He used to be the cool kid running the streets of Jozi.
At some point, he was hailed the only African rapper whose influence covered all three major facets of hip hop – music, clothing and lifestyle.
Alongside AKA, Bongani Fassie and Ishmael Morabe, the Jozi band was unstoppable.
Ever since their breakup, Leslie Mampe Jr., known to many as Da L.E.S, has been through it all.
From being a father of three, losing his father and friends to lack of music traction and growth.
After a hiatus from the public and the music scene, he’s back to making more public appearances, making music and securing bags.
“The older you get, the more you want to diversify your profile, so I’ve been working on a bunch of things in the clothing industry as I’ve always been, and things are now starting to come together. I’ve also ventured into hospitality; restaurant space and I dropped an album in December titled 313. I’m taking each day as it comes, we’ve had a lot of loss and there’s been a dark cloud hanging over our industry so I’m just soldiering on,” he tells Drum.
“Since covid, I’ve just been taking each day as it comes because we’ve learned from covid that anything can happen, and everything can stop.”
Before December 2023, Da L.E.S hadn’t released music for about four years. In those four years, he had two kids and says he took a spiritual and economic knock, like many who felt the brunt of covid.
“I was fortunate enough to financially be okay and creatively be able to still be motivated to work but, spiritually, I felt like I was lost because I had lost so many people. I lost my dad, Kiernan (AKA) passed away, I lost my best friend Nathan. All of this sadness dampened my spirit but the birth of my kids and being around family filled the void.”
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The last time he spoke to Drum, he admitted that him and AKA had grown apart as friends but despite this, he says his death also took a big toll on him.
“Kiernan’s loss was murder; it wasn’t like suicide or sickness. Kiernan was taken away from us so that one really hit hard. It kind of motivated me as well and showed me that any given time, your life could be taken. It opened my eyes to how short life is and I told myself that I need to be strong enough to get up and provide for these little ones,” adds the Lifestyle hitmaker.
Last year, he was cast in Love and Hip Hop South Africa alongside Gigi LaMayne, Fifi Cooper and Yanga Chief, among others.
This year, he was part of the panel in Showmax’s Roast of Minnie Dlamini in which he also got roasted.
“Being a part of a roast is quite an epic thing. Only legends get roasted and with that being said, I told everyone to use the chance to let it all out on me, have fun with it.”
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What really cemented his official comeback though is a MetroFM award nomination for his song, Solo featuring Manu World Star, Gemini Major and Navio.
“It solidified the fact that I’ve been in the game for over 20 years, and I still got the juice, I’m still motivated to work with young guys and give inspiration. [Hip Hop upcoming artists] are doing what they can but obviously the amapiano guys are killing it.
“It’s not that we are jealous but we’re competitive, we always want to be noticed in any race, it’s part of their genre.”
To revive the genre in the country, he says that he will not be stopping in his tracks anytime soon to continue the legacy of Hip Hop bringing up a lot of new artists to the mainstream through collaborations.
The award-winning rapper will also be releasing his 10th studio album soon.
