Lesego Rampolokeng

Lesego Rampolokeng, born in Soweto, South Africa, is the poet of the lost generation of apartheid. Believing that the power of the spoken word can turn into music in itself, he merged many different influences in the beginning of the '90s and thus became one of the most uncompromising artists in the newly blossoming artistical scene of South Africa during that decade. He summarizes his artistical goals as follows: 'Whether that pleases the kings and princes of this earth is absolutely of no importance to me'. In examining his influences, one can truly label Rampolokeng as an artist who easily bridges the gap between the culture on three continents: As a child, he was inspired by dithoko talking songs of the SeSotho who brought this tradition to the huge African melting pot of Soweto as street poets. Later, as a teenager, he was devouring comics and -- quite unusual for a youngster - the poems of the English romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821) and the works of William Shakespeare. North American rap á la Gil Scott-Heron, the recordings of Jamaican dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, the poems of William Burroughs and the poet of the Black Consciousness movement, Madingoane turned out to be the creative starter kit for a new talent at the end of the '80s. The material for his own poetry he found on the streets of Soweto: the dreariness, despair and violence of a place which had not naturally evolved but was created by ruthless economic necessity, arrogance and racist psychomania. After aborting his law studies, Lesego Rampolokeng concentrated on writing and performed his works at various political gatherings. At the end of the '80s, he also started his regular musical performances and met Vusi Mahlasela, another promising talent of the South African music scene, with whom he...