The aspiring local artist, 22-year old Thabelo Ndammbi, better known as Thardy TKE, started off his music career by writing lyrics from songs of his favorite musicians and singing along to them and is now stepping up the ladder.
The would-be born star wrote and produced his ever first song when he was in his 9th grade and that developed into a hobby that he started doing every day because he knew then that music was his thing.
He explains that starting off a music career is never easy as it takes time, patience, and perseverance.
”It was hard when I started off mostly because it takes time for artists to be recognized and promoters would underpay us or not pay us at all. Sometimes we would miss events because of lack of funds and transport,” he said.
For him, music is passion and love and sometimes he enjoys the little fame he gets but he feels that might work for someone who is in music for fame and money. “That kind of artist will be subjected to an unhappy life because music is not in their hearts.”
One of his favorite projects was in 2016, titled the come up (EP) where he featured Kamikaze TKE. The project went solid gold and had singles playing on local radio stations and also managed to win Tshwane FM’s mixtape of the year in 2016. To top on those achievements, one of the songs from the EP titled Nekesa Tshepe featuring Letswaka was on Tshwane FM’s biggest hip hop charts for a consecutive seven weeks.
He markets his music through word of mouth and social media and he gets most of his support from the community who requests him to perform at birthdays, local gigs, and events.
“I do not have an agent at the moment, I had people I worked with and it did not work out, so right now I am flying solo,” he said.
The rapper plans to see his music grow and becoming well known internationally and touch people to change even the life of a dreamer who does not believe they can make it.
