Tebogo Thekisho. Brother to the brilliant actress Lerato Mvelase. Host of The Midday Link Up with Lerato Kganyago and Mel Bala on Metro FM. Recovering rapper.
Yep: before blessing our screens with his consummate skills (and he’s been around since Idols SA season 6!), ProVerb was an acclaimed emcee with bars – and a bright future. He reminded us all of his prowess with a cameo on Somizi’s guest appearance in our finale.
Pro (then often known as ‘Verb – the late ProKid came of age in the same era) hopped out of that huge hole in Kimberley and onto the mic. As the millennium turned, he plied his trade in the Joburg underground, eventually scoring a deal with Outrageous Records, part of the Black Rage Productions multimedia company.
Black Rage specialised in urban culture and was run by Maria McCloy, Dzino, and Kutloano Skosana, and they were also responsible for one of the most influential Mzansi blogs of the early Internet, rage.co.za.
Outrageous Records was also home to the first releases from Zubz, Reason, Pebbles, H2O, Optical Illusion and many more. Coinciding with the onset of YFM, this stealthy crew set the tone for a hip-hop scene that would explode in the 2000s. Hello AKA …
He released ‘The Book of ProVerb’ (also the title of his 2020 autobiography) in 2005 - you can cop his discography on Spotify here – and started scoring hits. Further albums followed – ‘Manuscript’ (2006), ‘Write of Passage’ (2009), ‘Fourthwrite’ (2012) and ‘The Read Tape’ (2015).
With those came collabs with RJ Benjamin, Ziyon, The Soil and HHP, and hits like ‘Blessed & Highly Favored’, ‘Bread Winner’ and ‘Writers’ Club’.
All are worth a listen, and as with your fave #IdolsSA contestants, they have thousands of listens. Had he not been such a fine TV host, we have no doubt that he’d be one of SA’s finest MCs …
A multidimensional talent, we’re lucky to have him.
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