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The Storytelling Emcee - OBITA
The word OBITA means to persuade. Aptly named he is the most persuasive performer you will ever see. His booming voice and aggressive presence have resulted in him upstaging a few main acts in his career. His stage presence is so enigmatic he has even been requested to host such shows as the Discovery Beach front Activation in Plattenburg Bay, MTN Yellow Star and Castle lights Republic of Extra cold. This has been one of the benefits of living in Johannesburg which is renowned for its poor support for upcoming artists. OBITA has been forced to prove themselves.
Combining humor and a bit of shock value while confronting issues which most artists prefer to run from. He enjoys creating topical material that society can have a conversation around. And that’s what the crowd loves about him. He involves them as opposed to just having them as observers. Obita’s parents were Ugandan immigrants to Southern Africa, and he has lived here for a good portion of his life. Being a South African with a unique experience and perspective enables him to bring a fresh outlook to SA Rap. Obita having been raised in Africa realized that all his study books, even those about African culture were written by outsiders. Africans seldom wrote their own stories or dictated their own narrative.
Obita is motivated by the need for a whole continent to have some say in its own narrative. Being a lyrical rapper who prefers to write mostly in English in a “House music / Amapiano” dominated society has its blessings. One particular blessing is Obita’s international reach as opposed to contemporaries who are heavily centered in a local market. Obita has an international audience. In fact, he realized he had hit a sweet spot when his “Mask off freestyle” got him 20 000 TIKTOK followers out of nowhere.
AWARDS & ACCOLADES
Obita is a Channel O Music Award winner for Most Gifted Artist. He has also had the privilege of co–writing the hit single ‘I want you’ which won Loyiso Bala a SAMA Awards for best RNB single. Obita is also the first artist on track 16 of HHPs award winning Acceptance speech album.
In terms of doing massive scale events, I doubt there is a crowd capacity that frightens him. Obita has performed at the 46 664 concerts to a live TV audience and a stadium of 35 000 people. He has also performed live at the soccer world cup opening concert to a 90 000-capacity crowd. He has also serenaded beauties as well as a live Prime Time TV audience at the crowning of Miss South Africa. The show has a yearly viewership of 15 million viewers.
To add to it all he has shared a stage with Speech of legendary hip hop group ‘Arrested Development’ in Atlanta Georgia and wowed the crowd live at the Metro FM awards here in South Africa. He has also had a welcome surprise in his career. Obita was shocked when he was called upon to free styling live with legendary Wyclef Jean of the Fugees. He even had a whole auditorium of people thinking he was part of Phat Joe’s entourage when he had them singing and dancing to his every whim in Cape Town. The atmosphere was lit to say the least. Obita is currently on a freestyle run and planning or releasing his first single in the next few months
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