User:Eli Ofile Lediretse

Ofile Etsa Lediretse,better known by his stage name ELI, is an African rapper from Shoshong,Botswana. Born and raised in the heart of the city "Gaborone" also known as Gabz City. unlike a lot of other artist,he was not signed to P-side but he was born into it. P-side was one of the first major labels in Gaborone back in 1998 and was the first to start a hip hop movement which had a major influence on most of the rappers from this area. it was started by Carl Lediretse and his friend Choose together with 1 an old time DJ,Sidney Baitsile "DJ Sid" .P-side released a lot of emcees and helped build many including the likes of Scar, Nomadic, 3rd Mind, Vee, Kast,etc

1991-2009:Early Life
Eli was born in Tsholofelo clinic, at the city pf Gaborone, Botswana. His mother was had him at an early age of 19 years but did a great job and raising with the help of his grandparents. His father was never there from the day he was born thus he grew up with his mother acting as both a mother and a father. however he lived with both his mother and grandparents in Gaborone, in Partial to be exact.

Eli started rapping at the age of 15 and by then he was doing form 2 at Nanogang Junior Secondary School. He grew up in an environment full of musicians and people who loved music with a passion. His grandmother used to be a music teacher, his mother was also in love with both traditional and gospel music, she was even in the church choir. However his great love for rap was influenced by his uncles. Living under one roof with them had him loving this kind of art. His older uncle had already established a record label titled P-SIDE, which was a major movement that played a huge part in developing the hip-hop music in Botswana.

He went to Naledi Senior Secondary in 2008 and carried his rap with him. Luckily for him he was in a class that had guys who liked hip hop as much as he does so it was music talk throughout. That's where he was even involved in cyphers and showcased his skill. In 2009, when he was doing his Final year he got a chance to perform with his other uncle during some school show.

Musical Career
Eli started rapping at 15, after his uncles taught him the basics pf rhyming and word play. Also influenced by the likes of Nas, Canibus and Eminem aswell as some of the local rappers like Orackle and a group called 3rd Mind. He recoreded his very first track at his uncle's studio in 2006 titled 'End Ur Life' recorded and produced by Berry Bone. He kept on recording single verses but was far from great. this did not slow him down infact he alwas listened to his uncles' constructive criticism and used it to better himself.

However the studio kept on crushing plus there was no producer therefore he was put on hold for quiet a long time. However he kept scribbling verses and improving alot. Eli's rap however changed when he heard the sounds Immortal Technique, and with so much angre in him he could relate well. That's when he started writing verses highlighting whatever was going on in his country.

2011, during his first year in Limkokwing University Of Creative Technology, he was still searching for a producer with a feel of punchy beats with that Southpaw flavor. He met a young producer by the name Empire Mac who produced both house music and hip hop. He Bought a beat from him and jumped on it with one of the local rappers Khwezi. The song was titled 'Going In' but was never released. After being introduced to a stable called House University, who's Head honcho was a well recognised house music dj 'Dj Oats', he felt safe with a place to record at. Dj Oats the introduced him to his team member by the name Dr. Phoenixx whom also did both House music and Hip hop, he sampled the beats and he fell inlove with Phoenixx's works,he bought a beat from and recorded it featuring one of his uncles 'Skibamba' and titled the song 'Get It'. The song was a hit and a half but was not well promoted thus did not get airplay.

2012 Eli still workd with Dr Phoenixx's beats and started working on his upcoming tape titled 'Now Is Never Late'. he then met yet another producer and rapper Maliq Ul-Shu'ara, who also put him on a lot of good beats to work with on his tape. Empire Mac also agreed to work with P-SIDE thus he also gave him a few beats to work with.

Tape Release Date 2013
Now that he got all the beats, Eli is now recording and working on song selection for his upcoming tape. He plans to drop the tape around October 2013, which is just a promotional tape thus will be free. And it will be available on Datpiff.com and a whole lot of other sites.