Thato Madonsela (born January 30, 1982), better known by his stage name L-Tido, is a South African hip hop recording artist from Alexandra, Johannesburg. The artist is best known for being one of few independent artists[1] in the country to reach commercial success, winning the Best Newcomer in Africa award at the 2010 Channel O Music Video Awards (an honour he received without having released an album) and receiving numerous other award nominations.
L-Tido's music career began in 2009 when he self-released, self-marketed and hand-to-hand distributed his mix-tape City of Gold, which received a lot of acclaim, with a number of original songs from the mix-tape getting play-listed on several radio stations and topping numerous radio & music video charts. The success of the mix-tape lead to award nominations and the winning of Channel O's Most Gifted Newcomer award.
On 30 June 2011, L-Tido independently released his debut album, All or Nothing, which was said to reveal everything about his journey and what it took for this rising star to get to where he is. The album includes collaborations with K.O from Teargas, Nigerian singer Banky W, Tumi from Tumi and the Volume, Da L.E.S of Jozi and Maggz. The album was well received with several songs topping numerous charts including, Channel O Weekly Charts, MTV Base African Chart, etv's Club 808 Chart, French music channel Trace TV's Africa Top 10 Chart; and we rolling becoming the number 2 most played song in the country according to the country's RAM charts (a site which organises, calculates and analyses the most played songs on various local radio stations in the country), a first for a hip hip song in the country. L-tido also became the first hip hop artist to have 2 songs in the Top 10 of the RAM chart at the same time L-Tido directs and works on the conceptualising of all his own music videos. The artist was apart of the few artists to pioneer the shift in the level of quality of music videos delivered by hip hop artists in the country, with Lerato Matsotso of the Daily Sun (SA's biggest daily newspaper) noting this movement in saying "Artists from SA are shifting from just shooting party music videos with the usual pool full of half-naked girls to investing in videos and coming up with great storylines", and identifying L-Tido's music videos as "music videos that will give the international videos a run for their money". Among his recognitions, he also has a Channel O nomination for Best Video, a Metro FM award nomination for we rolling featuring Teargas' KO, and a South African Music Awards nomination for Best Hip Hop album in 2012.
L-Tido's second album All of Me was released on 8 November 2013, through a licensing partnership between the artist and Electromode [Music and Business Solutions] and debuted at number 2 on iTunes SA Hip Hop chart.The artist said the album was "inspired by personal circumstances and situations that my friends and family have gone through in the last year" and the album is described to have a current hip hop sound, infused with L-tido's African heritage, with this coming through clearly in the instrumental of his first single who you loving and the sampling of kwaito artist Doc Shebeleza's Get Getsa in his 2nd single "Steve Kekana".
The beef between L-Tido and fellow South African hip hop artist AKA began in 2009 when AKA went onto social network Facebook to publicly disrespect L-Tido while commenting on a song which features fellow hip hop artists Da L.E.S & Bongani Fassie of Jozi and Maggz. This sent the South African hip hop scene into a buzz, as artists started to feud; radio stations and music sites couldn't get enough, with both artists that were new to the hip hop scene were the topic of discussion all over the country. The beef saw both artists record artists recording diss tracks, which marked the end of the public quarrelling between the artists and SA's most exciting beef In May 2013 the artists put up pics on Instagram of them in studio together, though they have yet to release anything.
L-Tido was the first South African artist to be part of the campaign to promote the 2nd season of the MTV award-winning youth drama Shuga, commissioned by MTV Networks Africa in association with The MTV Staying Alive Foundation, the Partnership for an HIV-Free Generation (HFG) and the Government of Kenya, by coming together with artists Banky W, Wizkid and Bon-Eye to create the soundtrack for the season. The music video was shot by acclaimed African director Clarence Peters in Kenya.
L-Tido has worked with a number of South African artists, namely, Maggz, Cassper Nyovest, Tee-Pee, Sean Pages, Morale, Veritaz, KO of Teargas, Tumi of Tumi and the Volume, Reason, Gingerbread Man, Bongani Fassie (son of iconic singer Brenda Fassie) & Da L.E.S of Jozi, Sphum and Anatii. L-Tido has worked with numerous artists all over Africa, and has been on songs with Banky W, Wizkid and Ice-prince from Nigeria, Camp Mulla and Bon-Eye from Kenya, Sarkodie and D-Black from Ghana.
On July 13, 2015, L-Tido's single titled "Dlala Ka Yona" was released. The single features production from South African hip hop record producer Tweezy, who is most notable for producing commercially successful singles "Sim Dope", "Run Jozi (Godly)" and "All Eyes on Me" all from AKA's critically acclaimed sophomore studio album Levels.
@L_Tido Instagram:
No comments:
Post a Comment