But his perseverance, hard work and never-say-die attitude has finally paid off. He has now released a hot selling album titled House Mix Extension 2. The 14-track album is definitely a masterpiece and places him above most local DJs who have been in the industry much longer.
Leotloba used to work for a supermarket in Kanye, his home village, but always wanted to venture into music. After leaving his job as a shop assistant, he started dejaying at parties, playing some stuff from other established DJs like Mbuso T DJ Christos and Tira form Durban's Finest.
Now the 31-year-old says he would not rest until he has achieved international success.
"I really want to conquer the world, I am happy that currently my album is doing well but I believe that I can reach greater heights. I don't want to sound like boasting but I believe in myself," Clippa said.
But this is not Clippa's first project; in 2005, he released the debut called Extension One, which flopped. But that did not discourage him, he continued to work hard and finally it has paid dividends, Extension 2 is in high demand and would make established acts like Christos shake a little.
"I spent two years working on this project, correcting some of the mistakes which made me fail the first time around. People used to criticise me, some were jealous while some appreciated what I was doing but now I thank those who criticised me because they built me into a stronger person.
When I went into the studio I was determined to prove the doubting Thomases wrong, I was burning inside," Clippa said.
Although he has signed with Small House Records for distribution, Clippa's album was recorded at Kan Rokz Studios in Kanye by Almond Otlaadisa.
It was one of the youngster's first projects after he returned from a sound engineering school in South Africa.
Clippa believes in personal development, which is why he underwent a music and presentation course before doing his second project. "I decided to learn more about music because I wanted to come back stronger the second time around.
Not only that, there were some people who used to tell me that I did more talking during my performances and that it was now disrupting my music and I realised that it was up to me to make sense out of it, and I enrolled for a radio and television presentation course as well as dejaying," he said.
According to Clippa, House music is the most interesting genre as it covers all music types. In fact two songs in his latest release have some gospel feel yet they have a strong house bass.
"You can mix any type of music and turn it into house, which is why you hear tracks from the likes of Mbongeni Ngema and Solly Moholo topping the charts as house tunes.
You can even turn disco and kwaito into house and you can re-mix the same song so many times," he said.
Whatever the future holds for Clippa, one thing for sure is his second offering has made house music lovers to sit up and take note.
Those who came before him, even from across the border, will have to pull their socks up.
