In an interview with Arts & Culture, the founder and director of Mosu Mantsie 585 Studios, Rapula Mhlanga explained that Tshwaragano Ya Koma was a collaboration conceived during the COVID-19 era.
However, he pointed out that the album was initially called Legends Against COVID. “Our social responsibility at Mosu Studios went out to another level. Having realised that our elderly legendary artists were affected by COVID-19, we decided to empower them through a collaborated effort, producing music and thus engaging them at the same time giving them something worthwhile to concentrate on,” he said.
He further explained that the project had about 17 artists who contributed a song each. He also said two of the contributors, Aubrey Woki and Ras Judah are based overseas.
Some of the artists who feature in the album include Queen Mocha, Mpho Loeto, Banjo Mosele, Punah Gabasiane, Canny Ndaba and Caxton Senyatso. Mhlanga added that most of the legends featured in the album have been dormant in the music industry for some time. He also said they have been working on that album for the past two years.
He said the name Tshwaragano Ya Koma emphasised the collective effort of the group towards producing the album. He highlighted that he found it fit to help elderly artists who were among the hardest hit by COVID-19 pandemic.
Mhlanga said he worked alongside Tinotenda Matauto to compile the album. Moreover, he pointed out that recording was still a challenge to most artists especially the elderly veterans.
He also said the challenges were economical saying that they had to sponsor it from their own pockets. He further explained that this was their second charity album after the first one called Afrika Collabo, which was geared towards youth artists. Africa Collabo had 18 songs. He further explained that since it was recorded during COVID-19 era, they had financial challenges to market it. He pleaded with potential sponsors to come on board and sponsor the launch of the two albums.
