REVIEW: CRACK — KELEBOGILE EP
The five track EP entirely produced by Crizzy is dedicated to his late mother Kelebogile Queen Moroka captures love, loss, ambition and pain of the bottom with a candor that I haven’t seen in a while. Crack’s use of his native tongue Setswana and Tsotsitaal — a rich mix of languages developed in crowded townships in the mid-1900s by intermingling tribes of migrant workers from all over the continent seeking to provide for their families in the mines and farms of Apartheid South Africa. Then called isifanakalo, the language was carried back to neighboring countries and became a form of communication in low income areas and was later popularized by Kwaito musicians. Tsotsitaal is very much alive and used beautifully in Crack’s EP to communicate authentic experiences without losing any emotion in translation.
“Every day ke a rapela bosigo le maphakela hoping my life gets better die maan ya teng ya stressa ke nna ke le under pressure trying to get my life together but one day ke tla flexa”
The opener “20 May” is a heartfelt reminder of the harsh realities of kasi life with realism around female-headed households and absent fathers — a widespread phenomenon in Botswana. Topical themes of self-medication — a visceral cancer among all age groups of Batswana who try to escape unemployment, poor wealth distribution and a myriad of psychosocial traumas who live for the weekend and abuse alcohol under the pretext of blowing off steam are addressed on “The Weekend” and “Fucked Up”
The long-running tussle with promoters in Botswana unwilling to pay for “untested talented” is the subject of “Paycheque,” a chest thumping show of ambition to be the “best that ever did it” as is “Shine” with intense verses from Rockafella and Cizzy speaking on the ever present allure of fast cash from drug dealing and violent crime — both of which are prevalent in the hoods of White City, Old Naledi, Bontleng, 27 in Broadhurst and other areas outside Gaborone whose violent reputation precedes them.
The Kelebogile EP from the Mochudi representative is a Trap bass-thumping project rich in kasi perspectives that subvert the status quo of a subgenre mostly populated by private school kids with fantasies of life at the bottom. In Botswana it is no secret that well-funded and connected artists enjoy more airplay and dominate spaces by design while Trap rappers from less than affable circumstances are erased or held back at best. Without the requisite social status and money that allows them access to gatekeepers’ presence or the Midas touch of music industry Kingmakers, they are forced to live on the margins and scrape up what they can hoping for that big break.
In this era where artists feel greater resistance from the establishment more than ever, Crack and his contemporaries have resolved to take back the power by delivering the product directly to the people via social media. The audience has in turn phased out tastemakers and somewhat leveled the playing field, allowing all artists, regardless of social status, to compete. Crack and his band of merry men will be forced to steal from the rich and give to the poor, disenfranchised and maligned. As he continues to share his life through song, I’m looking closely to see the heights he will reach.
Download & Stream Kelebogile EP
