Poppulse caught up and had a chat with South African hip hop duo, Stino Le Thwenny, who just released a new single Tsele, featuring multi-platinum selling rapper Kwesta. Reminiscent of underground hip hop cyphers, the duo delivers bars on a hard-hitting beat. Produced by ASID ON THE BEAT, the instrumentation consists of a hard-hitting bass to keep the tempo and a lo-fi element to produce the melody of the song.
Where are you guys from? How have your surroundings shaped you in a creative sense and in what way?
We are from Bloemfontein in the Free State, and our town is a small town that’s still growing but our town is more of a city than the surrounding towns. We have more events, we have more venues for the arts, I think it just being a constantly changing environment makes our creativity better because we are aware.
What first got you into music?
What first got us into music? For Thwenny it was child stars he saw on TV making music. For Stino it was the radio songs he heard, The Motswako fraternity; Tuks /HHP/Mo’Molemi/Khuli Chana etc. and a lot more South African music including Kwaito musicians.
If you could collab with anyone in the world, who would it be?
If we could collaborate with anyone in the world, it would probably be Drake, Burna Boy, WizKid, Davido, Tems, Sjava, Sho Madjozi and a lot more.
Do you have anyone you consider a mentor? How has that helped you in the music industry?
Well no we don’t. I guess we are learning from all the moves made by our idols and just learning the industry as we go along and navigating, I think the best thing helping us out is knowing where we want to go and not letting anything change us into becoming who we are not.
What haven’t you attempted yet that you hope to do?
Collaborations with Gospel artists like Joyous Celebration or Soweto Gospel Choir. We also haven’t attempted Amapiano or Afrobeat just to improve the musicality and broaden our business sphere.
What would you be doing right now, if it wasn’t for your music career?
We were thinking about it the other day on what else we would be doing besides this, we would be businessmen with different types of businesses, maybe a salon /beauty bar/ food spot/gaming centre etc.
How do you feel the Internet has impacted the music business?
The internet has really helped us a lot, looking at the fact that we can’t be outside. Everyone has time to listen to everyone’s music and improve where it’s wrong. We have time to fix everything before we go back to normal.
If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
Nothing, we would just make another one in our hometown, so it can be easy for our people to get their music out there.
What is your favourite song to perform?
Lately it’s been Mshimane, but it has always been Ba stout.
Tell us more about Tsele music video?
ART at its best… The visuals explain vividly what the song means and what it’s about as a lot of people don’t know what we’re saying due to language… Black and white, straight to the point. Shout out to everyone who was part of it.
How has your journey been in the industry?
It’s been disturbed by the virus, let us get the vaccine first then I’ll properly explain… I don’t know yet.
What’s next for you?
EP this year and probably an album too. If not, the album will be for next year, but more beautiful timeless music from Stino Le Thwenny.
Listen to their single, Tsele featuring Kwesta here: lethwenny.lnk.to/Tsele