23 Jul 2018

A fledgling company owned by a local youth dubbed Straight from Ghetto (S.F.G) promotions has combined technical competency with an innovative advance to empower young artistes and help solve problems in the dynamic industry.

The company is owned by 26-year old Obakeng Madube who hails from Otse, but has since relocated to Gaborone where the business is currently based.

In an interview, S.F.G Promotions founder and director, said that he registered the company in April 2017 with the aim to expose and promote young upcoming artistes across the country. 

“My company deals with all types of music genres as long as the artiste is young and trying to fit into this complex industry. 

So we try by all means to build young artistes in order for them to be selling brands.

He also said the focus was on identifying the best emerging talent early and connecting to seasoned talent and further indicated that the company groomed artistes through workshops where they offered free mentorship in self-development, discipline and creativity.

Madube further noted that his company held expositions and talent shows in order to give artistes exposure and help sell their brands.

“We promote our clients though social media platforms because it has a lot of following, and social media is an area where potential sponsors can be sourced,’’ he noted.

He also noted that they track and organize revenue streams for artistes and their teams, ensuring that everyone involved was effortlessly rewarded or payed for their work. 

“We believe that getting paid for your work should be simple as it acts as a motivation to our artistes,’’ Madube highlighted

When explaining how the name came about, Madube stressed that the name S.F.G was influenced by the fact that townships have a lot of unrecognised talent that needed to be uplifted and nurtured.

A graduate from Gaborone Institute of Higher Learning who specialised in Bachelor of Business Administration in Sales and Marketing, he said as a start-up, the company faced many challenges in financial constraints as it invested a lot in transporting artistes. 

“We are young company and we struggle a lot financially, we dig deep down our pockets to support the artistes, and at times we even walk to source funding or even pay for advertisement,” he alluded

He said lack of trust and support remained a challenge as people underestimated their efforts and did not take the craft seriously and as such as were reluctant to reward artistes; a feat which may demoralise potential artistes. 

  Madube urged government to support young musicians through establishment of platforms that could empower them and called for joint collaborations with private sector in empowering and mentoring talent in Botswana, 

He encouraged young people to exercise patience, resilience and determination in everything they did, qualities he said were significant as they could assist one reach long and short term goals. ENDS