Local musos warm up for Cole world

Local South African rappers Reason and Kwesta are getting ready to take centre stage at the Castle Lite Unlocks J Cole experience on Saturday night at the TicketPro Dome in Johannesburg.

The local musos have been in rehearsals at Bassline in Newtown, Johannesburg preparing to share a stage with the international hip-hop sensation. Earlier in the year, Castle Lite announced that it would be unlocking the chart-topping musician for one night only, with the news going viral immediately on social media and tickets being sold out within a few hours of release.

The popular beer brand later announced local acts, which were requested by fans, that would be sharing the stage with the award-winning rapper. The local acts included Ngud’ hitmaker Kwesta, recording artist Reason, newcomer Emtee, club deejay DJ Speedsta and beatmaker DJ Vigilante.

Hip-hop artist Reason poses for a picture at the Bassline in Johannesburg on June 15, 2016. Reason will open for J Cole at the TicketPro Dome this weekend. Picture: Tracy Lee Stark

Rap sensation Reason was one of the artists whose fans were very vocal about him featuring in the line-up of local acts who would be gracing the stage alongside J Cole. The rapper says that it was interesting to see fans actively involved in the selection of local artists to perform at the concert and that it was humbling for him to receive this kind of support.

“I thought that it was very interesting to see that for the first time in a long time that when an international act comes through to the country, people wanted to have a say about who they want to see at the show… It’s very nice to know that a brand like Castle Lite is fluid enough to actually respond to something like that in that way,” he says.

Kwesta, whose hit single Ngud’ and latest album Dakar 2 went gold earlier this week, says that he is grateful for the support he has received from his fans and “shoutout to them [his fans] for thinking that Kwesta is good enough to be on that stage”. He also adds that the local line-up for the concert is a reflection of the influence and magnitude of South African hip-hop.

“I think SA hip-hop is at the biggest stage it’s ever been and I’m really happy with the quality of music, the emergence of talent, because every week there’s a new rapper, a new song. The amount of work that we are putting in and the amount of product that is out there is unbelievable”.