filling up the Dome, and you just thought, ‘Yeah le nna ke tlatsa lebala’. Ka eng Tshepiso?
Cassper Nyovest had all the ingredients to Fill Up the Dome. There was highly publicised beef with rapper AKA and angry diss tracks that reminded us of the America’s East Coast versus West Coast beef. It got us talking and we got really involved. He was playing the game. He later took his publicised new woman out for vacation after he cashed from the Dome gig.
There was new cool music available for free downloads.
He shot cool music videos and you must have jammed to those too. There was a huge campaign on social media, billboards and every time he was on television he sold the show.
He headlined shows around Southern Africa, even here in Botswana (you must have opened for him sometime).
The guy was on top of his game. He won awards, was collaborating with American rappers and having gigs in Nigeria and Botswana on the same weekend. With all that success, Cassper rightly challenged himself by promising to fill up the Dome. It was a realistic challenge, but still he worked hard to achieve it.
So you, Tshepsio, wanted to achieve what Cassper sweat and battled for by just lame campaigns with your 4,000 followers on Twitter? You struggled to get at least a booking every weekend, but you want to fill up the Stadium. Negro Please! (You’re a hiphop cat. You must know that song).
I heard you say you were “very shallow back in the days”, but Tshepiso you better up your game man, if you are really serious about this or these shallow ideas could put you into serious debt - I am not trying to cast a spell on you. Apparently you have postponed the gig to ‘Summer’. I do not know whether you refer to summer in Setswana terms or you are technical about seasons because down here summer is when it is not cold.
So summer could be from August to April and with this el-Nino weather phenomenon sometimes summer visits in the middle of winter, just for a few days and leaves.
Maybe you are playing the game and this TlatsaLebala legend is just a ploy to stay in the media, to receive letters like this and hopefully top the game, but this is not how to do it.
Music speaks for itself man. I advise you to make good music and we would follow.
This is not about you, Tshepiso. It is about the music. Just concentrate on the music. Only two average songs come to mind when your stage name is mentioned.
There is Mpolele Re Babedi with Anafiki (I love that song) and that song about Sjabana (promoting rape culture that we are currently picketing against - that is a topic for another day).
And you seriously expected to pull a Cassper with such, and without any controversy? Negro please! Man, you too could have started beef with someone just to save your gig (it’s only entertainment) or even dated Charma Gal, something, anything Tshepiso.
But the gig is postponed and all is not lost as summer is around the corner Tshepiso. It might even visit next week, so you must get ready to fight to fill the stadium. Fight.
You must know that you have already lost trust from people because you can cancel a show, so buying tickets in advance is going to be an issue with many festival-goers - they do not forget. So please up your game. See you in summer.