Young musician confident he has what it takes

AS a student in Form One, Josiah Mentore, was not all about academics although he was an excellent student who did well with his grades; he formed a crew called “Shockwave Entertainment” that would freestyle, battle rap, and make music dedicated to their class and life in school.
Now known as “EleMent,” the 20-year-old is pressing on in his music career and no one can convince him that he wouldn’t make it big someday. Apart from the skills needed for the industry, he has the sort of passion for music that is sure to see him through.
For as long as he can remember, Mentore loved rapping and playing with words, writing poetry, writing stories, making parodies, and going up to rap for church and school programmes.

Because his grades started to be affected, he eventually stopped making music with the crew to focus more on improving. When he was 15 though, a remarkable opportunity presented itself to help Mentore get back on his feet with his long lost love.

“My cousin gave up rapping and was about to throw away his gear and I asked for them; he handed me them and I kept them for years knowing I would want to make music in the future,” he recalled in an interview with Buzz this week.
In 2019, at the age of 19, he observed that many musicians who were not so skilled or talented were making it on the big screen. “I told my friends…I grew up rapping and could make great music…I said that one day everyone will see that I was moulded to become not only a good rapper but the Greatest HIP Hop artiste, and so I began writing pieces about my feelings, about stories, making poetic verses, sometimes focusing on flow, sometimes message, soon enough one by one, I was able to make people aware of my gift,” he reflected. He eventually realised that his whole life had prepared him for being an artist and is now his own writer, rapper, producer, financial investor, marketer, animator, and distributor.

“It’s not a burden on me, because I love doing all parts, and besides, you can rest assured that everything you see from EleMent is 100% me. I started with no one so I might as well keep going self-sufficient.”
Mentore, a semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition against 26,000 individuals last February, has performed for CARICOM Energy Month youth forum in December 2020 and has brought third in the Caricom Solar Challenge 2019.
His two peak songs are the Guyanese Alphabet Song in June 2020, and Bussit freestyle in May 2021. He’s also been able to network with a lot of prominent Guyanese creators and is currently working on an advertisement with 592 Wine.
“I would like to encourage all Guyanese to support locals, even if it’s their friend who is doing music; that little artiste is going to be a big artiste someday. I want all Guyanese artistes to not give up and be discouraged easily, as I would’ve had a recent downfall where I wasn’t accepted into a next round of the Guyana Talent Search and was made fun of all across social media, but I used the opportunity to market myself and bring in at least 30 new supporters,” he expressed.