By Matšeliso Phulane
History repeated itself for Lehlohonolo Nkole, aka Magnum Maestro, when he scooped yet another accolade at recent Lesotho Music Awards (LMA) ceremony.
Magnum Maestro told theReporter in an interview last week that the Music Project of the Year award is his second after he won the Video of the Year gong in 2022.
After being announced the winner, Magnum Maestro said he could not believe it since the competition was tough this year.
“When my name was announced it shocked me, I literally jumped up. To be awarded this was truly humbling.
“I was just hoping to win, but in my head I was actually telling myself that it might come or not looking at the competition,” he said.
He stated that LMA normally opens entries for the awards by announcing different categories so that artists can submit their works through their website.
“I entered for three categories, namely music project of the year, best collaboration and best producer. However, when the nominations were announced I only found out that I was nominated under only one category of music project of the year.
“Voting was then announced in November and done through various ways, so the award comes as a direct result of voting,” Magnum Maestro pointed out.
The music project category incorporates various things such as albums, EP’s and mix tapes, he explained.
A music project is something that is general or simply a group of songs. It just depends on how an artist identifies their project, just like Magnum Maestro identifies his as an EP titled ‘SGR-A* Deluxe’. It went onto number one on the Lesmusic Top 30 chart.
Established in 2021, the LMA is an initiative formed to promote Lesotho music locally and globally via Lesotho Music Blog.
LMA also strives to empower artists and give back to the music industry.
As a recording artist, Magnum Maestro said the victory means a lot to him, especially because they go through a lot as artists.
He indicated that even just putting a project together during winter is a challenge; the struggles of power cuts and losing a lot of time he could have spent with his family, was also not easy.
“Putting the beats together, writing the song and going to the studio to record it and pushing it everywhere to the point where it ended up being number one on the top 30 chart was a lot of work.
“So, it’s like a reward for all that hard work, to say ‘you did not work for nothing, you did something good with your time and you did not waste your time; therefore, here is the reward to recognise you and to say this is the best work in the country and is very humbling,” Magnum Maestro observed.
The recording artist hails from Maputsoe, Leribe.
He began crafting his art in the latter half of 2008 under the rap name J-sick. A year later, upon changing to the hard-core sub-genre, he changed his stage name to Magnum Maestro Excalibur 500 which is described as an amalgamation of weapons.
