But Wait, Who Runs what? Lessons We learnt from We Run It

We would go on to give a review of the song but I guess you can always ask Synik to do that for you. As we watched social media turn into a hashtag, kind words, unkind words, war chants and re-tweets, we decided to only talk about things that we could all learn from the current situation (which can change as we type, so gotta get this out quick). Back to school

Lesson 1: We Run It is NOT about ONE RAPPER!!

It’s a like MMT’s “Wake Up” with no names. Guys really...Don't you get it! LISTEN TO THE SONG.. Geez! The “new guy /…2 by 4” line is just one line. And that line, for all we know, might not even be talking about the rapper you are thinking about. A lot of really erhm.. feelings were expressed in that song, chief of all, being looked down upon, being slept on, not being acknowledged and simple social commentary about his journey and things that have been happening, but you know what, you might not understand it and its why we have lesson 2.

Lesson 2: Throw “subliminals” and let the crowd drive the war

Shots fired? we don’t quite think so, buy maybe we are being naïve. We listened to the song, again and again and again, no name was mentioned (except Beefy Harrison), but they did mention the alleged victims neighborhood, which trigger happy supporters could take as “shot fired” because, logically speaking, if as person says that “your neighborhood” knows “we run it”, its really up to you to feel disrespected or to take it as childish talk. In response to Kendrick Lamars assertion that he was the king of New York, P Diddy didn’t hit back with a diss track, or anything hectic really, he just gingerly poked fun at it. BUT.. did you see how peoples reaction immediately made it look like Junior Brown had gone “Ether” on Calvin? People want blood, people want war.. sometimes rappers just want to express themselves..but what if..

Lesson  3 : that could have been the plan all along.. MARKET IT!

What if, just what if, the expected reaction was exactly what Junior Brown and his team wanted and they got it? Smart thinking. Retweets are the fuel of group think! Get three people with a large following on social media, a well produced song, clever timing…and you can control the masses. Love it or hate it, one needs to respect the promotional campaign for We Run It. Think about it, we are still talking about it now right? Did you know that Marcques and Mile dropped a very GOOD album? ..YEAH.. Its called Lost In Translation!, we recommend the songs  Easy, KFC Drive By and  Rufaro. Point is, the Breezy team was clever and more resourceful enough to get all the attention to THEM.  What we are more impressed by is what Junior Brown and his team did before and after the drop, not the fact that they actually dropped it and what made it better was…

Lesson 4 : “We Run It” is a good song

Happy to say that it was a good jam, everything in there.. guitars, beat, effects.. DOPE DOPE..SUPER DOPE.. therefore

Lesson 5 : Never let ANYONE tell you that a market for Hip Hop doesn’t exist

Some people say that Zim Hip Hop is a dying genre because it has a small following. We believe that people only think that its only good Hip Hop if so and so releases it. That’s why we aren’t afraid to call out the crowds favorite on a bad song, even if the crowd is a little too timid to admit it. That’s why we don’t blog some people music . However, we  cant blame the consumer. To feed off the Zim Hip Hop market, you have to work twice as hard and three times smarter than a dance hall and sungura artiste put together. We exist, we are the market, we are just hard to please

Lesson 6: Lets push forward vs Lets beef and feed our egos?

Some people have expressed the imagined altercation as anti progressive because well, no real constructive industry gets built around beefing. Some people think that competition at least, gets people talking and Hip Hop becomes part of the conversation again. We just want good music and people to live off of it. So whichever way this goes and a big shout out to Calvin for making it clear that this isn’t a Ndebele vs Shona or Bulawayo vs Harare thing, we really just want artistes making music again.

there is lots more we could say, but we may just be jumping the gun...so for today

School is over kids.. 

heres your homework

Check out the lyric Video to "We Run It" here

@pushzw

Olova: a good Sign for Zim Music in 2016?

Last year was quite the year. We labelled it as a quite uninteresting year in our view but we cannot overlook the strides that were made last year by a lot of artists. Sharky, Calvin, R Peels and T Gonz among some of the artists who had a reasonably good 2015. We didn’t post much, but then again spamming isn’t our thing but we did create a music blog riddim towards the end of the year.

Now as 2016 kicks off things seem to be going well. In the first two weeks we have already had a couple of hot drops: T-One, Tehn, Schingy and Boi Mac have given us a good start to 2016 with the hope that it will be a hot year. Obviously there are the annual wishes we want to come true: Junior Brown’s, Tehn and Marcques’ (can you sense our bitterness at not getting an invite to the Marcques|Mile listening session) albums may actually come out this year.

The real spark for us for 2016, though still brand new is the Olova Music app. This app first came through at the Shoko festival of 2014 and seem to bring hope of monetizing the local music industry. When it first came out we decided to take a back seat and watch. The idea itself is genius and the story is very close to philanthropy as the group responsible are not making any money off the thing. It is free for artists to sign up and most of the music on it is for free though we are pleased to see that some artists have put their music up for sale. We bought a couple of tracks to test it out. Quite easy, Ecocash and Telecash so you won’t need a MasterCard.

Olova Music released their second version of the application on the 31^st of December and we have to say, we were blown away by it. Especially giving a comparison with the first version. As PUSHzw we will definitely be watching to see this wonderful application grow on our music industry. The Olova Music App (Olova 2.0 BETA) is a breath of fresh air and visionary intelligence for the music industry. We are slightly embarrassed to not have posted about them when they started but really acknowledge the foresight of bloggers like McPotar and Sp3kktrumn who were on it when it came out.

Improved User Interface: One thing day one fans and haters of the Olova app will definitely agree on is that the first Olova was functional (that is polite talk for ugly). While the first Olova was good to have and to use it was not particularly nice to look at and that is something they changed this time around. The New Olova looks nice and clean and is their biggest sign of growth. That and the new look website.

Music Streaming: Unlike on the first Olova where we were forced to download songs without sampling them, with the 2.0 Beta that is a thing of the past. All the music on Olova can be streamed for free meaning that now we can listen before we decide what we want to download. Kudos to the Olova team for listening on this one because it was a sore point, But then again when the first Olova came out we didn’t have $1/250mb Econet bundles. The timing seems almost perfect.

Newsfeed: Yes, they put a newsfeed in the new Olova. So technically what this means is that us listeners can now comment on songs in the Olova library and these comments can be found on one newsfeed within the app. So even if I hadn’t heard about a song but the comments say it is good, I may be tempted to listen. This feature will be very good for artistes and I wonder if it will make us bloggers obsolete. I guess this is what they meant when they said Making music Social.

Charts: With the 2.0 Beta Olova have given us in – App charts based on the number of Plays, number of downloads as well as the number of ‘Likes’. If a lot of people are sampling it or downloading it there must be something about that song worth listening too right? Also our view is these charts could be our next big basis of measure for Local Artists; I mean the iTunes charts are a big deal so why can’t the Olova chart be the same. I’d love to count on our radio charts but every so often they really sound biased. Who better to trust with our charts than an unbiased (we hope) application?

Artiste Profiles: Oh it is as cool as it sounds. A simple long press on an artist and you reveal the view profile option. Now you can read about your artistes past accolades and maybe they have juicy info on beefs too. I hope this feature comes with similar music.

Improved STS: The STS (Scope The Scene) was the jewel of the first Olova. An event calendar for all that happens in our busy country especially with the rare Hip Hop events that you don’t want to miss in case you aren’t around for the next one. The STS is improved, the information more concise the view more pristine. The Olova team has been working hard no doubt.

BOOKS: Just when you thought better looking was all they could give us the Olova team have introduced an extension to their portfolio of available media. This will come as good news for local authors as Olova is giving them a chance to make their ebooks easily available and easy to purchase for consumers. This could become a really good move by Olova, other than mazwi we do not have too many other options for local authors.

Of course we still have our reservations like every other person but overal the Olova 2.0 Beta is so far the best thing out of our 18 day old year. We look forward to seeing what happens throughout the year. More partnerships like the one they have with Boi Mac who has boldly promoted both Olova and his new music. Something the first generation Olova artists did not do.  The purchasing process itself seems to be semi – automatic and took a whole of thirty minutes for our recharge codes to come but we were more worried about it not coming at all.

While Olova could be the future of Zimbabwean music, the artists will have a big part to play: since Olova’s inception in 2014 it has had about 30 artists on the application but we have personally never seen more than 5 of those post about where to get their music. Only Noble Stylz was most visual in his push of his Masofa Panze 2 and the Olova app. Dj Krimz and some other artists from Ikonik also pushed. I wonder if our artists expect their music to sell itself.

A new year and great moves as the year begins! So let’s Download the Olova Music App on the Playstore or the Olova Website and keep our fingers crossed that they give us the ios version sooner than later.

Remember to Push Ur Sound Hard

WHY WE DIDNT BLOG YOUR S*#@ !

We do not believe in using profane language, don't let the title mislead you, read on and you will get it!

Girls used to namedrop our local rappers...make sure they called you Tendai while the rest of us called you Tehn. Now they never admit in public that they know you guys..Hip Hop. Deceased

Hello Mr / Miss Rapper, PUSHZW has not posted any new blog post of late. Are we apologetic,eeeh slightly. However, we shall be sincere, its not totally our fault. We would love to tell you about how blogging about YOUR career is something we do  late night or weekends when YOU will be turning up on cheap vodka and with overly made up girls who lie about the HOTNESS of YOUR JAM buuuuut...This is NON-PAYING! Its OUR DATA, TIME, EFFORT...what do we get from this? At best, free tickets to The Zim Hip Hop awards if we are fortunate enough to get nominated for re-tweeting your data file links to less than pleasing badly mastered material. Worse off, the Hip Hop awards are a pain to go through too, if its not the late starts, its the bad sound, if that's not the problem, its the organization..we could go on..but long story short, We ain't getting jack but satisfaction of YOU actually making it in the Music Industry. Trust us, we are really more eager for you succeed than you think. Just because there is no post about your new "hit" do not assume it means we didn't listen.

But here's WHY we didn't blog your s*#@

Lets start with some of the leaders of the game, Junior Brown , Marcques, we will never forgive your performances at the AKA show. Junior Brown gave us an accapella performance. Accapella. Are you telling me I was there to watch Junior Brown go Karaoke?? I'm sure that was also an eye opener as to how much music you DON'T have and we thought your Shoko performance would have fixed that. Dai kufunga kwebenzi nhai? Marques had who on stage at the AKA show? singing? oh ok. Lets go to the music they did drop since then, "Maria" and "Who got Next"...sigh.. Breezy, we would have expected a video for Maria, for an example,  go to a darkened room, have a light bulb swinging, illuminating your depressed face Mr Brown, while you sit on a stool and sing Maria Maria Mariaaaaaa! You can thank us later for the idea! Our point, more could have been done on that song, it could have been promoted more, hell,we know Zifm will play you anyway, how about a video, cinematic, lyric video, ANYTHING.  Lets not even talk about Morning Glory, that was addressed by Mr Zunguza in  the "state of the nation address" jam Marcques "leaked.." well, They say it was leaked. It was okaaay, just didn't really move us. Here's whats funny, HE STILL HASN'T DROPPED NUTHIN EITHER! We don't hear him featuring on songs anymore.. That album better drop fast because we hear the word IRRELEVANCE is starting to get louder than the clickety clack of the keyboard as we type.

Which gets us to one of our biggest reasons for not talking about your s*#@, Dear artist, your music doesn't appeal to us, not only is it un-entertaining, it doesn't do ANYTHING to us, it lacks the WOW factor, it doesn't provoke us to be happy, or sad, or hyper or to be proud of you! So yes, even if you do release a follow up dope jam, we wont give it a second thought because YOU didn't give much of it either when you dropped your first jam. A lot of Zim Hip Hop artistes and R & B artistes know how to rap and sing,  How to make a song, however? A BIG FAT NO. If the studio that you record in does not have studio monitors, get your stuff mastered elsewhere, if it takes a day to get a song done, dusted and out..don't send it to us, have other bloggers talk about you s*#@. Sometimes we cant even hear what these artistes are saying, the songs have no structure, the verses are boring and so much noise...pure and utter WHACKERY! 

Lets be honest, 2013 is soon going to be three years ago, I bet you Tehn Diamond will still be performing Happy (first heard of in 2011 at the awards and won an award Zim Hip Hop laaater), Madrinks the remix..and having us go through that awful journey of love (pills and potions blah blah frikkin blah...just don't sing that s*#@ )! Mr Diamond, we miss you! the SOTG you, the really cocky NON SINGING YOU. A lot of people said Tehn used to be Mr Untouchable and lots didn't like his attitude,in hindsight, He shouldve stayed that way. He isn't cool no more! All the beads and the clothes you always recycle on videos and stuff don't fit the COOL we want you to have as THE CHOSEN ONE for ZIM! Tehn had lots of swag when He was MR SOTG both in his music and as the image of Tehn Diamond, I kid you not, we don't care what the economy is like, I shouldn't always see my favorite rapper wear the same outfit! But lets take it to the music, "Sumudza Gumbo"...bruuuh! I have never heard a greater wastage of lyrics than on that song. WE JUST CANT BEAR IT.  Really though, that song was as tired as the Simbatagz and Iceprince "Dont Leave Me Remix". All that hype for thaaaat SHOW TIME!! .. no man! "Daijes in the Sky", such a nice title, but Tehn..singing isn't doing it for us. Maybe the fans soon to be hounding our mailboxes like it. Hell, the song hasn't dropped like the Perfect Tehn, we should call it "THE PERFECT WHEN??!!" 

 Matter of fact, we listened to TRK's The Come Up 2 and we couldn't help but think that if Tehn had stayed as Tehn (Mr SOTG Tehn), he would have sounded as nice as TRK on that Mixtape but alas, he had to get the beads.... Side note, we think, The Come Up (the first one) wasn't as yay! The sequel to that showed a lot of growth, we might just review it, Growth and progression is what we like, unlike the next set of rappers we wanna talk about

WHERE THE HELL DID MMT GO? You know what, Marcques was right, ONLY ONE rapper in MMT is still a rapper, MC Cut, as to if he will ever really get thaaat song, (remember the wow factor) is really up to him. Maybe he is happy introducing other rappers on stage, We would rather hear him introduced! Such talent, such a crew, they revived the game...now??

Lets go to some of the recent happenings, Kapital K dropped an EP, You see Mr Keezy, we think you are one of the nicest, but it always seems as if every song has to be about bottles/Sex with Unamed Peoples Girlfriends/ Clubs in Cape Town/ ...repeat. We listened to the whole EP... and didn't blog about it, why? loud as it was, only one song really did it for us, that would make for a very bad post. How collaborations or working with producers who bring the best out of you like SimbaTagz on "high" because as far as we are concerned that's the only hit you got...or do you want us to go to the days of Lil' Keith

The team that makes the music that most people will "say they enjoy"...SHOWTIME. the stable with the best pre-release grind. No one works as hard as Showtime on social Media music hyping. and they are not afraid to invest time into it to. This is of course when they don't pull as surprise immediate EP/Mixtape drop that 20 people download. We remember following the road to Reverb 7's "Friends Season 1" - then the digital booklet it came with! damn! that put most international CD packages to shame. Hats off to you. Showtime does however utterly suck and post release. They never talk about a song for more than 3 days after its release. it's like they have the attention spans of 3-year olds on a sugar high. Some of the music they released into the wind had the chance to change the face of young Zimbabwean music. I guess they are too busy being cool to notice huh?

Team Bho, we have a confession, your IMAGE and grind.. AMAAAAZING, whether other bloggers or podcasters like talking smack about your sneakers we don't care. However, the music yall make is just sometimes boring. You guys spend more time topless and exhibiting your dirty innerwear than perfecting your craft. What really saves you are your performances and visibility, hell they are as visible as Anonzi Xndrs relationship advice hashtags, we wish he would drop more hits than hashtags though. Team Rehab used to be the heart beat of Zim hip hop but now.. [insert crickets chirping here]....

Lets take a moment to talk about Bulawayo rappers lest they start dedesaring, kuyema, being cry babies about How Harare this Harare that. Nxa imusic yenyu ingachazi mafethu kayichazi! (if your music ain't entertaining, it ain't entertaining). Don't hate the player, hate the game, or just PLAY BETTER! For example, these guys play better, Yung Tyran, Calvin, Naboth Rizla, POY (yes, KeSummer was dope). Those ones, we like...a lot! Go through our blogs, you will see them. However, whats with always calling out Stunner / Pokello on cyphas  though, is there nothing else to rap about? If Calvin can get played on air then murder people on their own jams (yes XQ ) then, get one of Africa's BEST RAPPERS to feature on a jam, drop an EP, then an album, damn right you can! Stop complaining, Bulawayo has better Hip Hop than Harare right now anyway, grind smarter..not harder magents!

KiddActive, GZE, Calvin, Meyniak, Sharky, Team Bho, thank you guys for keeping some semblance of hope in the game, Peakay is definitely not a rapper anymore...He last rapped when Ill Ceey was secular..damn...before he became the mature Courtney Antipas. We dare them to nominate him as one!

We think that FTR and Abnorm are a good working couple from Blow Hard Records, we have never liked the name but the only thing that went wrong on Love Begets Love was when Abnorm seemed to roll over his words on some lines. It wasn't perfect,that jam was fire, just the finer bits guys,THE FINER BITS, so yeah, we didn't blog about it, Yes, That and Killin em, which was a twitter name for so long that Mr FTR had to take it down. Ftr and Abnorm make great sounding music in terms of quality but how many time do the weak raps have to get saved by a feature? Although FTR killed it on the Marukaz remix. However, He is just like Junior Brown and not dropping an album or a song, we really don't care anymore. Damn right you killed em, you killed em with silence and meh...

We had to use strong words on a femcee before we posted this, She had asked us "what will it take for us to blog about her new jam"

So lets get this straight ladies, DONT EVER COMPETE against other girls, compete against the whole game! From Drake to bloody Lexxii Alejai. Lets STOP using the word femcee (its now the F-word).We have always stressed that with how music is accessible everywhere, one has to fight for space on my and everyone else's playlist as we have become very trigger happy with the delete button! Zim rappers have to STOP making mediocre music, we loved that after #SHOKOFESTIVAL, Joe Black, went on a rant about how we need to be honest about how crappy or how good we are, MisRed has constantly stressed about the importance of perfecting our own music. Why do I have the latest Game but not your track, simple, your stuff sounds like it was recorded on a phone and the rhymes are as old school as Noble Stylz's fashion sense! Fight to be on our playlists, fight to be on radio, not by bribing DJ's coz that don't work, but by being DOPE! Stop telling each other lies, have different people listen to your song before you release it, don't put us on no whatsapp broadcast list, we don't download sometimes, JUST BE GOOD, Here's an exercise, play your favorite international rappers song to the end, then play your song, if they are at par, YOU ARE READY, if they aren't, quit Hip Hop or WORK TOWARDS BEING BETTER!

I bet you guys are gonna be arguing about who deserves awards this year. If I was Beefy or whoever is running it this year...I wouldn't give anyone anything...except maybe Calvin.

In plane English, this is what we hope people take from this post

Master the Art of Making a good Song/ Album

We flock to shows where rappers from outside our country rap in languages we don't know. Why? Its because they make good music. Its not about the language, its the whole package. Its not about where you are from, its how good the song is. Pass the song to your Ex girlfriend and or boyfriend, have a DJ listen to it, hear what they say, improve! Sound changes every year, try to not get lost in experimentation though, RAISE THE BAR! Make it count, make it nice, If you are paying money for a beat, get the files too, make noise if your producer didn't master it right, play it on a radio with no sub-woofers, listen to every detail, correct the flaws, make the fan happy!

Image is Everything

Vanity is a bad thing, looking the part is an obligation. We have met lots of personalities and they look the part. When you see Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa ANYWHERE... she got swag!! You instantly want to associate with her, Tatea Da MC, actually looked like a rapper, SWAG! Ammara Brown, Shingi Mau Mau, Team Bho, they ALWAYS looks the part in public. Once you choose to be a musician, you have to wear the uniform 24/7. Whether you are rehearsing, walking down the street, in a kombi or wherever, you need to look presentable because we really do judge a book by its cover.Lets stop looking like struggling artists. Most album artworks have improved and we are great full but please INVEST IN YOUR IMAGE, its an extension of your music!

Don't go quiet for too long, we will forget you

Whoever idea it was to not drop content, fooled yall! Lets say you make an album for a sound that's popular in 2015, you decide that the timing ain't right, so you wait for three years and drop in 2018, the sound would have changed, fans would have grown up, then you complain that we don't blog your S*#@, we mightz actually do it, as a #ThrowBackThursday. Next thing, content makes you stay relevant, if you aren't going to drop an album, make it a mix tape, take other peoples beats, rap on them! Feature more, collaborate. You wont get cooperate sponsorship because you were hot THREE YEARS AGO!

Performances can make or break your career

A lot of people who perform Hip Hop at say HIFA, are people we don't really know, but they turn the place up, eg, True Vibe Nation. They make sure that their performances are epic! In an age where piracy is killing digital sales, performances and shows have become the cash cow for musicians. Now, if you don't work on your performance, you don't practice, you show up to shows late, its always back tracks, your movement is wrong, then don't send us a press release to your weak stuff. We wont tell our respected readers where you are because YOU might give US a bad name!  

If you got to this part, we would like you to know that we shall and never use profanity in our posts, lest the title misleads you, here's what it really meant for us, read between the lines and improve your craft, understand these four bars

"We know the post might have been long /

 The language a bit too strong /

But Your music really sucks

Thats why we wont blog about your s*#@

@pushzw

Courtney Antipas (Illceey) REBUKES Mudiwa Publicly: Drops SONG: FAL$E

Courtney Antipas, has never been one to hold back his opinion when it comes to gospel Hip Hop. We often times have realised that he never has any kind words for "prosperity gospel rappers". We once questioned him in a post whether he would ever name these money spittin' gospel rappers. We didnt think we would get an answer to that, till this happened a day ago or so

Now we all know Mudiwa and we also know what he raps about which is pretty much, "Jesus has gotten me rich.." or “I have car or this tablet or this phone” Most of his material is centred on amassing and having a lavish and/or good life because as he says, He is of Christ, "ndaita Mari, ndina Mwari".  Not to say bash the brother but we also saw his highly publicised online wrangle with rapper Stunner, where the biggest defense to Stunners accusations of copying his style of rapping was calling out Stunner on the lack of a head board in a leaked sex tape. Kinda got us thinking if that’s what award winning Gospel Hip Hop rappers do in Zim when they get bored of talking money, Scrutinise sex tapes.

We then checked out GGB because we didn’t have any information on him and we ran across a video called “Set Free_Zvikufaya” which featured Mudiwa and Yung Karville. The video looked like something Birdman would have been proud of! It’s a from rags to riches song which showed a young man GGB eating from bins, begging  and selling fruits (why would you sell packaged fruit and go on to eat from bins though, just eat the apple yo!  Don’t get high on your own supply maybe I don’t know?). You can view the video here --> SET FREE featuring Mudiwa and Yung Karville

The back story perhaps. The intro of the song  was beautifully narrated with Biblical of verses and the song “God will make a way” Pause, shown head looking up, hands folded in prayer (we guess) and an unexplained few years later BOOM! Mansion! Bedroom, Girl in skin revealing dress! Maserati’s, more girls and I am getting Jesus Money!

Maybe that was the reason Courtney Antipas didn’t want to perform with them, but then, he released a statement on his Face Book page which read

Question. When Goliath was publicly blaspheming the name of God was David supposing to go and pull him aside a say "hey bro you shouldn't be doing that"? Nah, instead David publicly challenged him. (1 Samuel 17) 

Let me share another one. When Peter started acting out of line with the gospel did Paul wait to pull him aside to tell him not to do that or did he openly check him in front of everyone present on what he was doing? (Galatians 2:11-14) 

Last night mudiwa and I spoke. He told me it's too late to meet up (coz i said let's do so) and that I should have holla'd at him first. But how many have tried that to no avail? Instead he said he will keep doing him (unrepentant). I was willing to scratch the song because for me it would have shown that he is willing to build but as he said, It's too late (as if he was gonna grant me time). So the song WILL drop tomorrow. 

Proverbs 27:5 "better an open rebuke than hidden love

So as Push we want to get down to the song Courtney dropped and see if he made any sense. The song is called FAL$E which you can get here

“Yeah I see these rappers talking about their Jesus Money / Faking to the masses flossing in their Maserati / Making like that’s what Christianity all about / Half dressed women in videos walking around/..”

At this point we already knew that he was talking about the GGB and Mudiwa Video. We agree with him there that, it just doesn’t make any sense for one to represent the core message of Christianity in such a manner. The cars are pretty cool, the house is big, furnished too, head boards and all, the girls in their thigh flashing short dresses, little tops  and skirts and stuff is a splendid representation of most videos that talk about just that, but they put it on a Gospel song. The message there, “when you get that Jesus Money, you will get dee girls dee whips and dis here crib homie” Coming from a strictly interpretation of a video song, It don't look too representative of the gospel message.

I’m like really, you mean to tell me this is Christian rap / because you mention God between all other crap?

To be honest, in GGB’s verse on the Set Free Zvikufaya he only refers to Jesus when he talks about his chain, most of the rest of the verse talks about cars, cars, mansion, clothes and well and very little detail about the Holy Spirit. On the same song Mudiwa opens with the lines “ma jaguar asina denga, takutsvaga asina ma tyre” (drop top cars, we now looking for those with no tyres {bigger rims probably}, lovely word play there). Referrals to spiritual deity here are in regards to them being the reason why life is so financially good.

What really bothers me/ is the fact that these cats is endorsed by the industry/ listen, they do not represent us/ they do not hold to Gods view but mans lust….

Question,To which God do you really pray / and how does He feel that you endorsed 50 Shades of Grey?

Perhaps the most shocking of all was the fact that  a gospel rapper was used by Ster Kinekor as the face for 50 Shades of Grey, YES that damn near porn flick which had to be censored to be shown on the big screen in Zim and banned in other countries. We don’t think there is anything wrong with Mudiwa being a Ster Kinekor brand ambassador but we think it does send the wrong message if the movies he accepts to be a face for stand against everything the doctrine his music is supposed to represent preaches about. Pre marital sex, nudity, porn, lust, adultery… and a Gospel rapper fronting that, sheeesh!

See number one spots and awards will mean nothing, when you stand before God/ He will only ask you one thing/  and that’s, Do you know His son, coz, I think you don’t/ We can tell by the kinda things you do promote Cos if you really met Christ and your life changed/ You will not boast about possessions but the Lords name

I do not care about the things you got, call me a hater its cool but your bars do not represent the things of God

The above seems to be a direct call out on content which He had been explaining all along. This quickly turned into a street rap line which said

Even your flow is not dope enough/  buts that’s another story hommie, Y’see your message only choking us

Never edifying to the body, the only thing you telling kids “its okay to like God and love Money”

Whoever that was directed to will be pissed.

He goes on to quote the GGB feat Mudiwa track "Set free" and says

"we have been set free from poverty, found true riches/ Thats Christ, not money, not cars not sneakers.."

WHATS OUR VERDICT?

We have for some time noticed with great interest (just like any other Zimbabwean) how money seems to be the ultimate reason why people exist now. The church, ironically has been the one to push the the envelope when it comes to "how to get rich". It doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you that love for the dollar and the dictates of Christianity don't mix, at least according to what we have known (love of money being the root of all evil). Unforgiving about the way we may be sounding preachy, let us just say, it is disgusting when the "church" talks more of money than the exact reason why church even exists, i.e, Jesus Christ, his life, death, why he died, why he lived again, love, forgiveness, hope,converting others to Christ, living harmoniously with fellow man! come on, we are in the Easter season, this is revision!

On a more rap point of view, we think, Gospel or not, rappers who show the courage to table such issues need to be applauded. Why we say so is that at its very roots, rap music was protest music, going against the grain of what society, governments, laws seemed to accept out of manipulation or mislead, i.e Tupac, Dead Prez, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar. So given that, we like our  Gospel Hip Hop to stay Gospel.

Again, the joys of being bloggers is that this is our opinion, we think Mudiwa dwells more on the making money living lavish side of things. We are not sure if that is cohesive with his label as a gospel rapper. This video did not even bother to give lessons for anyone to take with them; how did he get rich in those four years? Then again we all have our views of what gospel should look like. This is what will slow down the acceptance of gospel rap in churches.

False Audio Download

Remember to P.U.S.H

ROOKIE REVIEW: THA MINDS MACETAPE

“I am a witch, witch with a capital L which means I am not a witch coz witches can spell”,

The mixtape kicks off with a very raw sounding accappella one versed introduction aptly titled Knightmares. Once in a while we get to listen kids bubbling under. Sometimes  we ignore because hey, the music just isnt good enough, sometimes its so bad we give the artistes feedback and we don’t bother everyone else with its because hey… that’s what we do. Then sometimes, we get to hear potential, some guys might not be crazy dope yet but they would have made an impression.

Some heads are also for the opinion that this kid is a young and good find

Rookie season, we decided to present to you Tha M.I.ND with what his autobiography calls a classic underground effort.  The mixtape is something that is refreshing mostly because it really as they say on the auto non bubble gum hip hop.

Loss Inspired Music (Uncle Jayden)

He seemed to talk about him a lot on almost the whole first half of the mixtape. It almost sounded like a United States story as there was a lot of talk about guns (and their types too). We don’t know how many gun slinging gangs exist in Chitungwiza but it made for good songs

Some songs sound good until…

Heroes die,  but legends live forever, I’m the last of my species I am basically Denver”(see that Denver the last dinosaur”). What sucks is that on the same song with a heavy beat he allows features  to go on it although they are slightly off beat and unfortunately have grammatically not so proficient  lines like “move 0 to a hundred in the speed of a light” Now, you may think we are being mean for calling out rappers on chopping English but if you are going to rap in French, might as well rap in it correctly.

Xndr Broke the Poor boys heart

“All that mattered was a deal and a label but still life aint fair/ Coz Bryce and Xndr simply told me that none did care”

Team Rehab boss must’ve been mentioned in three different songs and he was probably  unimpressed by  the lyricist when the artiste was looking to be signed. We think it was a blessing in disguise for him because we don’t think Team Rehab are all about talking conscious music. Brisky the medicine (coz they only sign you if you are sick.. they say) then signed him and then they lived Happily ever after.

He is Smart

Structures on some of his songs are way above his age such as the choice of his beats and how he does his choruses for an example on the ‘’Tha M.I.N.D is back”. We applaud it because some artistes don’t seem to care about that type of artistry these days. Least of all in Hip Hop. Some truth telling too. Articulation of some really serious issues in some of his songs was also commendable. Take his opinion on the death of Local Hip Hop,  “no more Anonzi Xndr everyone be on PTK’’ Or  I am not in any position to comment on the game / but the award shows didn’t get me thinking the same/ I wont be hurt if this  project  wont get an award/  coz being compared to the lame wont make a nigga any proud.’’

Essentially, Tha Mind is a poet/rapper and he is not afraid to talk about some really tongue in cheek issues like racism and stuff. There are a

It’s a shame we can almost predict that some people won’t get past the first song because he doesn’t have an uptown accent.  Yes, we aren’t afraid to say that some people can’t stand it when you pronounce ‘’best’’ as ‘’burst’’ . If you arent one of them, go ahead and get his first offering here

Aaaaand if you want to get more Hip Hop and music news from Zim, click here!

New ZaaNgoma Show: Hope for Zim Hip Hop

Some time in the past week a friend of ours brought to our attention to a YouTube video and said nothing except that we would love it. so we followed the link and it took us to an episode of the new show "ZaaNgoma", a show that from what we saw has been put in place to uplift our local hip hop. A good move we would say, hey, the blogs can only go so far and with every other young Zim industry having Vlogs why should we have been the last to follow suit? 

The initiative will bring lots of opportunities for young Zimbabweans to get involved and show us their Talents. the show obviously has a bright future ahead ; with Begotten Sun in their pilot episode there is no bigger endorsement for a movement that is meant to help Zim hip hop among other things.The Show with its good quality and Talented presenters who are directly involved in the Hip hop industry will soon grow and become something everyone looks forward to and all artists want to be on. Its very helpful because as far as artists go it is a good way to hear the views of bigger artists in terms of the music reviews and the focus on song concepts; it may even be able to drive content in a certain direction.

So we thought we would give our thoughts on the first episode, cause that's really what we do here... inform and critique so that things get better. Its not only enough to have a show, we want it to be high quality as well.

We managed to get a brief description about the show via a friend who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy...you get it right?

Zaangoma is a Zimbabwean urban culture television show with an African flavor.
The core idea is behind the show is to provide viewers with up to date gist of what is trending around the African entertainment scene. As well as cover a culture which is proving to be increasingly popular amongst the African youth, Hip Hop.
Zaangoma is a vibrant show, full of life. To comprehend this energy, they have enlisted young talents Tadiwa, McPotar and Sharky as presenters

Behind the scenes we have a team of 8 people led by the show's director and producer Quinton Mutsinze of Quence. Motion, Micheal Mupotaringa, Tadiwa Chimbodza, Raymond Sibanda, Young Nags, Russell and Marshall Muchenje as well as Leroy Dzenga.

Zaangoma is brought to you as a result of a collaborative effort by the following new media entities Quence Motion, Maison De Rouge, Olova Music, www.mcpotar.com and The Hitmen Studios.

One thing is for sure that partnership there looks like a productive one that will bring us the best music from around the country. A highly Talented Video director and producer in Quence.Motion, Michael Mupotaringa the winner of ZHHA best Online Media 2014, music producer Raymond Sibanda and writer Leroy Dzenga among others. With that line up, it is almost a guarantee that the Show will be a success and will provide us with the entertainment that Zbc deprives us and DSTv ignores...Zimbabwean entertainment.

Our Fears 

1. Consistency - as viewers we obviously want to be guaranteed that we will have this show regularly. this is especially because there are things happening in entertainment every week and we dont want a show with stale or irrelevant news. the guys from ZaaNgoma have evaded this by not promising when another episode will come out. we just hope its not in half a year.
2. Nepotism - This is something that may happen if they keep playing around and getting their content from the sources that are the partners. It is the potential risk (to us viewers) that they will keep piling music from their partners on us...and that wont be good. we the viewers will demand *Juju voice right here* a fresh show with the best music only, not artists that are easy for them to reach. That way their show will grow.

Where They are Going Wrong So Far

1. Congestion - Ok, as with everything else this purely our view, some may not mind. We feel the Show, is in the episode itself is congested visually. There is too much happening on the screen at the same time...the whole time. Honestly, Quence.Motion are obviously a very talented team that can do great things graphically, but too often we felt like they were trying to show us all they can do - in a single episode. Felt like we were watching a portfolio for a very good video graphics dude. It made it hard to focus on the content of the show...then when we were watching for the third time to get the actual content we were stuck between "do we read all the stuff on the screen (and it kept coming) or do we listen to Bsun, McPotar and Sharky. 
2. It was too short - We have been asking around and gratefully we are not the only ones who felt this way. the episode is 7 minutes (a Justin Timberlake video for one song) and there isn't enough time, we feel, to achieve their goal effectively. everything zoomed past so fast and even after we had watched it a couple of times we had a hard time remembering anything, the information felt like it was super compressed, nothing in depth. Felt like we watched the trailer to the episode

As always, you know these are nothing but the ramblings of madmen,we just enjoy speaking our view. its not law, but please go have a peek at the episode and share with us. Hip Hop and Zim urban culture as a whole needed something like this. This is great!

why do you watch it from the link below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvgiW-QGMD4

don't forget to always

Push.Ur.Sound.Hard [P.U.S.H]

WHY YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO B.A.E & LOVE TRIANGLES: RAP LOVE SONGS

It seems like this year will have some variety after all, that and a lot of lady snatching. Last week and a day ago Alpha Centauri and FTR respectively dropped love jams. Not quite love as both of them dwell on the forbidden nature of it all. So since some people had gotten used to turn up turn up jams with the incentive being their ability to make rumps move, here is we think you should have these heart moving jams

Side guy emotions explained

We are absolutely thrilled to find that the two songs essentially put into words, feelings behind two sides of the coin of guys dipping their fingers in somebody else's honey pot! Or hands in another brother’s cookie jar (whatever works). Alpha Centauri explores the  "I want to steal your girl", side of it. In his release statement he says

...This song is about a “situationship where a guy falls for another man’s girl. The girl seems interested and leads him to a point where he develops genuine feelings for her and is willing to fight to make her his girl. However, her previous relationship remains intact and since he is ready to put her first he wants to know if she is willing to put him “before anybody else"...

 Yeap, he is that punk all boyfriends dread. FTR's on the other hand is the punk people would kill (nudge nudge wink wink) because he is pretty much sleeping with someone’s woman. Top it all off, the girl likes it! The reason why we had such detail is that, THEY BROUGHT IT OUT WELL. Lots of rappers don’t go that descriptive anymore but it seems like all it took was being side guys to make it happen. Thank you!

The productions are on point!

Let’s start with Love Triangles this time. Noone doubts the productions of Blow Hard Records (eish the name though)... However the quality of productions can often be judged better when we strip down all those loud 808's, MMG type bass lines and just noise. They showed us that they are very capable of making a really dope love jam. We heard Alpha Centauri's previous album. He has the type of music which hinges on complex harmonies and pseudo futuristic patterns. Mastering and overall production of music aren’t things that are difficult for him and his team. This type of sound is his home ground so obviously no problems there.

Structure and stuff

The name of the song to begin with BAE (Before Anybody Else), sweet stuff innit! The two verses on this song of some-o-pure sob story tale (it’s a good one, the type rom coms are made of) are simple to follow, the second being the more “getting out of the friendzone” determination packed one. On Love Triangles, Its pretty intense too coz its FTR telling off the girl that he don’t want her no more (hit and run will ya?), Chorus, then Tru North crying for more, man! Dee girls aint loyal though! You know why we getting emotional, it’s because they wrote them well!

Samples and Features

Former Major playaz R & B specialist Chyllur drops a really cool mellowed down chorus for us and Surprise surprise, an unknown but really pleasure to hear girl rapping, Tru North does the second verse. Introduction into the game? We hope so!  Samples can be hard to deal with, where to use them, how to use them? On BAE, Alpha rides on the instrumental with them placed appropriately in the background. Using the right ones to go with his subject matter made something difficult look easy...

Bars, Lyrics…

“Who could plan to trip and fall and still know where to stand” Alpha Centauri

"to me you a scheming devious, minor/ messing with me major/ ..” see what FTR did there

“The grass is greener till you water your own/ so when u call me your queen I know your bed is my throne” Tru North (we heard the lyrics, he ain't call you no queen, he said you devious!!)

This and more is all why we think these songs are worth downloading and listening too! So get Alpha Centauri’s BAE over on this link and FTR featuring Chyllur and Tru Norths Love Triangle over here!

But all this might just be us saying things, heres where you can get more that we say

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