We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kamogelo Ramalepe a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kamogelo, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I think I was 4 years old , my grandfather used to play guitar and sing to us (me and my cousins) , so whenever he left the house I’d steal the guitar trying to play it and sing like him , that’s where I first got involved music, which led me to joining the school choir at age 7 , but then quit the choir after losing my voice the day before the choir competitions. It wasn’t until 2010 when my friend played an Eminem song for me titled ‘No Love’ from his recovery album , that’s when I knew this is what I wanted to do , so I started freestyling at school with friends until I eventually got to record my first single in 2015 which unexpectedly gained me popularity around my township
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
In 2017 , I got to meet an industry creative who had produced a platinum selling song for 2 of South Africa’s biggest Hip Hop artists Emtee & A-Reece , I saved enough money to feature him and in 2019 we finally made the song together. After we finished recording , he asked me things like now that I got the song what’s my plan with it, where do I want it to go, how am I going to promote it to make sure it gets where I want. Those types of questions opened my eyes and that’s what led to me starting to collaborate with national and international tv channels like Mtv Base , Channel O & Trace tv. After months of research I finally debut that song as the lead single to my EP on Tv , which boosted my fame significantly and grew my facebook page following from 5000 to 600 000 within months.
What I wish I knew back then was to be consistent because I started relaxing and that kind of let the hype around me die down , I returned with a new song on TV in 2024 and even did a radio tour in South Africa but the hype hasn’t been the same. I’m proud of myself for reaching the level I’m at without a manager , record label or spending money on PR , my advise to artists would be to save up enough money to build their own bed room studios and shoot their own music videos , it’ll save them alot of money
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
I wish I knew earlier that as an artist without financial backing , I can submit music videos to tv channels and radio stations for free. I found out late in life and have been trying to make other upcoming artists aware of how they can be on tv and get radio interviews like me without spending a cent.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
After the hype died down and some people started forgetting about me , I realised I was still young , I need a plan B for incase music failed, so I applied for varsity and have seen been a student at the University Of Limpopo since 2023 until 2026. I do still make music and do occasional show up on Tv and got some of my songs played on national soap operas but most of my focus has been on school lately so that I can have something to fall back on when music fails.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kingkeiigh_sa?igsh=cXVvM2huNDI2czho&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/19HAU6F33w/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@kingkeiigh?si=zP8Vwl_phLzFUUGz
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@kingkeiigh?_t=ZS-8z9dBXCGTwe&_r=1
