History of Hip Hop in Botswana

But were you to ask a lot of young'uns today about the big names in hip hop they'll undoubtedly mention Zeus, HT, K-Bos, Stagga, Qbio, Apollo Diablo, Scar and Tha Orakle. But long before these young word alchemists dreamt of holding a mic, B-Boys were all the rave.

A diamond fuelled economy that was well managed by shrewd political leaders saw Botswana being the world's fastest growing economy between 1977 and 1999. With the money came the cravings for all things foreign, especially music and fashion. For young and hip Batswana, hip hop and its associated lifestyles held sway. The mid-80s saw a lot of b-boy battles at English medium schools and malls in the country's two major city centres, the capital city Gaborone and the second city Francistown.