North West Deejay Sets Gaze on International Market

Linky Morelle

Lucky Hendrick Lebese known as ‘DJ Coco” is a musician, producer, composer, event organizer and father. Born on 17 October 1986, he spent his early childhood in Dobsonville, Soweto and grew up Lesetlheng  in  the North West where he is currently based.

Background

He first forayed into his dream career as a Dj in 1999 when he moved with his parents to a village called Ramoga in Rustenburg. He started playing around with vinyls and cassettes as he continued to master his future career and made it as part of living.

“I grew up in a disadvantaged family; my mother was unemployed and made a living out of selling vegetables. As a supportive and caring child I also started selling mogodu (Tripe) to help my parents” Speaking on how he got the name Dj Coco, the Dj told explained that during his numerous struggles, he used to play a 50cent gambling machine written “coco” and used to win so the owner of the shop started calling him Coco. He used money that he made from that machine to build his mom a three bedroom house.

The Break

In 2012 he recorded a song called Teka Teka, the song enjoyed airplay and radio stations after its release and did well on local charts. Heavy K remixed the song and it worked wonders. Teka teka was also featured by Oskido and in 2014 Dj Coco released a song titled Hilishe. In 2016 he also released Hiba Mabhoko with Native and Snow white; the song did well but not as much as Teka teka.

Hiba Mabhoko was released under Gallo Records and published by Sheer as well as on digital stores by Mark Conner. 2012 was a good year for our young star as he also got a job at Anglo American (Tumela), where he continues to work and has even enjoyed promotion to a Shift supervisor. His job of supervising other colleagues at Anglo American has not stopped Hendrick to pursue his dream as he released the song called Tanani.

Struggles in the industry

It hasn’t been an easy journey for Hendrick, as it is for every new comer in the music industry. “I remember Soul brothers turning my offer down claiming that it was not the kind of music they were working with”, the Dj shared.

“I was into Kwaito music then and my music was not written in Zulu. Maybe if it was a Zulu track they would have given me a chance but well… what can I say our industry is a dog eat dog world. But that did not stop me from pushing, I kept on hustling” Coco added that you need to be well known or have people who are in the industry to make it to the top or into commercial radio stations.

Dj Coco’s future plans are very ambitious as he would like to see himself someday Djing and performing at international events. The North West based musician also plans to write more songs in his Tsonga language and make it widely received in the local and international market. Hendrick continues with his day job and yet puts a lot of focus on his music, honing his writing and producing skills.