History of Hip Hop in Botswana

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Rapper Zeus' monumental win against continental heavyweights at the recent Channel O Awards necessitated a revisiting of the history of hip hop in Botswana, specifically in Gaborone, which has a long and chronicled past that goes as far back as the mid-80s.

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.

Editor's Comment
The people have spoken

In fact, early election results in some areas across the country, speak to large voter turnout which suggests that voters crowded at polling stations to decide appropriately. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) revealed that 80% of the 1,037,684 people who had registered to vote turned up to exercise their right.It’s unfortunate that at the time of cobbling this editorial comment, results had just started trickling in. We recognise that...

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