The school boy who made mice out of men at the Channel O Emcee Africa continental rap freestyle challenge is set to perform at the Channel O Awards this week.
This Thursday 29th October, the Jwaneng born rapper will perform with household names from the continent’s powerhouses of Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya.
“This is really going to be one of the experiences of a lifetime for this young man. Just imagine this happening to you and you are still in secondary school,” said Tshepo “Rox” Sikwane, of Big Dawg Productions, the management team handling the young wordsmith‘s career.
According to Rox, Cibil Nyte is to perform with Nigeria’s Naeto-C, Kenya’s Nazizi, South Africa’s HHP and Proverb, and our very own Zeus.
The track, a onetime only track, is the result of Cibil Nyte winning the Channel O Emcee Africa freestyle competition. ├¼Well, it’s part of the perk for winning the competition where he gets to record a track with some of the continent’s finest emcees and also get to perform it live in front of the Channel O Awards audience, ├¼ said Rox.
But, unfortunately, for the young man, what is supposed to be the experience of a lifetime is not going to be like any other performance. While he has shown great stamina and confidence chewing wannabes on Emcee Africa, performing with established and award-winning artists presents a psychological challenge unlike the freestyle competition.
├¼First of all, this is his first time performing for such an audience, and with all these big wigs. But we are confident that he’ll pull it off just like he did at the competition. Although it seems as if he is being thrown into the big leagues so soon, rappers are a different breed of artists: representing is what the game is all about, and Cibil is going to represent!├« said Rox.
At present, the budding rapper is busy preparing and writing his final year secondary school exams at Livingstone Kolobeng College. According to his manager, Cibil Nyte will be having exams on the days leading to his live performance at the awards, and on the very same day itself. ├¼The show’s producers will not allow him to perform without rehearsing the track, especially with the fact that he is not an established artist. Even if he was, there is so much more involved in a sound check session than just rapping or singing,├« said Rox.
To avoid him missing out on his big day, said Rox, the young man will fly to Johannesburg on the day before the awards for practise sessions. He will then fly back to Gaborone after the sessions, well in time for him to get ready for the next day’s exams in the morning. ├¼After the exam, he will be whisked off to the airport to fly down to Johannesburg for the night’s performance,├« said Rox.
Although this might sound like quite a bit for the new star, the price of fame, said one local producer, is a sometimes heavy toll to pay.
The Channel O Awards will be held at Carnival City in Johannesburg this Thursday. For the first time in its history, the awards will be open to the public at R100 per ticket. This is obviously a chance for all to get to see the continent’s stars live on stage and in person. So if you find yourself in that part of Johannesburg on Thursday, go and see a young Motswana make history.
├¼In closing I’d like to remind Batswana not to forget to keep voting for Zeus who is the only Motswana up for an award. He is up for the Best Hip Video Award for the song Gijima. The lines are still open and Batswana can SMS ‘10 C’ to the number 0027839208400 to vote for Zeus,├« said Rox.
