DJ Spoko was born Marvin Ramalepe, raised in the rural town of Tzaneen in northern South Africa (where he says there was no first or third class,all the same).” He started producing on a PC at age 12,after moving with his brother Kelly Rams Ramalepe to Atteridgeville (a 99%-black township outside the mostly white city of Pretoria) to find their father. They lived in an area called Ghost Town, near Atteridgeville’s cemetery, where as the neighborhood’s premiere producer,young Spoko earned the nickname The Ghost.
Bacardi House has been fermenting for a decade
For three years in the early 2000s DJ Spoko traveled 40 miles south to Soweto, where he studied sound engineering in the studio of Nozinja, creator of the hyper-speed, hip-shaking Shangaan Electro style. After, when Spoko built his own studio back home, he took a
producer named DJ Mujava under his wing, leading to Spoko’s great but uncredited triumph as the perc...
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DJ Spoko was born Marvin Ramalepe, raised in the rural town of Tzaneen in northern South Africa (where he says there was no first or third class,all the same).” He started producing on a PC at age 12,after moving with his brother Kelly Rams Ramalepe to Atteridgeville (a 99%-black township outside the mostly white city of Pretoria) to find their father. They lived in an area called Ghost Town, near Atteridgeville’s cemetery, where as the neighborhood’s premiere producer,young Spoko earned the nickname The Ghost.
Bacardi House has been fermenting for a decade
For three years in the early 2000s DJ Spoko traveled 40 miles south to Soweto, where he studied sound engineering in the studio of Nozinja, creator of the hyper-speed, hip-shaking Shangaan Electro style. After, when Spoko built his own studio back home, he took a
producer named DJ Mujava under his wing, leading to Spoko’s great but uncredited triumph as the percussion mastermind behind Mujavas Bacardi House indebted Township Funk.”
His sound consumed the township, passed around on numerous full- length cassette releases with names like ‘Grave Yard Session’, The All C’Ing I, and Tombs & Graves and, following the success of his tapes, Spoko had a fantastic turn of luck in meeting True Panther Sounds Founder
Dean Bein (who was coincidentally in South Africa in search of another artist).
Dean stayed in Atteridgeville for a while and they agreed to work together and release an EP
Spoko’s Ghost Town EP was released on True Panther on 05/03/13
Since the release of ghost town (his first official western release) Spoko has continued to develop his own Ghetto Boyz entertainment - working with local Atteridgeville talent. In the summer of 2013 he was asked to contribute to the mandela project (working with Idris Elba) and in October 2013 travelled out of Africa for the first time to perform in Paris for the ‘Sharp Jharp Johannesburg series at the Gaite Lyrique. Spoko was also featured in Spoeks Mathambo's contribution to the Vodafone #firsts international marketing campaign, in which they created the song ‘Pula'.
2014/2015 holds yet more for Spoko with solo releases coming on Hivern discs and Lit city trax , a collaborative EP with DJ Mujava,
coming on True Panther, and an album from
Spoko and Spoek Mathambo's new band, FANTASMA!!
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