Born: 05 February 1993
Age: 29 years old
Name: Phillimon Malesela Teffo
Musical Name: Phistojahmandra
Profession: Writer, singer and a poet
Genre: Reggae, Reggae dub poetry
Active years: 2013 to date
Albums: Life of today (2017), Wicked Woman (2019),
Reggae ke mmino(2020) and The walls(2022)
My love for reggae began at a tender age. I grew up listening to Lucky Dube’s music, the message in his songs made me look up to reggae and that’s when I started listening to reggae stars such as Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Burning Spear and Mutabaruka. In 2008 at the age of 15 I started writing lyrics and poetry I also had an opportunity to recite some of my poems during youths gatherings. In 2012 I was admitted at the University of Limpopo to study Maths and computer science; during the period of studying I got exposed to computers and learnt about music recording software’s I then built my own miniature studio and started recording and releasing songs that I wrote during my high school days I then had an opportunity to have my first radio interview at Turf FM in 2013. My first album was a collaboration were by I recorded it with Piet Tladi musically known as Jahstamza, the album was titled “Life of today” whereby we compared the life of today and the life during the beginning of time and was officially released in 2017. I also worked on riddim projects with Mzansi reggae artists such as Lirootsy Tshilombe, Bongo Tee,Bashy Jahbless, Angolah Maseko.. etc . In 2019 I released my first solo album titled “Wicked Woman” in which I make awareness of the abuse that men face in their homes especially when they are unemployed.
In 2017 I was admitted at the University Of South Africa (UNISA) to study a Bachelor’s of arts degree in creative writing. During my studies I was exposed to poetry as a module from my first year of study, that’s when my knowledge and love for poetry grew. During one of my recording session with Lirootsy Tshilombe I decided to record a poem. After hearing the recording Lirootsy encouraged me to do more poetry songs. During my studies I also had an opportunity to learn a little about African History since then I started doing more research on my own about African history in order to understand where I come from as a black person. With the knowledge about African history that I learnt during my research I decided to address some of the issues of Africans through poetry and reggae music. My latest album titled “The Walls” was released on 29 July 2022 and will be available on online music platforms from 12 August 2022.
CONTACT phistojahmandra
Tel: +27 629791098
Email: Phistojah@webmail.co.za
Facebook page: Phistojahmandra