Karli Beatz

Kennedy Tahla (born December 11, 1990) known by his stage name Karli Beatz (often stylized as KARLI BEATZ) is a Batswana record producer, songwriter, rapper, singer. The name Karli Beatz is actually an acronym which means "Kennedy A Real Legend In Beatz". His well know for his trademark "Wa Itse!". Karli Beatz was born in in the "Ghetto", which was formerly known as Francistown. He began to produce music at the age of 14 while in Junior High school. He has produced for A.T.I who is one of the most booked artists in Botswana, tracks like Sexy Woman. Karli Beatz has topped Yarona FM top 20 charts with his hit single "Swagger E Soo" & RB2 top 40 charts with his single "Dream Girl". His is the producer of the classic "Ke Mang" track by OP with a music video that was considered very artistic with all the elements of videography and good sense of fashion and dancing style. After releasing his 21 track debut album Kgang Kgolo Vol. 1 in 2011, Hip Hop beat making in Botswana is said to have improved. The compilation album was rated 8 out of 10 on the Voice newspaper under the entertainment column.

Early life
Kennedy Tahla is originally from Tonota, a place located in the Central District. He and his brother were raised by their mother, Idah Tahla, after their father abandoned the family. He claims in his lyrics that in his childhood, at the age of 8 he had his first kiss in a classroom. Tahla attended Selepa Junior High School in Francistown, along with rapper BIGGZ. After that he attended Mater Spei Senior High School still in Francistown. He has also said they had a crew called Abattoir because they killed rappers as Battle emcees.

According to his mother, Kennedy had once been a troublemaker, which ultimately led to his arrest. Eventually, she bought him a computer sparking his interest in making beats. He began freestyling, writing lyrics, and followed the music of many artists popular at the time. In his neighbourhood, Tahla was known as "Karli", a nickname that eventually developed into his showbiz/stage name, "Karli Beatz". His first rap name was KND taking from Kennedy, the second one was Abyss describing his deep lyrical content due to influence from underground Hip-Hop.

Early career
Karli Beatz can briefly be heard on several of Abyss's early recordings in the late 2005 and early 2006. Karli Beatz was also involved in and won several battles with rapper BIGGZ in early 2007 as part of efforts to get a record deal and become successful. In 2004 he was involved with a crew named Immortal Thugs composed of seven rappers while in Junior High. The crew later changed its name to Boot Camp and was now composed of four artists. After discovering that the name had already been used they decided to call them selves Abattoir. As time went by the affiliation came to end as Karli Beatz relocated to Gaborone.

2005-2006
Kennedy Tahla was popularly known by the name "KND" and actually began producing his first beats. He was also involved in a school Hip Hop crew as an emcee. Later in 2006 Kennedy affiliated himself with a couple of bedroom studios and actually made his first recording which enabled him to enhance his skills as songwriter and rapper.

2007-2008
Kennedy consecutively performed at school talent shows. This helped him gain popularity amongst his peers, as well as sharpen his rap skills and built his confidence way further as a performer. He gains street credibility through battles at school.

2009-2010: relocation
In 2009 Kennedy relocated from Francistown to Gaborone. He continued more on beat making than on rapping than ever before, as the two were inseparable in his mind. He later met new colleagues with the same passion for music: A.T.I and Pk Maada. He later changed his alias from “KND” to what it is today Karli Beatz. For the first time in three years he recorded more songs than before, but which were never released and was featured in a mixtape. Motswako (combination of vernacular and English) became his main genre. In 2010 he was involved in a number of mixtapes such as the Batho Bame mixtape by A.T.I as a producer of a track called “Hands Up” which featured OP and Double Jay.Later that year he produced a track in the Rated G mixtape by Remy and Kay Swiss atrack by Milez called Tamati Soso. The track also made it into the HUB magazine mixtape.

2011: Kgang Kgolo Vol. 1
Kennedy released his debut album "Kgang Kgolo Vol. 1 Compilation" under Ouzell Music Group (OMG), the company responsible for the creative development and promotion of his brand, music and video productions, and all his brand activities and events management. "Dream Girl"'s first single to be released from the Kgang Kgolo Vol. 1 Compilation received high reviews on social media sites and local radio stations such as Yarona and RB2 FM where it even made it into the Orange Top 40 Count Down. Later on he released another hit single titled "Swagger E Soo" which featured Pk Maada who had held the number one spot for three weeks in a row on the Mascom Yarona Fm count down and also E.P.I.C. The "Swagger E Soo" video was also aired on both local and international television station BTV followed by ETV-Botswana.

2012-present
In early 2012 Karli Beatz continued on promoting his debut album and made no album releases. The third single out of Kgang Kgolo Vol. 1 was "Can't Bring Me Down", nicknamed "CBMD", which gained additional popularity because of its video, Botswana's first to be shot on a rooftop. Karli Beatz was also featured on a couple of songs such as "Run the Streets" by SG and "So in Love" by Hazy B. Later on during the year 2012 Karli Beatz made another release taking from Kgang Kgang Vol.1 with a song titled "Ba Itse" (They Know). During the beginning of the year 2013 Tahla announced on social networks that he will release his second studio project Kgang Kgolo Vol.2. no date was given. The first single taking from project was released on 2013-07-08.

Influences
Karli Beatz states that his earliest exposure to music was through his brother's 'music collection, which was mostly of Kwatio and Hip-Hop artists such as Mdu and Jay Z, Trompies and Eminem. He says "I grew up around listening to all types of people... I'm into music that has so much soul in it, whether it be rap, R&B, pop music, whatever as long as its good music. As long as I can feel their soul on the verse.

Rapping technique
OP Mania and Ivan Ramsy both describe Karli Beatz's emphasis on flow – OP says that Karli Beatz is "a God of flow—he can flow slow, he can flow fast but still make good sense". "He is a multi-syllable rapper". He is also known to freestyle lyrics in his head, as described by Spizah

Philanthropy
During the early stage of his career Karli Beatz also became involved in philanthropic activity. On February 2012, he met with the University of Botswana Workcamps Association at the University of Botswana in Gaborone. The rapper pledged to use his talent as well as funds to raise awareness of and combat poverty. He encourages every person in positions of power and influence to "become helpful", he had been made aware of this issue by his president Ian Khama. In May 2012 Karli Beatz helped raise funds and awareness about a campaign called Batho Needs a Kidney Campaign, meant to assist eighteen-year-old Batho Madigele, who was suffering from a chronic renal failure and was in Automated Peritoneal Dialysis.

Discography

 * Studio albums
 * Kgang Kgolo Vol.1 Compilation (album) (2011)