23 Jan 2017

The history of entertainment in Francistown would not be complete without the names Bicko Gee and Sliq Sta.

One can never compile the history of Hip Hop and Motswako in Francistown without mentioning these two legendary Francistown rappers who have been around the music industry for more than 15 years and still stand strong.

Their journey through the music industry is well documented and their push for the growth of the arts in Francistown can never go unnoticed.

In the Hip Hop and Motswako industry, they are as legendary as Kast Stallion and Nomadic (formerly known as Mr T), the two famous rappers based in Gaborone and Johannesburg, South Africa respectively.

These two in Francistown are in the mould of DJ Tambai and the late DJ Za-Kickin Cletic.

Ofentse Seboko, who is nicknamed ‘God Body’ but popularly known in the music circles as Bicko Gee is riding the wave of success in his music partnership with the equally talented Mandla ‘Yuri’ Tlhowe who trade by the stage name Sliq Sta.

Speaking in an interview at their music studio in Francistown, the talented duo revealed that their music was being released under an umbrella company called Blue Jacket Street Music, named after the longest street in the city of Francistown.

The company is an audio-visual entity made up of additional two companies being Sonic Media, formally Sonic Boom Bang, and it is in charge of all music production and directed by Bicko Gee.

Another company under them was Uncut Pictures and Imani Multimedia, which looks after all the duo’s visualisation needs, including music video shootings and graphic design.
Sliq Sta holds a Degree in Creative Multimedia from Limkokwing University of Creative Technology whilst Bicko Gee holds a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities from the University of Botswana and a further

Certificate in Sound Engineering from University of South Africa.

For Sliq Sta, music runs in his family and the love began when he was growing up listening to his uncle, legendary guitarist and singer, Clement Jackson of the highly acclaimed Kgwanyape band.

“Blue Jacket Street Music is currently working on an EP that will be released before the actual album in February and to be titled, Blue Jacket Street Music. The EP will contain 12-15 tracks with the official single being called Mari, a Kalanga word for money,” Bicko Gee said.

Additionally, Sliq Sta revealed that the song, Mari was about economic empowerment for artistes; calling for support from the public and private companies.

The single is a Hip Hop/Kwaito fusion and was produced in-house by Milly Maliks.

Although the single will be free to download on social media and other music download sites, Bicko Gee revealed that the full EP would be for sale in music stores country-wide and also available on online stores.

“Our EP was heavily produced by Bicko Gee while I am in charge of shooting some videos for the songs on the up-coming EP. Our full album will only be released in April,” Sliq Sta noted.

He said they were currently busy creating hype around all their projects through social media and had listening sessions scheduled, press releases to be issued to different media houses and both radio and TV interviews. BOPA