BBA’s Zeus and Scar dish out rap

Botswanacraft was on Friday night a battlefield of sorts when hundreds of rap war-hungry revellers journeyed there way to experience two of Botswana’s powerful rappers, Game Bantsi aka Zeus a former BBA housmate and Thato Matlhabaphiri aka Scar, crossing swords in one of the highly-anticipated fierce battles to outshine each other.

However, the much publicised battle of the two rappers was reduced to a night of impressive showcasing of rap talent by the country’s highly gifted rappers.

Zeus’s song, Summertime, was used as a signature tune in the Mascom summer promotion two years ago, while Scar also happens to be the only local rapper signed to another cellphone giant, Orange.

Zeus opened the performance of the battle of the emcees when he appeared with a live band, Brand New Vibes, serving some delightful live performance. The crowd was also set ablaze when Scar appeared on stage with his live band, Diskord, all geared in Zebras football jersey. He introduced himself as the Zebras coach, Stan Tshosane, saying he was a capable leader of his team on the night.

Zeus had tried to live up to the hype of the show, directing some sporadic personal attacks at Scar, who nevertheless just let it pass and concentrated on giving a beautiful live show.

Scar performed songs from his mixtape, The Last Round, and a few from his albums. Clearly this showed that what appeared to be a battle to be settled through intense lyricism in the context of punchlines and metaphors, saw a twist of things when Scar did not retaliate Zeus’s challenges in the first round.

There is no doubt both rappers count among giants on the local rap scene.They both won the Channel O Music Awards. Scar was recently a guest artist at Big Brother Africa Amplified (BBAA) House where Zeus was a contestant.

Most Scar-Zeus fans who came to the event said they had hoped to see both rappers engage in a battle that would determine the better emcee, but to their disappointment it turned out to be a business-oriented competition. Some even say it might have been a stunt to attract publicity and a high turnout at the show.

However, it still created an atmosphere where people will now have to take local rap performances just as seriously as they do about top Afro-jazz shows.