Sepedi musician proud of his heritage
A young man who embraces his home language through his music.
Mpho Mokiri (28) known as Maleboo, is a young man who embraces his feeling and music through his own home language Sepedi.
He loved music and singing from childhood and imitated some of the biggest artists in the ’90s until he realised that he had a singing talent.
Mokiri was born and raised in Limpopo in the Sekhukhune district at Ga-Phaahla village and later moved to Hatfield, Pretoria. He is not only a singer but also a producer.
“I am on a mission to put PediRap on the mainstream and I am an independent artist. I have my own record label called step2light Music,” said Mokiri.
He said that music was a universal language to him, and he was targeting everyone who found his music appealing regardless of age, colour or gender. The elements in his music are from across all spectrums of different kinds across the globe.
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“I started doing music in 2015, after taking four years teaching myself how to produce, sing and perfect my rap.
“I released a song to the public to know how they would react. Their reactions were positive which is why I kept ongoing,” said Mokiri.
Mokiri told Rekord that his sound was a modernised African sound and his rap is enriched with Sepedi cultural sounds of Kiba/Dinaka and Direto.
“There are some people who have not yet accepted that Sepedi language as one that could rise in the hip hop industry. Even some radio stations around the country reject this Sepedi sound because it’s not mainstream,” he added.
Mokiri said that he was inspired to start his singing career by Vusi Mahlasela, one of the rich African sound elements. He also uses Curtis Jackson aka 50 Cent for his originality and the style of rap.
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“I have shared the stage with some big artists like Kwesta, Cassper Nyovest and others. One of my songs was nominated for best Sepedi hip hop song by Sepedi music awards in 2019, but unfortunately, I did not win,” said Mokiri.
He has gained a lot of respect from people of his village.
They now believe that he would some day, be on the world stage.
His music is available on all digital music stores like iTunes, Deezer, Amazon and all social media platforms.
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