Lesotho’s arguably best beat maker ‘Thuso Raletele’ found a strategy that works even in worst covid-19 crisis, besides owning a 9 to 5 store. “if I chase clout and forget who I am, start losing my sight at making music... it wouldn’t be good” iSmoke said.
Lesotho is a small landlocked country, trapped inside of South Africa. The story behind this is that Lesotho’s land was taken by the white people back then during wars which involved ‘Majoro Oa Tena’ as Basotho elders called him, Major Warden, but that’s the story for another day.
As small as it is, Lesotho has precious stones like diamonds and a little of coal. With the population of about 2.1 million, it looks like many people are really talented in this Moshoeshoe land. The country produced legends like Ts’epo Ts’ola and other great musicians. Lately we have seen young stars rising with so much control and power over their sound - talk of Juvy who gave us ‘K’hoto featuring Megahertz and Ntate Hony(RIP)’, Selimo who gave us ‘Khomo’, Stlofa, Dunamis,L-Tore, Jiji-f, the list is endless. Ntate Stunna recently took South Africa by storm with well constructed Sesotho lyrics, I will not go into Malome Vector right now, get ready to know a beat
star in the making... Thuso Raletele who is known by his stage name ‘iSmoke’.
"...So to young up and coming talented brothers and sisters, focus on creating good music and pushing your music through online platforms to reach more people... Online presence has boosted a lot of careers including mine..."
While most of you were crying for lunch boxes and dodging school, hiding behind the toilets (especially in the lower part of Africa), iSmoke discovered his music talent. He says he was singing in a school choir and also in church alter service choir in 2004, y’all probably know how Catholic church brothers like boasting about this. The beatmaker then natured his passion and it eventually grew into sort of a music career, that was in 2013. “I then ventured into beat making having realized that there were more rappers and less beatmakers and we used downloaded beats back then”. Thuso used to rap before he gave his all to the production side of music.
The music industry is a good environment for relationship development, iSmoke had a few relationships himself - oh snap, nooo! Not intimate relationships bazaloane (EN - brethren), No! Well, I am not sure about that maybe he had many haha, but... he had friends like SilverNote while has was enrolling in Statistics and Demography at National University Of Lesotho. It happened that Thuso produced some fire beat and tried get a few artists to use it but to no avail. That was somehow the beginning of Malome Vector, as he himself said had only iSmoke not given him a chance to use his studio he wouldn’t be where he is today, back to the story, Malome Vector jumped on the beat and ‘the rest is history’ as iSmoke said. One of the songs that trended in Lesotho is "Bontate Ba Brewery" by Malome Vector X iSmoke featuring Juvy, produced by iSmoke, see the video on the link >>>
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=498560054252735&extid=V6lU6PMBXQKelNud
"I am very grateful to have worked with Malome Vector, I think he is the best newcomer in South Africa right now" Thuso said.
What inspires your Music iSmoke?
"Real life events, things that happen around me, things that do occur. those are what drives and inspire my music." He said. It is been said by Pablo Picasso, "Art is a lie that makes us realize truth", I (Elnolo) say, "Art lives in truth", well I heard this from someone the other day, and this is just what iSmoke says he does, teaching truth through music. Artists like 6ix9ine chased 'clout' and it made and broke them. The Clout Entrepreneur teaches aspiring entrepreneurs on how to take their skills to the internet and monetize their content. iSmoke said clout is not that important in his music career, and that consistently making good music is key, he went on saying music and clout are somehow co-related but he believes in just making music an letting the rest follow.
Jay Z owns businesses and music opens doors for him, this may be where iSmoke wants to be, just maybe. The producer goes to his 9am to 5pm store and makes beats after 5pm. Ohhhh... forgot to ask him when does he give his wife some quality time if he makes beats after 5pm! 2020 has not been a good year to most businesses, but iSmoke took an advantage of technology and online platforms and started selling his beats to both local and international market. "...with this covid-19 crisis a lot of artists were no longer getting bookings, no studio sessions for producers, and that means we are not making any money but I've found a way deal with it in a way that is working in my favor..." He said.
'We as Lesotho artists have a lot of potential due to large percentage of our music not yet been heard nor tapped into the market. I think we are on the right track, we just need to keep pushing and we will do penetrate the market as long as the government can give us a helping hand by funding our art".
iSmoke has an upcoming EP with MJ Elphy, no specific date nor tittle yet. Follow him on all social media platforms @iSmoke_onthe_beatz.
You can listen to 'The Clout Entrepreneur' Episode 02 with iSmoke as our guest, hosted by Elnolo.