No turning back for ATI
Spira Tlhankane | Wednesday March 1, 2017 16:15
Real name Atlasaone Molemogi popularly known as ATI had taken a backseat in the last few years. His ‘Thanya Lekhete’ tagline was a clear indication that the rapper was determined to get back up there.
With the release of this third single, ATI finally shows that he is better at singing than rapping and Poelo Morago is top notch. ATI has always been a singer and has surely improved his singing voice from the time he did Hey You with DJ Kutchi as evidenced now. He once tried his luck in My Star and failed, but what was the show’s loss then has now become the music industry’s gain.
Even if he had never lived up to Ke Lekhete days, ATI‘s technical abilities as a singer have improved with every release. His previous singles, Cassette and Bilharzia did not ignite the fire in the performer, but Poelo Morago shows a real spark and increase of range in control and power.
“You can’t sing, ako o repe,” Ozi F Teddy’s lyrics stated when he recently dissed ATI, but the Poelo Morago rapper would not let another man pull him down.
Perhaps Ozi was wrong because now ATI has learned how to merge his singing and rapping voices. One thing of note about Poelo Morago is that it was wonderfully produced and even though some people doubted his singing skills, ATI is not the only rapper to face the same music. Comparably, South African rap superstar AKA can direct his singing flow right back into the rap and people still love him. Motswako lyricist Drama Boi used autotune to sing in his song Bosigo Kao Fela and fans loved the song.
Not many liked it when Andre3000 started singing, but fans appreciated when Kanye West started using auto tune. With international rappers like Drake taking the singing route to a bigger level it is quite easy to understand why ATI has long shifted away from rapping.
Poelo Morago is a good song and ATI is an effective singer who is even better as a performer. In terms of singing, we can never put him up at the level of Han C for example, the same way we cannot compare Drake’s singing to Chris Brown’s. The fact that ATI was able to start warming up for the biggest games to come, the Skeleton hitmaker is superior now.
He told Showbiz that disappearing for a while worked for him because he had time to recollect his thoughts and come up with a better offering.
“It is the result of the process I was undergoing, I had to get off the radar and take some time off,” he said.
ATI said even though there were rumours that linked him to drug abuse and certain sexualities, that did not bring him down because he was focused. He said the reason why he is singing is because he wants to explore his talent and be adventurous.
“I believe that I am a musical genius,” he expressed.
ATI said Poelo Morago is part of his upcoming album.
“I have postponed the release of the album so many times because of financial constraints,” he highlighted.
ATI can never reverse time and there is really no reason to turn back when the road ahead has no trenches and potholes.