Sasa Klaas is regarded as the most recognizable female rapper in Botswana. Not only her music albums are popular in Botswana, but her presence in television, social media, and on the dancing scene makes her a prominent female emcee in the country. She was born in 1993, which makes her age only 27, but her career starts from as early as 2011 as the presenter of ‘The Foundation: Next Level’ on eBotswana.’ It is hard to imagine how difficult it would be for her at that young age to make a presence in the hip hop scene.
As discussed in the class before, hip hop is a genre of music that is very masculine. Her courage, hustle, and her achievements in the hip hop scene are honorable and respectable.
As mentioned above, her presence in social media is also dominated by the stories about her once dating a famous rapper Ozi F Teddy cacophonously; their ending was not pretty and their love affairs turned into a rap-diss battle. Considering her career path and the scandals, it makes me think that she has a fame and reputation in Botswana that is similar to Nicki Minaj or Kim Kardashian in the US.
‘Hadsan’ by Sasa Klass is a braggadocio rap song, which she published in 2013. While this song is typical braggadocio without many impressions, I believe this song is worthy of attention because of the way she portrayed herself in this song in 2013 is, in fact, the way she is in 2020. In her lyrics, she generally raps about how good and great she is and how famous she is in her country and said, “It is not cocky or confidence I am speaking the truth. […] don’t compare me to Nicki or I ain’t try to be Kim.” Seven years after she published the song, I am surprised to know that what she had rapped before has all become the truth. She is a dominant female rapper in her country, and I just made some comparisons to Nicki and Kim.
In sum, I truly respect her and her achievement, that she was able to achieve her goals seven years ago, and she did it in the masculine Botswana hip-hop scene, where it can be difficult for women to succeed.
You can know more about her bio and her social life from her Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sasaklaas/