07 Jul 2019

After a decade in the underground of local musical industry, hip hop artiste Lefika Salang, who goes by the stage name Snow Iceman, recently launched his debut studio album Roller Coaster.

A wonderfully produced mixture of different variants of hip hop, mainstream rap, trap, motswako with a dash of kwaito influences, Roller Coaster is an exciting album that, with effective marketing and enough airplay on radio, has the ingredients to be a national hit.

The 20-track piece begins with a thought provoking intro by Umbrella Democratic Change president, Duma Boko.

Encouraging his audience to understand their power as voters to determine their own destiny, Boko concludes with a call to arms for artistic expression that stirs the conscience, declaring, ‘an artiste must become an annoying pest, an artiste must tell the truth; you must become a truth teller first before you become a flag waver. You must stir their souls, and if you stir enough souls in your music, your rap, your art, you may just become taken seriously’.

”This leads on to Last Supper, a song that is structured in the style of trap, with the beat and lyrical style upbeat, a potential hit. 

The next three tracks, Deep Inside, Special and Page Me, are hardcore hip hop songs that feature good quality production, respectively done by Pablo, Tiido and Spryt.

In Legong, featuring Scar, and Soccer featuring Apolo Diablo, Snow gets to work with some of the country’s domestic hip hop industry greats, and the element of motswako, comes to the fore.

Tsaa Utlwe, which features another great local hip hop star and producer, Qbio, has an upbeat kwaito or ‘sghubu’ beat laced with well-structured vocals, has the potential of being another hit. 

The final track of the 20 in the album, Mong wa Mdlalo has already been released as a single and has enjoyed airplay on radio.

Ledikela featuring Gadass and Luzkat is a well-structured track with the good instrumentation seamlessly blending with the lyrical content.

In an interview, Snow Iceman revealed that he was raised in Francistown, and from around 2007, started recording demo songs to the beats of American hip hop stars such as Jay Z.

Upon moving to Gaborone in 2008, he managed to work with seasoned producer BK Proctor, releasing the single Fight It Out, but was financially constrained from releasing what was meant to be his debut album, Heart to Heart.

In 2010, he returned to his parents who were then staying in Selebi Phikwe, before coming back to Gaborone to steadily work his way up in the music industry, while staying largely and underground artiste.

He recorded the Snowflake Mixtape, which was an appetiser before he finally managed to work on material for the full studio album, now released as Roller Coaster.

While the reception on radio stations, television and social media has been moderate, the quality of the album means Snow has the potential to break through and become a mainstream star.

 

Though still working on marketing his current album through shows and media activation, he is already working on plans for a sophomore album to be titled Bashi O Botlhale. ENDS