5ive Essential Tracks by Empress Maffie Gee
Grace Katlego Thetela is a Reggae songstress who hails from Barkly West, a town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, situated on the north bank of the Vaal River west of Kimberley. In 2018 she joined a Reggae collective which sought to elevate their Setswana language by singing and chanting in their mother tongue, thus the Tswanshall movement was birthed. Grace, who had by that time transformed into Empress Maffie Gee, emerged as the First Lady of TswansHall. Her first hit single and video, Tswanshall World, solidified her status as the First Lady of Tswanshall. The single was the lead track of the Fire Keepers Riddim (Grounded Roots Records), which featured many artists from the North West province pioneering the Tswanshall movement.
5. Tswanshall World – Fire Keepers Riddim – Grounded Roots Records
4. Stop The Violence – 3rd Degree Riddim – Grounded Roots Records
She continued to work closely with the collective, started performing at local shows and featuring on Riddims mostly produced by Red I Scorch for Grounded Roots Label. Her powerful voice and her vocal range coupled with the readily identifiable Setswana accent started to become her trademark. Her lyrics full of consciousness, love, Rastafari Teachings, motivation and social issues contributed to her growing persona. She touched on topics that speaks to and about the livelihood of her community. She featured on the Big Riddim from Grounded Roots Records, the 3rd Degree Riddim with the track titled Stop The Violence.
3. Ga Nkitla Ba Mphetsa – Looking Forward Riddim – Jammin Media Music Group
She kept on pushing hard, building her name. She became clearly recognisable as a Rastafari woman, adorning beautiful long dresses in African prints, with long beautiful locs which she elegantly crowned with her turban. Likewise, she started getting recognition outside the North West Province and got featured on the Looking Forward Riddim alongside prominent names in the Reggae Dancehall scene, the likes of fellow Tshwanshallist Chantty Natural, the departed veteran Daddy Spencer, another fellow Tswanshallist who later won The South African Music Awards (SAMA). Blakka Yut, Ras Ites and China Roots. Her track, Ga ba kitla Ba Mphetsa, loosely translated to: they won’t finish me – is a self-motivational song, also signaling that she has arrived in the dog-eat-dog world of music business, and so she has to be prepared for what to come.
2. Never Bring Me Down – I Surrender Riddim – Jammin Media Muzik Group
The year is 2021 and another Riddim from Jammin Media Muzik drops – I Surrender Riddim. It has a similar line-up to the previous “Looking forward Riddim and Empress Maffie Gee features with the track Never Bring Me Down. Same theme, same title, translated into English. Jammin Media Muzik was at its functional best around this time, and that showed how Maffie Gee was doing the groundwork of getting recognition. Unfortunately the album is no longer available online, save for the Riddim Mix done by Gunnz Selecta, and Maffie Gee’s song is on the 11:03 mark of the mixtape. She worked on her debut album titled…wait for it…Never Let You Down, but instead released her body of work as a Mixtape called Nah Go Let You Down, it was not yet time for an album. Her voice with the hard Setswana accent has become easily identifiable now, she was moving right along in the scene, making connections, featuring in more Riddims and appearing at stages in Gauteng. Empress Maffie Gee had clearly arrived in Jozi.
1. Empty Promises – Nostalgia Riddim – Lavoro Duro Production
Empress Maffie Gee, now based in Johannesburg, signed with Blackness Blue Productions. On arrival at the newly established Blackness Blue Production, Maffie Gee was paired with another artist signed to the label, Luwe Da Lion, to form a duet which had a forgettable name. At this point, she had changed and moving more to Dancehall music and culture, The Label probably thought that she needed a new image to penetrate the market. The change was evident in the tracks she recorded Baby Give Me That (Sweet Scent Riddim). She surprised everyone with the Song Real Man (Flight Mode Riddim). The lyrics were so raunchy and that was simply not expected from her.
In Empty Promises, taken off the Nostalgia Riddim, Maffie Gee seems to be unpacking a lot of emotions. The feeling of betrayal runs through. She sings of signing a useless paper that made her loose out on many things, crying herself to sleep, being used and abused; but Jah heard her prayers and delivered her. Her voice is calm and controlled, there is a level of maturity in it, and she seems to have gone back to her original Empress way, It seems she has left Johannesburg and gone back to the North West, but not before finally releasing an EP titled Real Empress under Blackness Blue Label.
Empress Maffie Gee is one that we are still going to hear from. She has talent and drive, all that she needs is to work with an experienced producer who know how to work with talent, Her unique accent, that hard Setswana accent and her play on words (you’d appreciate this more when you understand the language) are just the right combination and that will see her well into the future of Reggae Dancehall in Mzansi, and reclaiming her throne of First Lady of Tswanshall.
