Lehlohonolo Mokoena

Lehlohonolo Mokoena aka ‘Lim’ is a musician, philanthropist and entrepreneur who is determined to put the Free State on the international entertainment map

Mokoena hails from Rocklands in Bloemfontein and said that he has always known that he was destined to be an entertainer. While at Head Start High School, he formed a music group called Thug Life with his late friend Spike.

He also runs a company called Lim Lyk Concepts. He also runs a non-profit organisation Alah Yen. The group’s efforts to reshape the Free State music landscape have subsequently gained them recognition from fans and endorsements from music legends.

What inspired you to pursue a career in music?
Music is my life; it has always been a part of me. It began way back when Spike and I started imitating the late Tupac Shakur and called ourselves Thug Life. It was then that music grew gradually in me.

What has been the contribution of your music to nation building?
What I like about our music is most of our lyrical content is about raising awareness around crucial social issues. We are very strict about the content of our songs.
Our music is all about sending a message, for example, the song Save the child has touched so many lives. When we sing or compose songs, we think about how the song is going to touch people’s lives.
Music is all about adding value in one’s life and our music is all about that as well. I am proud to announce that we have already managed to help 1 500 orphans with the song Save the child.

How did the song come about?
We had a campaign called: Dress a Child to School. It was inspired by a Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality (MMM) youth development office initiative in 2007, where we visited schools and informed pupils about June 16.
On our tour we discovered that most communities still suffer from poverty and that is what inspired the birth of Save the child came about.
Tell us about the school shoe donation campaign your group is involved in.

We partnered with Motheo FM and we jointly managed to collect 10 000 pairs of school shoes. I must say it was successful because we managed to reach eight schools. Currently we are expanding it; some banks have come through as the campaigns sponsors.

How did you get involved in the composition of Woza eVrystaat?
After we were challenged by the MEC for economic development, tourism and environmental affairs, Mamiki Qabathe, to compose a song that will highlight the Free State’s tourism sites, we therefore took the opportunity to rope in some of the best local artists.

Since we are passionate about working together, Zoe and I penned down the beats and presented the song to other artists for them to write and sing the lyrics.

What is your take on the state of the Free State music industry?
I can safely say that the talent is there, as well as passion. What I have come to observe is that the artists in the province are hustlers and are also very consistent.
One of the challenges though is the lack of resources and the support is not entirely hundred percent. However, the guys in the province want to make it big.

Another challenge is the financial muscle, but if we can get funds as individual productions, then it would be better. Most artists, like 2Nyce, are entrepreneurs as he runs his entertainment company.
If we can get the support we need, it would definitely grow the music industry in the province. The department of arts and culture should establish a trust fund to support artists.

How can the government help musicians in the Free State?
They need to inject funds into the trust fund that will help musicians. Artists are mouth piece of the society; we send messages even if there are political activities musicians are called to send certain messages. The truth is local musicians are struggling currently.

Does this mean Alah Yen will no longer be going to perform in France?
As sad as it is, we are no longer going due to financial constraints. This was going to be a life-time changing opportunity for us.
Whatever skills we were going to acquire that side, we were going to bring them home. The failure of the trip has clearly indicated that there is no support in the province. I must say that it is a loss to the Free State province as we were going to put it on the map.

Words cannot describe our disappointment, but one thing is for sure, we are destined for greater things. We are doing our best and are determined to put our province on the world map. Watch the space.