Sliq Star sticks to the basics

Hip hop in Botswana has been going through a metamorphosis with artists especially trying to make it make more acceptable to the local audience.  In the process a genre called Motswako has emerged and it continues to gain momentum with every new release, but how long it will last, only time will tell. But not all musicians are excited by this new change. Take Sliq Star (Mandla Tlhowe) for instance. He still believes so much in that old school hip hop.

His debut album, the LP, bears testimony to this. Though he tried to avoid the explicit lyrics favoured by American stars like Tupac Amaru Shakur and 50 Cent, his music can still be traced along those lines. His producer Karabo 'Bally' Leburu explained to Showbiz that he and the musician they were aware of the impact of the "new" type of hip hop, but that it was after the realisation that the old type had not been fully exploited locally that they decided to take that route.