Raphael Benza is the founder of Vth Season, a full service music entertainment agency based in Johannesburg, South Africa. The company was involved in bringing South African music icon Yvonne Chaka Chaka for the Legends Alive Concert at Camp Kigali last weekend.

Vth Season is also home to a growing number of big artistes, including Berita Gugugulethu Khumalo, Tresor Mukengerwa, and Bigstar Johnson. In recent years, Raphael Benza has organised shows in Kigali and associated with Rwandan artistes in one way or another.

Excerpts:

Tell us a little more about yourself…

Benza is Liberian born, to a Congolese father and Liberian mother, raised partly in Liberia and the U.S. I spent most of my time in New York and attended college in Minnesota.

My mother and father were the talk of the town. They were the socialites and celebrities. As far as I can remember I have always been around cool stuff, music, and fashion. 

My father was a Congolese diplomat in Liberia and my mother was a young fashionable lady that went to New York all the time and brought back clothes and shoes and other stuff.

Music and creating of music, and marketing and sharing the music is something I’ve always done, and it carries me on until now.

What does your company, Vth Season do?

We are a creative and entertainment marketing agency and we like to be part of the creation of music, and we also like the idea of creating the demand for that music and that’s where the marketing comes in.

So it’s everything from marketing an artiste, their talent, brand, music, showmanship.

Before that we brought Tresor, an artiste that is signed to us and we do talent management for him, so we brought him to Blankets and Wine in Kigali and Kampala. We have also worked with Zahara from a booking perspective.

One of the main things that we like to do is make sure that the music travels, make sure that talent travels, and make sure that we are part of the connection between the music, the artist and the fans. It’s very important to us and that’s what we love doing.

How long have you known/worked with Yvonne Chaka Chaka?

I have known mum Yvonne Chaka Chaka for a very long time and I’ve done a couple of things with her, although I’m not part of her management team.

We’ve managed to do some recording with her with our own talent Berita, we’ve booked her for local events in South Africa, and also some international events, especially in Africa. That’s how I know her, personally and also from a business perspective.

I don’t remember the very first thing I did with Chaka Chaka but probably it was seven years ago. Like I said I am not directly part of her team, but being in the entertainment industry you look for smart ways to connect people.

And one of the smart ways to connect with her was to connect her with Berita, who is one of our artists to do a song with her and help push that album.

What informed the decision to organise the Legends Alive concert in Kigali?

We had done Tresor and Zahara before, so we thought about doing something that celebrates our living legend. In the recent past we have lost legends like Hugh Masekela, and we are now celebrating them in death.

But why don’t we celebrate them when they are still alive, and Yvonne Chaka Chaka is a living legend. That was the idea.

How has the Rwandan music scene evolved over the years – especially from the time you started associating with Rwandan music and artistes?

I’ve seen over the course of the last two years the development of song writing and performance. I think you have some very brilliant musicians here, almost on the same par as South African musicians, and even international musicians.

I think we do need some assistance when it comes to the actual artistry of our singers and song writers here in Rwanda.

When I brought Tresor, it was the first time I heard about Bruce Melodie, which was like ten months ago. From what I saw last night he’s developed quite nicely. Great crowd anticipation and interaction, great stage presence, and his music is a whole lot better.

I would love to work with Bruce Melody more to get him to a standard where his music is exportable –well if that’s what he’s interested in.

There was a lady called Alyn Sano who was also great.

Future …

I have fallen in love with East Africa, in particular Rwanda and you can expect more. I’m working with local music promoters to do more shows, will probably be back in September and again in November.

Eventually, we will get to a point where we see if there’s a niche that the other promoters are not interested in occupying, then maybe we will come and establish our own signature events.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw