Lessmaada shares his passion for music
He is known as DJ Lessmaada by house music lovers, but his real name is Lesiba Mahapa and he is from Greenside, Polokwane
POLOKWANE – He is known as DJ Lessmaada by house music lovers, but his real name is Lesiba Mahapa and he is from Greenside, Polokwane.
Mahapa says he has been in the deejay industry for a long time and he is still going strong.
He has a qualification in business management and owns Lessmaada Entertainment, which specialises in promotions, road shows, gigs, and sound system hire, especially for weddings and parties. Mahapa is also a Senior Sales Executive at Volkswagen Polokwane.
Mahapa is married to Dalsy Mahapa and they are blessed with four girls. The 39-year-old deejay says his goal is making music that people not only love to dance to, but which also touches their emotions. “I like to have some songs that have that effect. I believe music like that lasts forever. I think my foundation in music is based on that. We all have songs that help us through difficult times,” he explains.
“I grew up in a family that loves music. It’s where my interest in music started to develop. I used to steal a radio from home when my parents were away, and organised street bashes. Since my youth, music has been my first priority.
“I also used to organise beauty pageants with John Legodi in 1994. My actual career in music started in 1990 when I was 19-years-old, and many people knew us as Seshego party organisers,” Mahapa says.
He further says the deejay industry is huge, as everyone calls himself a deejay these days.
“We use deejaying as a source of extra income. When I first started to deejay we used cassettes and pushed our sound equipment around in a wheelbarrow; it was difficult back then,” he recalls.
He says he is the first person to bring the late Eddie Zondi and Paul Mtirara, both from Metro FM, to Polokwane during the Romantic Rapture Tour in 2004.
“I was an owner of Bluemoon Club with Legodi.
“On my journey in the music industry I have shared the stage with house music legends like DJ Christos, Glen Lewis, DJ Tokzen, DJ HK, T Bose from Kaya FM, DJ Dikgwele and his wife DJ Shirley. I have learned a lot from these house music legends,” he says.
He tells Express that he produced a 12 track album in 2010 called Abashwe. “Unfortunately the album was not very successful. I am working on my second album which will be released soon,” he says.
His goal is to become a successful national deejay. “I want people to call me a house music legend. My aim is to have my own production house so that I will be able to produce my own music and have producers and deejays attached to my production house.”
He says as a local deejay, the challenges that he faces is event organisers who pay him “peanuts”, and much less than national deejays are paid. “I think we should work together as one to build the deejay industry,” he observes.
Mahapa advises other young aspirant deejays to take education seriously. “Get a qualification first. Before you try to get into the music industry, you must have a permanent career,” he says.
