The Determined and Hardworking Young Man
Brian Kgosiestile Makoko is affectionately known by “YB Picasso” as his stage name. YB Picasso is a 23 year old independent hip-hop/RNB song writer, producer, manager and a performing artist born and raised in Francistown where he got to discover and pursue his dreams of being a sound engineer.
He does new age hip-hop /Trap /RnB and he is determined to show how he feels when he is in the studio and sometimes plays with soulful beats or old school hip-hop music to get his inspiration and motivation. At the moment, he is an independent artist (self-management), and believes that this helps him grow as an artist and know the right path to take when making decisions.
According to Brian, sometimes being a musician is hard especially when things don’t go as planned, like not receiving the same reactions you expected from the project that you had tirelessly worked for. He said looking on the brighter side, being an artist allows one to grab opportunities and get to learn a lot from different people you meet along the journey.
He also said as a new artist in the industry, he hasn’t won any award yet but has a lot to expect from the music industry.
Brian started his music career in 2015, where he met K-Fross; a local producer and artist of many flows and styles. He said K-Fross taught him a couple of things to do and not to do into the booth, “Trust me it was never in my life plans to be an artist of any sort, but as time went on I fell in love with music, from making beats to being in front of a camera and performing live on stage,” he said.
The multitalented Brian has many talents than just making music, he is a painter and studies Fashion and Apparel Design at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology. He also has passion in photography and hence his name “Picasso” because like he says, everything with his name on it seems to be a masterpiece.
When answering the question on the growth of music in Botswana, Brian said, “The growth of music
industry in Botswana is amazing and looking at the well-known “upcoming” artists, they are really doing their best. Even new sounds get discovered every day in Botswana and I’d like to appreciate each and every one working hard for local music right now.”
As for his growth, Brain said ever since he joined the music industry, that alone has motivated him because he learnt new things every day and it’s what drives him to making more music and meeting up with new artists.
A lot of people would wonder if artists do music to seek money or fame, but for Brian that is not the case, in fact his direction as an artist is not even about that but he only wants his music to change people’s lives and bring joy to them. “Looking at the reality, money is the motive because in this era it runs the world and you cannot move nor live without it,” he said.
When giving a word of encouragement to other artists, Brain said this, “Life has its ups and downs and just because someone did it first doesn’t mean you can never do it better. I am a living testimony of practice makes you better and I remember my first live TV interview, I was so nervous that I couldn’t even talk properly and I worked on that until I was fluent and confident with who I am. Another thing I would say is never doubt your ideas, creativity comes from the craziest minds out there and being different from others is not illegal therefore do it, live it and own it!”
So far Brian has about 2 mixtapes which dropped this year and they are all available on Audio Mack. Re-create was his first mixtape which had 6 tracks of mixed genres as of the likes of Drill/Hip-hop and Trap. Officially released in January 2021, Re-create was inspired by his growth, he was re-creating his sounds and lifestyle since he relocated from Francistown to Gaborone where he got to meet a lot of people and learn new things. On May 15, 2021 Brian released his second EP called “RECREATE.SUCCESSFUL”. He said at that time he was comfortable with his sounds and with the type of artist he became.
“RECREATE.SUCCESSFUL was a window for an album I am working on, it’s expected to drop sometime end of this year. It has 3 tracks in it (Extended play) with a feature Remix of “GINIMBI” a single by Romeo STUNNER from Go Hard Entertainment. Also a drill single by YB Picasso called Area47, which is about the impact of my presence in a foreign land,” he said.
Brian describes himself as one artist who highly appreciates local content and artists. He said that he barely finds it useful to make tracks with international artists while he already has good sounds with local artists in Botswana. “On my latest projects, ReCreate and RECREATE.SUCCESSFUL, I made features with the likes of Romeo Stunna, Rzky 267, Anti.dote, Taeylor, ABITOLA and others. Currently I am working on an album with expected features like, King Villa, Teezy JRC, Qvo Pikasso, Teddy West, Abitola, Shaba Stele, Ab the Activist, Rzky 267, Lean face and if you get your free time you can check out their content on all online music platforms including Tiktok and others,” said Brian.
He continued to say, “What I have learnt about working with international artists is that the majority of us local artists see it as a window of expanding our territories but as for me, I am more of a local content than international.”
Brian said the impact he’d like to make in the music industry is to introduce more northern hip-hop and RnB musicians to other parts of Botswana in order for him to see joy under his name. He said he has been all over Botswana and has never seen hard working people like those in the northern part of Botswana.
Duncan Sebeso