A student traffic cop is pursuing his dreams of being the best Afrikaans rapper in South Africa.
Leigh-Muir Booysen, aka Libo-G, is from Kuils River and the 22-year-old shares his rhymes on TikTok every week for his 2615 followers.
The videos are mostly shot in class, while he is in uniform, and his colleagues can be seen recording and supporting him.
“I was 10 years old when I started rapping, and I chose to do it in Afrikaans because I express myself better in Afrikaans,” he tells the Daily Voice.
“At first, I felt that people were not ready to hear my personal songs or my deep thoughts and so I kept my music to myself.
“And then two years ago I started using social media to release some songs which were about the general stuff.”
Libo-G says that he mostly raps about his own life: “I rap about my life, and what’s going on around us as a society. I rap love songs and even sad songs.
“I recently released a song dedicated to the drill instructor at the Gene Louw Traffic College.”
Libo-G says rap is an art and most rappers forget that.
“A lot of artists forgot about the fundamentals and the roots of rap music, for example, wordplay, rhyme scheme, metaphors and alliteration.
“I feel it’s my duty to remind my fellow artists about that and also the new guys that want to try out rapping.”
DREAMS: The student traffic cop. Video supplied
The trainee believes he can be the best Afrikaans hip hop star South Africa has ever seen.
“I wanted to prove I am the best in Plettenberg Bay, which is where I am from, and I believe I have. I am currently busy working on selling my music digitally and also aiming to make songs fit for the radio, so far I have been approached by two record labels and we’re working on it,” he adds.
Libo-G says he had given up on the dream to “make it” in the music industry.
“I saw an advert looking for traffic officers and jumped at the opportunity because I have to feed myself and I have a two-year-old daughter to look after.
“Next month I will finish my course and become a traffic officer but I will not stop releasing music.
“I drop Wednesday Verses every week on my TikTok account which is @libo_the_g1.”
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za