Urban Grooves Archives

Gemma Griffiths’ 10-Country Album-Writing Trip

24Oct

By Onai MushavaNo Comments

Music, Urban Grooves

Gemma Griffiths’ 10-Country Album-Writing Trip

Gemma Griffiths’ 10-Country Album-Writing Trip The Zimbabwean pop singer went off-grid and drove open-air through 10 African countries over 500 days to sponge inspiration for her debut EP, Pamwe (2020). Roughly translated “window of possibility,” Pamwe exploits the sunlit, breezy possibilities of Gemma’s 24 000-kilometer writing trip. By Mukoma Onai | October 24, 2025 When covid-19 turned musicians into internet personalities, Gemma Griffiths did not need a WiFi budget for her lockdown playbook. The Zimbabwean pop singer went off-grid and drove open-air through 10 African countries over 500 days to sponge inspiration for her debut EP, Pamwe (2020). Roughly translated “window of possibility,” Pamwe exploits the sunlit, breezy possibilities of Gemma’s 24 000-kilometer writing...

Inside Holy Ten’s Creative Process

Inside Holy Ten's Creative Process Holy Ten’s latest single, “Ndaremerwa” is all things austerity and lockdown precarity. Sung with resigned vulnerability and spiraling bars, “Ndaremererwa” is a message and a moment. By Onai Mushava | September 29, 2020 Kendrick Lamar once said he writes songs with prisoners in mind. These poor souls, unlike party animals waiting to hop onto the next wave, got all the time under the sun to process every layer and message dumped at their doorstep. Now that the whole world is in prison, with the covid-19 lockdown, the Lamartian doctrine holds truer than ever and conscious artists are coming for everything. Poptain has emerged out of five years of unrewarded grind to take over Zimdancehall. At 22, Zim hip hop’s Holy Ten (born Mukudzei Chits...

Is Tocky Vibes the Next Tuku?

Is Tocky Vibes the Next Tuku? Most gatekeepers will jump at any parallel between Tocky and Tuku as blasphemy, so we may well oppose a little mathematics and history to their piety. By Onai Mushava | July 13, 2020 If Van Choga is a drunken dragon on the stage, then Tocky Vibes is an ecological event in the studio. During the "New Dispensation" alone, Mr Vibes has already released seven projects – five studio albums, an acoustic compilation and a singles collection – besides uploading videos more often than your crush’s photoshoots. But – though we could place Tocky Vibes against Van Choga’s energy or against Van Gogh’s authenticity – one question makes more overall sense: Is Tocky Vibes the next Oliver Mtukudzi? On his latest album, Dhongi neWaya, Tocky Vibes pays his...