(Gigi Lamayne & Roger Lucey)
The South African
music fraternity gathered in Durban last month for the South African Music
Awards to pay tribute to the country’s best musicians of the past year. Along
with that, some of the veterans who shaped Mzansi’s musical landscape were also
honoured.
Among them was
Moshito Music Conference & Exhibition 2016’s Ambassador Rodger Lucey.
Proving that
relevance never gets old, Lucey was bestowed with a 2016 Lifetime Achievement
Award by the South African Music Awards at the Albert Luthuli ICC in Durban on June
4, 2016.
After a successful
run with last year’s ambassadors, kwela legend Lemmy “Special” Mabaso and hip
hop grandmaster Emile YX?, the faces of Moshito 2016 are proof that the South
African creative industry is vast and varied, yet rich in talent.
Lucey, 62, is a
musician, journalist, film maker, actor and educator. During the late 1970s and
early 1980s his career as a musician was brutally curtailed by the South
African Bureau of State Security as a result of his protest songs being
considered a “threat to the Apartheid State”. Although the Government was
already aware of his anti-apartheid songs, the South African security apparatus
only swung into action to wipe out Lucey’s career after he performed his
“radical” songs, Lungile Tabalaza, Cross Roads and Thabane, on the Voice of
America radio programme in 1979.
His young
counterpart on Moshito, Gigi Lamayne, is a new generation female emcee who
stormed her way into the male-dominated genre with the sassy song Ice Cream. Previously a struggling
unsigned artist, Lamayne now sits pretty in the company of giant fellow
stablemates Khuli Chana, Thembi Seete, Ms Cosmo, Muzart, and Major League DJz
among other big names under Dream Team SA.
Her career is
barely out of its infancy stage, and already she is a four-time South African
Hip Hop Awards winner, winning Best Female for two consecutive years (2013 and
2015), as well as winning Best Mixtape and Best Newcomer in 2013 and the Jack
Daniels hip-hop competition in 2014.
The Moshito Music
Conference and Exhibition 2016 was made possible by the solidified long term
financial support of the Department of Arts and Culture, the SABC and the City
of Joburg, thus establishing itself as not only South Africa’s biggest Music
Conference and Exhibition but also as Africa’s premiere music industry event.
Its purpose is to broaden the business intelligence of the music industry
professionals in South Africa and the Continent, strengthen business networks
for participants and inform delegates, traders and the public about the
multifaceted and dynamic nature of the global music industry and its latest
trends.
Moshito Music
Conference and Exhibition will take place from 7-10 September 2016 at the SABC
Radio Park in Auckland Park.
For more
information visit www.moshito.co.za
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