POLOKWANE – Rammutla, who goes by the stagename Sykotic, is based in Westenburg. He started out rapping by imitating other rappers on TV.
“I was playing around at first, we’d freestyle and I’d battle other rappers. Sometimes I’d come out on top, other times I’d be embarrassed. People would tell me I am ‘ill’, I had mad skills, which in hip hop lingo is a good thing. Initially, the plan was just to be famous. I wanted to be like the rappers I saw on TV but that was before I developed a passion for it. It was after matric that my name caught fire. I started gaining popularity and we would have cyphers at Library Gardens. I would go against different people every time, sometimes I would battle five people at a time, that is how I honed my skills,” he explains.
In 2007, he decided to record a mixtape. “Rapping in the streets and being a recording artist are two different things. It’s two different skill sets you have to master individually. I recorded my first mixtape, titled Reverse Psychology which was produced by Chuene Envy Mdluli. That mixtape did better than we expected. At first we wanted to sell it but we thought since it’s the first, we gave it out for free to gain a fanbase. “It got me my first national interview on Hype magazine. We’d also battle on Fridays at Capricorn FM,” he adds.
He started a crew in 2008, called Headliners with Ignology, who took on lyrics, and Envy who did the beats. They also released a mixtape.
Rammutla enrolled at the University of Limpopo for a bachelor of law degree in 2009. He continued doing cyphers; getting other rappers together at the campus and got an overwhelming response.
He met Qriosity in 2010 and began working with him. They started a crew, Word’O’Mouth.
“We recorded hit tracks like Taxi to Limpopo which made waves on radio. With other tracks, we were accused of being too lyrical, too underground for commercial radio,” he explains.
In 2012, Rammutla released his first album, Psychotic Episodes. The second album was Reality Check in 2015, which is still available for purchase. He is also working on another album titled The Dojo, which is due to be released in 2018. He roped in artists from Zimbabwe, Lesotho, United States of America and United Kingdom, and other national and local artists.
“We are going to have two surprise well-known national artists featuring on the album. Being an artist in general is challenging. Every day you have to learn something, just when you think you’re getting everything together, something will come and burst your bubble. There’s always room for failure and improvement. As an artist, you die every day and resurrect every morning. It’s all about evolution, as an artist your second album can’t sound like the first.”
You can contact Rammutla at 072 882 4442 or follow him on Facebook.
