BanT Wins Big At The YAMAS XXXL
Spira Tlhankane | Monday December 12, 2016 15:54
BanT, real name Baanthata Mokgwathi, won the best single male, people’s choice award and best Hip Hop/motswako.
When accepting the award for best single male, the Naomi hitmaker said he didn’t expect to win. “I want to thank my manager, family, producer and fans,” he said. The rapper recently released a remix of Naomi featuring Tshego and Gemini Major from Family Tree. He also performed on the night alongside Faded Gang.
The talented Amantle Brown added more trophies to her collection by winning two awards in absentia. She walked away with the best single female and the ceremony’s top honour, song of the year for Black Mampatile. Other big winners on the night included Team Distant who won their first awards ever. They took home the producer of the year award and best single dance for the song Sedi laka featuring Han C and DJ Chrispin. Han C won the best newcomer award ahead of BanT.
The energetic German Dollar won the award for best dance DJ while DJ Fauzz won the best Hi Hop DJ award. The best social media award that was won by DJ Izzy last year remained at Yarona FM with Dollar Mac scooping it this time around.
Qubio and Samba T won the best collaboration award for the song Ditla boa strong. The award was sponsored by FNB with prize money of P1,000 while Jack’s Gym will provide their services for free in a period of three months.
The outspoken Luzboy won the icon’s award while the legendary Pres Beatz won the Yarona FM Hall of Fame award. Artists who have worked with the talented producer made a tribute performance to appreciate Pres Beatz’s contribution to the growth of local music. It was an energetic and heartfelt performance which took everyone back to the days when Eric Ramco Records was the best in the local music scene.
Kast of tlatsa lebala came on to perform Ndono while the other half of the then Magosi Melo performed Move. Mosako reminded everyone of the track that helped him penetrate the market when he performed Bashianyana. Eskimos came in with Mpulele, Licky performed Free love while Juju Boy did his usual with Motho o bolaa motho. Last year’s biggest winners, MMP Family performed their best song ever lebala ka nna while K-Boss invited Mafitlhakgosi for the performance of the song Dimakatso. Third Mind reminisced further with songs like Ngoma and Fatshe leno la rona.
In a surprising turn of events, Dramaboi walked away empty handed again despite being nominated in five categories including best single male, people’s choice, song of the year, best hip hop motswako single and best collabo. The rapper who recently released his third studio album Township Music 2 didn’t win last year at the YAMAS 2.0. This year’s YAMAS saw a whole new crop of winners with no one from last year’s winners getting anything. The awards also didn’t attract a large audience as compared to last year’s event.