Zimbabwean Music Archives

Syndicated Loverboy – Oliver Mtukudzi in Kwekwe

8Oct

By Onai MushavaNo Comments

Mbaqanga, Music

Syndicated Loverboy – Oliver Mtukudzi in Kwekwe

Syndicated Loverboy – Oliver Mtukudzi in Kwekwe Recent damning revelations about Zimbabwean superstar, Oliver Mtukudzi’s paternal negligence divided public opinion. This piece revisits the songs Tuku wrote in the heat of his family controversies and libertine adventures. What influence did Kwekwe have on his career over his decade there with his new family and an abused daughter from his first marriage. By Mukoma Onai | October 8, 2024 Oliver Mtukudzi slept with life and death in the same bed. A syndicated loverboy who can be credited with lifting his music to higher truth rather than bending it down to personal weakness. Maybe the most convincing preachers are not the ones who embody their message but those who preach the loudest bit to themselves. Artists are, after all, i...

3Sep

By Onai MushavaNo Comments

Music, Urban Grooves

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...

13Jul

By Onai MushavaNo Comments

Mbaqanga, Music, Urban Grooves

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...

25May

By Onai Mushava1 Comment

Music

Hokoyo Is a Great Zimbabwean Album

By Onai Mushava Jah Prayzah’s continental wars are well-known but after every battle is fought, an artist’s never-ending conflicts are against himself. Think of a musician as different splinter personalities in one room, each fighting for creative control. That is Jah Prayzah, the stage monster, the business strategist, the regional crusader, the cultural revivalist, and the vulnerable underdog. The best of these splinters have just won the latest round and recorded a great Zimbabwean album. Hokoyo, the new fifteen-track album, is Jah Prayzah’s tenth. It is not just a comeback from the uninspired Chitubu, but one of his most ambitious yet, alongside Tsviriyo, Jerusarema and Kutonga Kwaro. There are songs to make you feel and sounds that are as grounded in the Zimbabwean tradition as they...

5Mar

By Onai MushavaNo Comments

Books

ZEXIE MANATSA'S UPS AND DOWNS

Zexie Manatsa's Green Arrows bandZexie Manatsa rose from an infant guitar prodigy in Mhangura to become one of the first local musicians of significant stature. In December 2006 the recently resuscitated Zimbabwe Music Awards paid homage to the grand patriarch of mainstream local music with the inaugural Cheuka Shure/Bheka Emva trophy.During the presentation ceremony, an urban grooves duo ushered the crowd back to 1974, with their rendition of Manatsa's first major hit "Chipo Chiroorwa"."Chipo Chiroorwa" has exclusive credit in the country's music annals as the first song by a black Zimbabwean to win a gold disc, having sold 25 000 copies back in the '70s.Speaking on the same occasion, Oliver Mtukudzi credited the Green Arrows frontman for mentoring him when he was still a showbiz...