With one award already in hand, and two
nominations this year, we just couldn’t ignore the rapper who first got us Baba
Shupi, who was the best promoter of hip hop a year back, who has featured with
some of the best artists in Zimbabwe from MC Chita to Mariachi. Dizzy Don
stands as one of those Zim Artists who will dare to do the seemingly impossible
to get the job done, even if it means travelling halfway across the SADC region
to make an album, which is exactly what he did with the album of the year
nomination “The Maps”. The front cover of the album has caricature image of the
rapper himself standing right on top of the map of Africa, microphone in hand
with the cable stretching from Cape to Cairo in the proverbial Cecil John
Rhodes kind of way. (History Students will understand the significance). Fresh
from the release of his new vid “How to spend a milli” featuring Msheznana from
Bulawayo (watch it), we caught up with Dizzy Don (DD) and had a one on one.
PUSH: “The Maps”, How did it come
to being?
DD: I view myself as a fan of music more than I am a musician in my own
right. So you find that with this album, I attempted to get into studio with
musicians that I considered great, thus the extensive collaboration list. After
realising how far out these peeps were spread not only in musical style but
geographically (Zim, Bots, SA, Malawi), I realised that I’d have to travel
across the “MAP” to do it. Also, my real name is Donald Maphosa and one of my
nick names being Maps, it just went down well as an album title.
PUSH:
How many countries did you have to go to go through to get it done and which
artists from these countries did you work with?
DD: Including Zimbabwe, for
Botswana, Liefy Jones, for South Africa, Numi and Wiely Jeans ( SoS are a South
African Group but I recorded with them when they were up here for the Africa
Hip Hop Caravan). I also worked with Dan Lu from Malawi
PUSH:
You are not
new to award to award nomination. You actually have won before. What do you
think stands out so much about your album that makes it deserve to be one of
the nominations for album of the year this year?
DD: I will not say it deserves to win because that will be a comparative
statement versus everybody in the same category as me. What I feel it does
deserves is to be listened to coz hapana
bhama rakaita sairo. Hip Hop is self-expression and to compare my
expression of self to someone else’s expression of self isn’t fair. But I do
still cross fingers that I win only coz I could do with the increased reach
that comes with the publicity associated with winners.
PUSH:
Awesome, as for ‘Wapamthima’, Talk us
through the shooting process and how that happened
DD: My biggest strength in life is my ability to network and knowing
that I cannot do anything alone. Once I set my sights on doing music outside
Zimbabwe, I consulted one man who is best at it, Elton Bryce. I simply asked
him to deliver the best Malawian singer that I could work with. He made the link and he found me Dan Lu. We
talked and planned over the phone basically planning the move and the concepts
in the separate countries. Demos were made and by the time Bryce and I left the
country for Blantyre, I knew I was going to record. So over the next 5 days we
recorded and put in our finishing touches, got joined by the video maker
Chipiliro Konje, drove down to lake Malawi performed the song on Dan Lu’s slot
at the Sun Lake Festival sharing the stage with Malawi’s Lucious Banda and SA’s
Proffessor. We then shot the next day, Beautiful place, beautiful people, I
learnt a lot and made valuable connections. I think the song/video speaks for
itself in terms of quality.
PUSH:
So going on to next year, whats going on for Dizzy Don?
DD: Ok, I have many a plan. There is a project coming soon probably
before February called “The Experiment”, It’s my interpretation of alternative
Hip Hop and all I can promise is its going to be crazy! I also have begun diversifying
my business so expect some releases from my Man Made Music Label from other artists. I also will put in a lot
of work in bringing unknown talent to the fore front as I have always done.
PUSH:
Just to wrap up, where can people get your music, vids and projects?
DD: Google play, ITunes, Tavoom, to name a few online stores that carry
my material. Physically come through to Rhymez I Wrote shop at 70 Selous,
Harare where I sell my music together with other peoples music. My website will
have links to all this plus my free mixtape material DizzyDon.co.zw. ( the site will be online next week, its
currently being revamped) Follow me on twitter @Dizzyzw and on Facebook, Dizzy
Don Maphosa
PUSH:
Thanks Dizzy and good luck at the awards.
PUSH.
No comments:
Post a Comment