Roiii is busy getting a haircut when he answers my call. It is the kind of detail that feels almost too perfect for where he is in his career right now.
The man is literally mid-preparation, on his way somewhere else, with another thing after that, and another thing after that. Later that night, he has a performance. The next day, he has a meet-and-greet.
Then there is more YFM work. Somewhere in between, there is a new project to finish, content to shoot, vlogs to edit and a radio show to prepare for.
“Every day is just jam-packed, bro,” he says.
That used to sound like chaos for Roiii. Now, it sounds like alignment.
“I’m in the best state I’ve been in my whole life,” he says. “This year is probably my best year. Not just because of the work stuff, but everything. Everything is lit right now. Even the work, the music, I’m back on music. I feel like I’m back.”
That return matters because Roiii has spent the past few years becoming many things at once. To most listeners, he first emerged through K.O’s SkhandaWorld imprint, where his sharp delivery, animated presence and natural charisma made him one of the young voices people were watching in South African hip-hop. SkhandaWorld gave him his earliest national platform and placed him inside one of local rap’s most respected machines.
Now, he is trying to show people that the rapper was only the entry point.
His next project, he says, is rooted in Pretoria. Not just as a location, but as an identity.
“For us, the city is more than a city,” he says. “Pretoria is not like Johannesburg. Johannesburg has a lot of languages, a lot of ethnicities, a lot of culture. Pitori has mostly a unified language. So when you say Pitori, you’re not just claiming the city. You’re also claiming almost, like, a tribe. It’s the people, the culture. It’s who we are.”
Sonically, he describes the project as rap-heavy, bouncy and collaborative. But emotionally, it sounds like something closer to a map.
“It’s actually my whole story,” he says. “How I come from Pretoria and move to Johannesburg, until where I’m at now. So it’s almost like an autobiography in music.”
That sense of self is also shaping his new life on radio. Alongside Sliqe, Roiii has become part of a new YFM show that feels less like traditional radio and more like two artists dragging an old format into the way people actually consume culture now: live, clipped, reposted, argued over and revisited.
The pairing was not planned as neatly as it looks. Roiii and Sliqe were both approached separately to pitch radio show ideas. Each came in with their own concept. Each impressed. Then the idea of putting them together emerged.
“I was like, I think it just depends on energy and who it is,” Roiii says. “Only to find out that it’s Sliqe. I’ve known Sliqe for a couple of years. We weren’t really boys that chill every day, but we were good friends. So if we meet up, energy was always on a high.”
That energy has become the point of the show. The jokes, dances, banter and side comments are not decoration. They are the format.
“One thing we had in common is that we weren’t radio presenters and wanted it to land like that,” he says. “That was very intentional for us to say we’re not going to try and be something we’re not.”
Instead, they call it a “RadioCast”, a hybrid between radio and podcast. Listeners can catch it live on air, then return to the episode afterwards in podcast form. It is radio built for the timeline, the group chat and the clip economy.
“We wanted it to live beyond the airwaves,” Roiii says.
That ambition sits perfectly inside the way Roiii now sees himself. He is not just trying to rap better. He is trying to build wider.
“I think the next phase of entertainers are multifaceted entertainers,” he says. “I’m a rapper by result, that’s where I start, but that’s not just who I am. I’m a creator, I’m a painter as well, I’m a songwriter, I’m an engineer. There’s so many things that people don’t know that we can do.”
The thinking is clear. In an era where giants like Nasty C and Cassper stream, and artists are expected to be present beyond release dates, disappearing into a dark corner until the next single is no longer enough.
“Sometimes before you sell a product, people have to know who you are,” he says. “That’s what I want the most. For people to know who I am, so that when I drop a song, they know where it comes from.”
That is why this week’s radio episode means more than content. When we speak, its a few days before K.O is set to join Roiii and Sliqe on the show, and for Roiii, it feels personal. Before the radio, before this wider entertainment vision, before the new sense of control, there was SkhandaWorld.
“Obviously, I was signed to the brother,” Roiii says. “Me and him have spoken, and we’re still on great terms, but for the media, for the audience watching, they haven’t seen where we’re at and how things are.”
He knows people have had their opinions about that chapter. He has heard the podcast talk and outside commentary about whether his time at SkhandaWorld helped him or held him back. Roiii does not sound interested in rewriting history. If anything, he wants to correct the emotional record.
“You wouldn’t know who I am if it wasn’t for that man,” he says. “If it wasn’t for his money, if it wasn’t for his time and his team. So for me, this episode gives me an opportunity to say thank you to my brother publicly, but also to shine a light on him as a character.”
There is something full-circle about that. The artist once introduced through K.O’s machine now gets to sit across from him with his own microphone, his own platform and his own audience. Not as the kid being presented, but as a man capable of presenting someone else.
That is the version of Roiii that seems to be emerging now. Less concerned with proving that he can rap, more interested in showing the full picture.
“I think right now where I’m at, Roiii is the brand. Roiii is the business. Roiii can do so many things,” he says. “I don’t necessarily have a direct goal every single time to say, oh, I want to be a radio presenter or I want to be this, I want to be that. All I know is that when things make sense to me in real time, I do then them.”
Then he lands on the cleanest description of this new chapter. “I don’t even say that I’m a rapper, radio presenter. I say I’m a full-on, full-fledged, multi-faceted entertainer. And that’s who I am. If I’m in a room with rappers, I’m a rapper. If I’m in a room with radio presenters, I’m a presenter.”
For Roiii, the next step is not just output. It is narrative. What is he saying? What is he building? What does all of this add up to?
“I want to be a legend, man,” he says. I want to be remembered to have an impact, and an impact beyond what music can do and an impact beyond what visual arts and physical arts can do. People don’t even know I’m an artist, a physical artist. I think the next step is introducing people to that world and start doing some artworks as well for people to start seeing that.”
Then, after all the ambition, he brings it back down to earth. “Everything is always step-by-step,” he says. “Step-by-step, not rushing into anything.”
For an artist in motion, that might be the clearest sign of growth. Roiii wants the big things. He wants the room, the microphone, the stage, the canvas, the legacy. But he also understands that legends are not built in one dramatic gesture.
They are built one frequency at a time.
