Lerato Khathi aka Lakuti emerged out of the ruins of a post – apartheid South Africa. Growing up in an impoverished Soweto in Johannesburg .Lakuti took a deep interest in music from a very young age . Inspired by her mother’s impressive collection of Soul & Funk . Her grandfather also played a significant part in further nurturing her musical interest by schooling her in the art of Jazz. She inherited his jazz collection when he passed away and to this date has held onto every piece of vinyl from this collection .The biggest influence & inspiration was to come however with the first batch of Chicago house records, which made their way into the townships .

Her first adventure onto a musical path came when she convinced an empty 100 capacity theatre in a then arty Yeoville – a suburb in Johannesburg , to let her use the space as a small club in the early 90ʹ′ʹ′s , whilst embarking on a Law Degree . Planet Hendon was soon born . She successfully run the space for 2 years & in that 2 years the club saw dj sets from the cream of the crop of dj’s at the time in Johannesburg . Around the same period , she met Alan Abrahams aka Portable/ Bodycode & collaborated with him on a few music projects . Some of those works were released on South african deep house label , Dj Syndicate .

Lakuti inevitably became frustrated with the geographic isolation of the country and relocated to London in 1997 , after a 3 year stint in Toronto Canada , where she studied film and worked on various film related projects .

She immediately looked into dedicating herself full time into music & looked @ ways of achieving that goal . A break through came when she met The legendary Earl Gateshead , The powerhouse behind the Trojan Soundsystem , who took her under his wing . They promoted a monthly Friday for about 1 year at the hugely influential underground hub , Plastic People in london .

Lakuti alongside alan “Portable” Abrahams also established their successful underground

parties , in London ; which lasted for 11 years & the events have seen performances from artists such as Juan Atkins , Move D , Rick Wade , Dj Jus Ed , Prosumer , Lawrence/Sten , Efdemin , Carsten Jost , Pantha Du Prince , Shed , Daniel Bell , Tama Sumo , Kelli Hand , Fred P , Farben , Boo Williams + many more .

They established the Süd Electronic imprint in October 2002 & lakuti established Uzuri Recordings Nov 2007 to rave reviews & has since established The Uzuri Artist Bookings & Management agency representing artists such as Levon Vincent , Fred P ,

Big Strick , Portable/Bodycode , Chicago Skyway , Basic Soul Unit , Steven Tang/Obselete Music Technology , Anton Zap , Aybee , Joey Anderson ++

Lakuti has played at clubs such as Fabric in London , The End in London , Plastic People , Corsica Studios , Herbal , Elektrowerks , Panorama Bar in Berlin , Rex Club in Paris , Weetamix in Geneva , Concrete in Paris , Harry Klein in Munich , Disco Volante in Brescia Italy + many more .

She has also collaborated with various artists on vocal duties . One such collaboration was a few vocal tracks with Alan Abrahams aka Bodycode/Portable as well as Matias Augayo . Has appeared on releases on Perlon , Spectral , Comeme ++

Lakuti , Portable and Tama Sumo have recently relaunched the Süd Electronic Imprint as well .