Yemba Shungu bags feature with SA rapper

Pheello Mosesi

Rapper Yemba Shungu has bagged a feature with South African rapper, Reason, for the remix of his hit song Setumo Ke Tronko.

Originally released in August 2023, Setumo Ke Tronko is a trap song, which translates into Fame is Prison, and addresses the inherent pressures that come with fame.

Shungu, who is signed under his own Genuine Hype record label, was excited to share his collaboration with Reason feat to Newsday.   

“My manager got in touch with Reason’s team for the feature. He sent the song, which they passed on to Reason. Within 10 minutes we got a response back and he was willing be on the song” he said.

He indicated the song was, however, recorded in two different studios in two different countries and just like many of his projects, Shungu entrusted rapper and sound engineer T-Mech to do his magic in handling the twin production.

“I believe it is important to be diverse,” Shungu said, describing his view on local artists pursuing features with South African artists.

“Fusing two fan bases. It has been a while since Reason released a hip-hop song with him now being more inclusive in the Amapiano scene doing wonderful work as alter ego, Sizwe Alakine.

“Since he has not been too active in the hip hop space, I do believe he stands to benefit from this feature as well, since his hip hop fans get a chance to hear him in the space they fell in love with him on. An idea of featuring a South African works out if one is already an established artist here in Lesotho. It will also help penetrate a different market which in results grows the stature of the brand,” he added.

The artists’ record labels are planning a promotional tour be featured on television and radio stations both in Lesotho and South Africa, and a music video for the track is in the works.

“We will be shooting with a production company in SA which has shot with artists like Emtee this week. We figured we need collaborate with people who are familiar with SA market if we are ever to reach our target as Genuine Hype which is to penetrate into the SA market.”

Shungu believes the project is one of those that Lesotho will be proud of. He also revealed that he has a recorded an unreleased mixtape in 2023, and his label is waiting for a suitable time to unleash it.

“The mixtape has been done since last year but the market is not yet conducive, so Genuine Hype is awaiting some deals to fall through. There is a major record label in SA which we are we in talks with, which is very eager to sign me as an artist but the talks are ongoing as I would personally love to see such a label overtaking the distribution of Genuine Hype’s music.”

“As soon as that is done then we will be dropping the ‘Sincerely Yours Yemba’ mixtape which has about tracks. Mzwakhe April, who is on the verge of releasing her second mixtape is on the mixtape and a major feature which he declined to disclose more details on.