By Matṧeliso Phulane
Lesotho’s rap queen, Mantṧeli Matete, famously known with her stage name Badgirl Kimberly or simply Kim, is on the comeback trail, this time with more vibrancy.
Badgirl Kimberly took a three-year break and now comes back with a blast single called ‘Fashion’. The song was released last week Friday at Panda Night club.
Kim is a female rapper who also represents the LGBTQI+ community. She was born in South Africa but grew up at Ha Mabote, Phahameng in Maseru.
Her stage name ‘Badgirl Kimberly’ came from her first single – ‘Badgirl’ – which she released when she entered into the music industry.
Her music journey started in 2019, when she released close to 10 singles besides features and collaborations.
The rap queen performed at various events which were popular back then, such as Summa Feva, Beach party, and All White Festival.
However, now that she is back, Kim has noticed that a lot of things have changed and there are more new events since she has been in South Africa.
In a recent interview with theReporter, Badgirl Kimberly said a lot of things happened that forced her to take a break to attend to her mental health.
“I was taken advantage of, so many things spiralled out of control and at some point I almost lost my sanity. Some people would ask me to do despicable things like sleeping with them, for example, to enhance my career.
“I was exploited and cheated out of a lot of things; at some point I nearly got raped. I came back to Lesotho because I needed to breathe. I grew up in South Africa and know how things work, it’s just that I took it for granted and assumed such things would never happen to me,” Kim observed.
Kim thought she was going to take a six-month break but it turned out to be three years, and people even thought she had disappeared for good.
“Another reason why I disappeared was that I felt overwhelmed; things were not going exactly how I wanted them to go, the worst part was being lesbian,” she said.
She recalled that when she first started out, everything was going smoothly and record labels wanted her. But no less than six record labels which wanted her were owned by men and it turned out badly since they wanted to exploit her and demand things she couldn’t agree to, such as unfair percentages.
“I felt that my mental health was affected that’s when I decided to come home. I took a break and right now I am re-servicing, I am coming back.
“I thought I was not myself because of not doing enough with what God gave me (talent). Some of them demanded 90 percent and I could not sign a contract which I could not make money out of,” Kim added.
Now older, stronger and wiser, Kim is confident she has learned from all that live has thrown at her. And she is ready to do things on her own terms. She figured if she can find herself good public relations, marketing and management teams, hers will only be to focus on creation and recording.
“So, I am ready right now. I feel mature enough to face it all. I have already signed contracts with some marketing companies, right now I am going all out, working things out on my own.
“As a female artist I have learned that things are not always what we expect them to be. I was initially very confident that my talent would take me far, forgetting that there are things required of me to reach the goal,” she recounted.
