Ephraim Keoreng
9 October 2008
DJ Sly, also known as Phenyo Ntshinogang, has released a scorcher of an album titled House Is My Life.
The album, according to DJ Sly's spokesperson, Seabelo Modibe, of Lekoko Entertainment, shows off the DJ as a strictly house DJ who "does not play Kwaito, Borankana or Hip Hop in clubs but House. It is based on the fact that he lives and breathes House music," he said.
Born and bred in Kanye, Ntshinogang studied at St Joseph's College before going to South Africa for his sound engineering degree at the University of Cape Town.
House Is My Life album contains 12 tracks. Modibe said that the album has an appeal for both the young and older generations. It starts with a classic remix by renowned and award-winning South African journalist Mzilikazi Wa Afrika's Neria remix, originally composed by Zimbabwe's Oliver Mtukuzi. The second track is followed by another re-make, this one by Bill Withers and Washington Jr's Just The Two of Us. Others are Diary and Twice, which have already made it into South African radio stations like Lesedi fm, Motsweding fm, Ligwagwala fm, Mafisa fm and North West fm.
Performance, in terms of airplay, the album, according to Modibe, is already on high rotation on the two government national radio stations (RB1 and RB2) as well as Duma fm.
"We are now pushing sales we have shipped out at least a 1, 000 CDs in well over two weeks, which is good looking at the fact that the Botswana music industry is dominated by kwasa kwasa and Borankana music. We are targeting a 20,000 (Gold) sales mark," he said.
Modibe said that they hope to shoot a music video end of this month. He said Mzilikazi Wa Africa together with two DJs from South Africa would be in Botswana for the shoot.
DJ Sly will soon go on a national tour.
The Botswana music industry is still in its infancy unlike in neighbouring South Africa, where the industry is a multi-billion Rand industry. "The South African government pumps in billions into the industry because they know for a fact the music industry creates jobs within the informal sector, while in Botswana the involvement of the government is very minimal if not non-existent.
We believe the government can do much as they are doing for sports by building music or arts arenas, music academies, providing grants for musicians, funding of national music festivals such as national annual jazz, gospel, and traditional concerts countrywide. That would also help get a lot of our youth off the streets and bad habits like alcohol and drugs," said Modibe.
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