Thulisile Ntombela also known as 2lee or Mantombela (Injakazi Yasekasi) is the female emcee from Alexandra Township which forms part of Johannesburg, close to the wealthy suburb of Sandton and is bounded by Wynberg on the west, Marlboro and Kelvin on the north, Lombardy West and Lombardy East on the south. She is just a humble youth who loves hip hop. According to her, the rap music helps her to express herself. She was introduced to hip hop by his brother Mandla who used to bump the likes of Wu-Tang Clan, KRS ONE and other real emcees. Unfortunately, his brother moved out of their home in 1999 and left with all his collection, but that did not bother 2lee that much even though she felt that something was missing. She would watch TV or listen to radio.
She then joined a gymnastic course at Thusong Youth Centre which reconnected her to her brother who was also in the same course. According to 2lee, there was a bloke by the name Pule who also loved rap music. He used to bring a small CD player to the training session. She then had an opportunity to listen to rap music for a period spanning two hours a day, five days a week. After a little while, her gymnastic coach stopped her from training sessions due to her sequential late coming hence she had to do couple of domestic tasks at home when it was her turn to do those tasks. She was banned from training sessions for a period spanning four months.
She then had to find something to do after school. Eventually, she joined a female soccer team called “The Girls” where she played soccer for a period of three years. When she was a novice at Kwa-Bhekilanga High School, there was a call up for students who would like to partake in a school drama festival. She wasted no time and jumped in. The drama school was directed by Bongani Ngumede (who acts on Sibaya drama series) at Market Theatre. They sang, danced and did poetry. That’s where she found herself as an artist. She had also been part of Ubuhle Bemvelo Theatre Group for a period of two years. She then rehearsed with three ladies and they ended up forming a group. They performed at Monte Casino for a period spanning three years.
She pursued rap music full time thereafter, performing in places such as Soweto, Thembisa, East London, Durban and others. I asked her to take me to the journey of how the 7 deadly sins mixtape emanated, and this is what she had to say: “I really enjoyed working with my girls. It was Nosipho Khulu a.k.a Uvy Ray who called me and explained everything. What I liked about it ukuthi she wanted to work with ladies only. The first thing that came to my mind was that it has never happened before. We recorded everything in New Town OST. Thanks to Ozmic because he allowed us to record in his studio. It was seven ladies and the whole mixtape was recorded in one day. Polite Sithole a.k.a P2daO is the one who produced our beats and the mixtape was issued with HYPE Magazine. It was a great opportunity to be on HYPE Magazine and late last year we shot a music video for the song DEATH BY 8 BARS.”
She is currently heading for the finals of the Red Bull competition which started on the 13th of September 2013. The competition is hosted by Kleva Ungagiv’aphi show on Ukhozi FM. Her first interview with Ukhozi FM was on the 31st of August 2013. This is what she had to say about that interview: “I remember that night like yesterday. I’m this excited because I only had a five minute interview. The show’s anchor played my beat and I dropped my lines. At the end of the song, I told everyone to follow me on FB. To my surprise, I found 109 friend requests when I logged in on my FB account. It was an amazing feeling man. I feel blessed.”
She said she is going to drop a vernacular rap mixtape very soon which would cater for everyone. Her message to the young girls who would like to be femcees goes like this: “It is very important to know yourself and what you want. And always pray.”
Written by
Amalahle Ashushu
Ngiyabonga
No comments:
Post a Comment