Challenges Faced By SA Rappers Before Blowing Up Part 1
People think celebrities live perfect lives because of the flashing lights, fans and all that cool stuff that comes with the fame. The craziest part about it all is people tend to over look the trials and tribulations these celebs had to face before making it. Check out the challenges faced by 10 of South African Hip Hop stars:
Cassper Nyovest
“The biggest challenge we’ve always had was getting our stuff played. Getting on radio and after we made a little money we started shooting our videos and getting our videos played. Just getting the recognition that we deserve. Before everyone knew us we knew that we were gonna be big before we made it. We already knew that we’re the best at what we do, the biggest challenge was just to get people to give us what we deserve, which is the airplay that we’re getting now. It was more difficult to know that you’re going to be the biggest act in the country, but nobody sees you as that, every time you come with your CD they treat you as a demo rapper or those guys who are chancing and I’m like no I have something special man.”
Youngsta CPT
“Musically I had to find my sound and my identity as an artist, getting into the industry I had to do battles, cyphers and open mics to gain respect from the heads of the scene. Even though my name was Youngsta (YoungstaCPT now) I wanted to be taken seriously by the pioneers.”
Stilo Magolide
“Capital. I am an independent artist so everything is from my own pocket.”
Lection
“Every artist improving our local content is my favorite, individuals who open doors for each other and ones coming after are my heroes.”
Reason
“Having enough people that give a damn, that was the hardest challenge and having to convince enough people and the right people to support the idea. Very often people make some of the best songs in the world and those songs are never heard because there’s not enough support. It’s taken me a lot of time to actually get to a point where people accept my songs. It was a big challenge , especially convincing media that my work is just as good. There was no doubt in my mind that the music we did was good and was perfect at the time. But it was never discovered on a large scale, it was either one radio station, a hip hop show or even one or two people playing it.”
