BLACK COFFEE TO HEADLINE  LYFE

GRAMMY WINNER BLACK COFFEE SET TO HEADLINE LYFE
 

Johannesburg, South  Africa – On the 26th of November, Y, the biggest commercial youth radio station in South Africa, takes its LYFE music festival to the East Rand.

Globally acclaimed, Grammy Award-winning, superstar Black Coffee returns to South Africa in November following an unparalleled 5-month, European summer tour to take the reins of this highly anticipated summer festival.

Carnival City Lawns will witness performances by global Amapiano stars Focalistic, DBN Gogo and Musa Keys.  AKA, who has one of the most impressive catalogues in South Africa, will be on the stage too.   Hip Hop royalty Nasty C, internationally acclaimed DJ Lag, together with A-Reece, Maglera Doe Boy, Sha Sha and SAMA Winner Nomfundo Moh, Y’s own Venom, Legendary Crisp, Candii and Fif_laaa are expected to set the stage alight as they officially usher in Summer 2022.

Focalistic, DBN Gogo and Musa Keys, celebrated for the local Amapiano genre, are creating waves internationally while touring the world. Nasty C is a respected hip-hop artist who has dropped over four albums and continues to be one of SA’s biggest exports. A-Reece is one of the most successful and lyrical rappers in Africa. Rightfully known as the pioneer of Gqom, DJ Lag will definitely bring his distinctive sound to LYFE.  AKA has just dropped his successful Lemons (Lemonade) and Sha Sha has also released her album.   With both Maglera Doe Boy and Venom having just released albums – there will be so much to celebrate and enjoy.

Y’s Managing Director, Haseena Cassim, said, “We are excited to host artists of this calibre on the Y stage.  We are honoured that Black Coffee will be with us at LYFE and we are looking forward to sharing the LYFE experience with our listeners in the East Rand. They can expect a day filled with great music, fun, with a festival atmosphere and a few surprises.”

This November, LYFE, will be an expression of lifestyle and entertainment brought together against a colourful and vibrant backdrop. With food stalls and trucks, as well as chill out gardens, LYFE will be the perfect outdoor experience.

After two years, it feels great to be celebrating a big summer, and Y is definitely a part of making sure it starts on the 26th of November. Additional announcements about LYFE will be made closer to the time.

Tickets are available at ticketpros.co.za. and SPAR.

Listen to Y on the Y App, OpenView, DStv Channel 859 or FM 99.2.

To cap off a breakthrough year in which he directed the new season of Kelly Khumalo’s reality show “Life with Kelly Khumalo”, South African-Ugandan director Kuda Jemba was this past week enlisted to direct a television commercial for MTV Base in partnership with Capitec Bank for their Live etter campaign. The ad features MTV Base VJs Tshego Koke, Hope Mbele and Shamiso. This was the first commercial of the 29-year-old’s career. 

“I was commissioned to direct the ad by AlternaTV (Nico Nel),” explains Kuda Jemba. “Putting it together felt like a music video, which was fun. I was able to plan my shots and lighting setups and to top it off I had a great cast and crew. This was a big moment for me because after a six year long wait I finally got to direct my first ad. Words cannot express how happy I felt but you can see it and feel it in the work that we delivered.”

Jemba initially found success in the entertainment industry as a director, editor and cinematographer for some of the biggest artists in the country (K.O, DJ Ganyani, Emtee, etc) on their music videos. His production company, Chopped and Screwed, has also consistently been hired by multinational labels like Universal Music, Sony Music and Vth Season over the past few years to shoot non-musical content for their top tier acts. Jemba spoke on the transition from doing music videos to shifting to other formats of directing, which was always his goal. “It was a crazy transition,” he says. 

“In music videos and other filmmaking formats outside of the reality space you plan your camera angles and lighting setups, location scouting and set designing if the budget allows, but in the reality space I was in shock at how much 90% percent of it is guerrilla filmmaking / run and gun. I found myself in the beginning getting frustrated with not being able to plan all these things I was used to but I slowly found my feet and understood why it’s the way it is. You don’t want to spend eternity setting up and planning that you miss the moment.”

It goes without saying that 2022 has been a memorable year for Jemba. “I recently realised that it has been the best year of my life. I’ve learnt so much and been blessed to be in a position to do things I love daily. I’ve been more intentional about how I’ve gone about my day and have practised gratitude for everything that has come my way.” Looking back at Kelly Khumalo’s reality show, which was released off the back of unprecedented public interest around the platinum-selling artist, Jemba explains how the reality show came about and looks back at how it was working with her.

“Directing the reality show came about from a fellow filmmaker called Bongani Morgan that had suggested me for the role to GOAT Originals, the production company that produced the show. I’d sent them my Showreel and they were impressed and set up a meeting! I still wasn’t convinced that I would get the role till we had a meeting with Kelly Khuamlo and I received my contract.”

He describes the experience of directing the reality show as a huge learning curve in long format filmmaking. “I started off on an extreme high excited and all with a bit of naivety, but a month or so down the line reality sank in. When that first trailer dropped it was like damn we are really doing this now and we have to deliver. It was a huge learning curve and a magical opportunity. I learnt a lot from the crew and the cast members. When I started off I thought I was really prepared for anything that could happen but in the reality space a lot of sporadic things happened. I’m glad I had an experienced team to help me navigate a lot of the things.” 

Jemba also says while he was working on the show he was well aware of the drama around Kelly at the time and made a point to stay up to date with everything that was happening. “I was well aware of the publicity surrounding her life and those closest to her. It was important for me to stay up to date with everything to know how to navigate how we go about the content we were producing.” 

Going forward, Jemba will be looking to do more work like this and continue to inspire those around him. “What you can expect from me is to see more long format storytelling and just creating more opportunities for aspiring filmmakers.”

Follow Kuda on Instagram and Twitter: @Kuda_J and @KudaJemba

Johannesburg, South Africa: Since making her TV debut on SABC 2’s telenovela “Keeping Score” in 2017 where she played the character of Jade, a gymnast who struggled to come to terms with the fact that her mother was not accepting of her sexuality, Gaosi Raditholo has grown to become one of the most dependable and versatile actresses in South Africa. 

Jade was a troubled teen who lashed out a lot due to the harboured resentment and anger she had from constantly being criticized for her sexuality by her mother when all she ever wanted from her was to feel seen and loved. The layered character was a challenging one to play for Gaosi because of the dark emotions Jade constantly carried. 

“Being as truthful to this character and telling her story in an authentic way was very important to me,” Gaosi explains. “I have since been cast in other challenging but different roles such as playing the broken Refilwe on The Queen, the loud and flamboyant Warona or “Wawa” on Muvhango and Tshepiso on The River amongst many others. All the characters I’ve played and continue to play stretch me no matter how big or small the role is.”

This role was the beginning of a truly memorable run for the Motswana actress. In the seven years since, Gaosi has also been cast for various roles on a range of international shows including “Vagrant Queen”, which is a science fiction series playing on the Sci-Fi channel. There she played Gladys, a scavenger and mercenary for hire with a calm attitude and detached nature. “Gladys was a very fun role to play,” she says. “The half human-half alien look that was created through prosthetics influenced the character’s physicality. I loved how her external look complimented her internal world, making it easier to tap into her world as an actress.”

Gaosi also credits playing different roles on both local and international productions for unlocking certain unknown parts of her personality. “Gladys released a quirky and fun side of me within my acting. Sometimes I am so in my head about truly serving the character through performance and committed work, that I forget to have fun and play, play, play when finding or creating these characters and I think Gladys was one of the characters who reminded me of this important aspect in performance.”

Her most recent international role came when Gaosi was cast to play the role of Abigail on the HBO Max acquired martial arts crime drama “Warrior”. The show is based on the writings of the legendary Bruce Lee and is set during the Tong Wars which took place in the 1800’s in San Francisco. While Gaosi is contractually limited to speak on the character’s development in the coming season, she describes the role as an actor’s dream. “To play such a colourful and challenging character is a gift every actor dreams of and I can honestly say it has stretched me significantly as a performer.”

Follow Gaosi on Instargram: @gaosi_raditholo