Words by eatzz
Sportscene has been a leading player in sports and street wear in South Africa so it comes to no surprise that a brand like Nike would partner up for an event of this nature given that the clothing brand just celebrated 10 years of tech fleece. “I am a musical athlete” is quite a unique experience for me as everything about it aligned from the venue, the Sandton city Sportscene branch down to the different artists, producers and DJs they brought to entertain us. Even the MC, Lerai who is currently the face of Nickelodeon Africa.
I arrived and I was greeted by a long que of people all dressed in Nike, some even had it on head to toe. The coordinates made sure to serve us with welcome drinks and nibbles before the show started. I spotted many celebrities and influencers like rapper Zingah, singer S B X and sneaker enthusiast Joshua Dunn who were all dressed for the occasion.
Lerai did a stellar job at engaging the crowd as she spoke and introduced the musical athletes for a panel discussion. We were introduced to Chelsea-Sloan, Toroh OWano and Dom Nice. Chelsea-Solan is a phenomenal DJ, dancer, physiotherapist, a track and field athlete hailing from the Cape Flats. She is the true embodiment of how your background doesn’t define your future, she mentions in the discussion how music and sports really played a role in her making it out the hood as her talent as a runner awarded her a scholarship to study and obtain a degree in physiotherapy at UWC. Her performance was electrifying, she had the perfect amapiano tunes to get us all moving our feet and danced so well through her set, her crowd control ability was a show stopper as she too danced confidently as she played her set.
Toroh O Wano is an all rounder as a DJ, producer and artist who was raised in Johannesburg. He isn’t just a jack of all trades musically but in sports too as he played rugby and basketball quite well during high school. True to him not wanting to box his talents in every aspect, he describes his music as gender-fluid as he taps into neo-soul, jazz, RnB, Hip Hop and many more genres. His performance proved just that as he played saxophone, piano and base guitar while singing. The crowd loved him. He is definitely a one man band walking. Dom Nice is a DJ, artist and producer who is also currently based in Johannesburg. He taps into electronic dance music, EDM and excels in that pocket. He is also a skateboarder which he mentions is his therapy. His perfomance was a beautiful blend of house, tech and electronic that got all of us bopping our heads with our fist up, pumping to his groovy tunes. He is a refreshing addition to the scene as he gave most of us a musical experience we wouldn’t get anywhere
else but at EDM focused venues or events.
I had to take a few minutes to collect myself after the panel discussion and performances by these three extraordinary musical athletes and got the honor to have a chat with DJ D Double D, we struggled to get a quiet spot to sit and have a chat as the event was lively and finally got a seat by the shoe area at the back that’s reserved for customers who want to fit a pair of Nikes or take a break from all the shopping in the Sportscene store.
He is a renowned hip hop DJ and has two classic hip hop collab tapes with the North Gawd Da L.e.s called Fresh 2 Def and Fresh 2 Def Presents: Hall of Fame 2. His set was way too good and that might be the bias in me as I am a sucka for hip hop music, I was quite curious as to why he Is at an event for musical athletes, “I am also an athlete to be honest, I played a lot of sports in school. I used to run a lot but I took a break with that cause you know, the schedule is a bit hectic but yeah, I played soccer, basketball and I still workout. I love sports and it’s a good way to clear the mind, you know.” He said He shows appreciation for Sportscene and Nike for their massive contribution to SA Hip Hop and the event itself. DJ D Double D states that “We need more brands doing this for South African artists because I am fortunate enough to travel the world and I see, all they care
about is the country. Once they know you from here, they sold, they wanna know who you are.”
“Also we need brands like Nike to get behind the country, get behind the industry cause right
now it’s a beautiful time, we got a lot of upcoming artists and I see it as a breaking point where
the new wave artists are getting their shine you know and I came up from a time with the OGs
like Da L.e.s, AKA you know, back then brands never really got involved with us but now it’s a
beautiful platform for young artists.” he continues
He is definately cooking up some stuff with the younger and older generation of artists/DJs and
will be dropping something exciting for us. After this chat with Double D, I walked around looking for one of the perfomers by the name of Phoniks. Who describes himself as an instrumentalist, I spent most of the evening trying to find him as his perfomance really impressed me. “I am an athlete to an extent, I run and in high school I did the 800 meters etc. In life you need to run, as a lifestyle you know.”. He describes his music genre as a lil fluid as he does gospel, jazz, boom bap and african music, more of a
combination of sorts.
Another artist who performed was A-Reece, who closed the show. Sportscene and Nike’s deep involvement in music is a more personal relationship as both brands have grown to be a staple for South African artists. I was definately impressed by the attention to detail by each brand to serve a world class event that was open to every street and sportswear lover, definetely going agan and keeping my eyes open on all their socials for the next one.