Neo Pitso is South Africa’s very own, but reasons and circumstances saw him trekking off to Australia with the family. Regardless of all that, he says he still keeps in touch with our scene, bumping tracks like ‘Kontrol’, ‘Gusheshe’ and ‘Doc Shebeleza’. Working with AB Crazy on his next single Neo says: “I’m really excited for people to hear it. My jaw was on the floor when I heard the hook, so you know I’m bringing my A game.”
Having grown up listening to the likes of Sade, Harry Belafonte, Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole thanks to his dad’s influence, Neo Pitso started writing music and eventually started handling the mic. Starting off right here in SA as a member of a young rap group called Thee Immaculate, Neo does say that he will come back to SA to take on the market. “I was in South Africa in December last year and someone remarked that there’s no way I live in Australia because I’m aware of everything happening here. I found it funny ’cause I just read a lot and occasionally rely on social media for news. I find the SA market interesting. I see a ton of opportunities and can’t wait to immerse myself in that culture fully.”
He says even though he is not there yet, to get where he is today took a lot of blood, sweat and the occasional tear. “I think a lot of people didn’t and still don’t quite understand why a hip hop artist would go and enroll in a law degree. Every step I’ve taken till now was calculated and still is. I train my body to go for four hours of sleep a night in order to fit more work into a day than most people can. I take every opportunity to grow and get better at my craft because I’m still a work in progress. I’m just driven and obsessed with success so naysayers or critics can throw me to the wolves and I’ll come back leading the pack. I’m in a perfect position to be taken seriously as an artist, but I’m still in the developmental stages of my career. I am fortunate enough to have toured with the big artists like Nas, Bone Thugs & Harmony, Cassidy, Montell Jordan, Chingy and The Game, and performed quite a lot across Australia. I am also fortunate to have international companies like BlackBerry on board with what I’m doing. Now I’m seeking to forge my own path and create a lane that has never existed.”
And he is not only just about music. When he’s not doing music, he’s on stage at schools giving speeches motivating the youth under his school’s initiative called ‘Dream. Believe. Achieve. Repeat’. “When I’m not doing that I’m an eyewear consultant, I’m also a “Connector” helping connect companies or individuals together in various capacities to help solve everyday problems and achieve their goals in the process and when I’m not doing that too, I’m partying up a storm somewhere. When I party, I party hard, but when I work I don’t party.
Neo doesn’t elaborately plan his future, but rather puts it all in God’s hands. “This sounds crazy but everything I’ve predicted each year has come to fruition. Firstly it shows that God is great and secondly it shows that hard work is rewarded.” He did, however, name drop Delite (of Entidope), Reverb360 and PDotO as some of the artists he will definitely be collaborating with in future. He would also like to work with the talented MoNEOa.
You can get his current single called ‘Veni Vidi Vici’, available for download on his website- www.NeoPitso.com
www.facebook.com/NeoPitsoMusic / www.facebook.com/TheOnlyNeo
Instagram: @TheOnlyNeo
Written by: Tania Moeng (@Ms_TaniaMoeng)