Speaking to Tumi 'Stogie T' Molekane on the second episode of his new podcast, "What We Talkin' About," Gola reminisced about his days as an emcee and how he once ended up punching someone during a cypher.
Most people have no idea (because this happened before the fame) that Gola, who hails from Cape Town, used to be an emcee, in a group called "Sons of Mother Africa"...
As a member of this group, he often battled other rappers and had an ongoing rivalry with one rapper in particular. During their last battle, they were matching each other verse for verse and it got to the point where the crowd couldn't decide who the winner was, so the host of the battle announced that they would continue in an hour.
"... so I'm like 'oh sh**', I won't have nothing in an hour.And in that hour, I'm freaking out and I'm like trying to sober up and I can't drink anymore and still battle. So the time comes and this dude is in front of me and he's icing me out and he's eating me alive and I'm like 'this is bad.' I come back and my voice is like 'uuuhhhh,' he come back again... he says some sh**, man I hit him in the face..."
He goes on to explain that he felt (subconsciously) that everything was on the line for him so that's why he reacted the way he did.
That was the last time he rapped and he took a 6-month hiatus before he jumped into comedy. In addition to explaining how he made his way into the comedy scene, he and Stogie touch on a range of topics including Trevor Noah's meteoric rise, the local and international comedy scene, politics, radical economic transformation and more. Listen below: