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

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

Or just follow us on twitter @pushzw or like our page on Facebook here

MIX-TAPE KING COURTNEY ANTIPAS DROPS EP :LWSOM Vol 2 REVIEW

We have always maintained that sometimes, the results of the Zim Hip Hop awards are far from pleasing; this isn’t any further from the truth with regards to Gospel hip hop categories. In the class Hip Hop Courtney Antipas formerly known as Illceey easily makes it to the top of our list. Actually, even when we take him out of the bracket of Gospel Hip Hop, Courtney Antipas easily surpasses a majority of Zim Rappers. (Tell em I said that!). Last week, Courtney dropped LIVE WISE STATE OF MIND Volume 2, here is our song by song review

Intro (reflection)

The moment we heard the jazzy, old soul kind of strings that Courtney chose to use (instead of some loud, bang clang, get our attention type intro), we immediately knew that it was no rookie material. The one minute forty second long intro seems to be a poetic recital, essentially an exposé on society’s hypocritical nature to choose the easy way out, i.e., lies, money, prosperity gospel etc. Ends with a bold affirmation of his resolve

Tha Blood

“All about the blood like we gang bangin”, like whaaaat? Did he just say that on a gospel song? Yep, that’s the type of chorus you can expect from Courtney.  It’s one thing to master the craft of creating punchlines, however, one needs to understand that it gets harder to craft them within the confines of Gospel rap without sounding Bible Bashy (annoyingly preachy with a hint of prejudicial judging). With Courtney Antipas though, the lines have detail that connect to the world outside the church but relating to the source of his content (bible), for an example, “the old rugged cross more than just a chain hangin” see that? Jesus pieces? Old rugged cross? Connect it makes sense right! The song follows a dancy type of new school trap type music. The bass isn’t too loud which might bum some out but it’s still good!

Forever Girl

This is a love song, straight up love song. The song features Prayer Soul who does an excellent job at singing the chorus and backing the whole thing up. The song is a sharp comparison to the love longs we have in rap music which mostly center on the sexual objectification of the women. This one pretty much places the wifey-material girl on a pedestal rather than the size if her bottom, the fairness of her skin or the fact that she can twerk.  Besides it being on the surface, the expression of love and praise to the ideal girl, it’s really Courtney Antipas talking about how men should treat women and vice versa i.e. “the best thing I ever did? Put a ring on her”, marriage, or “so when them other shawties step to me, I be like I got my girl with me” faithfulness.

NOMB (None Of My Business)

He has no kind words for floss or brag rap at all. This song will probably be a favourite for many, up tempo, loud and it packs a direct message at ignorant, materialistic rap music. The structuring of the lines have him switch styles and patterns in each verse. We liked how he would change pace depending on the variations of the instrumental.  It’s that song that you can do that Yeezy “N***as in Paris” dance. Basically the song says, “ stop talking about the stuff that you have because its none of my business” We had it on repeat. The song ends with an out of breath Courtney closing up a set explaining what’s really important.

Where I’m going

The sombre atmosphere created by this song is overwhelming.  The first verse is an honest admission of how any rap artist in Africa must feel. The truth behind the picture of how he feels in this song is so clearly explained that you understand the struggle of being an artist in a world that doesn't appreciate it. The subject matter isn’t new from Hip Hop. “Will I get Paid” by Dizzy Don, “Angels Say” by Tehn Diamond (sort of), “Munodei” by MMT all carry similar messages. However, the Courtney Antipas one targets the pain to a prayer, “all I know is I need you Lord to show me the right way”. The second verse is filled with sadder undercurrents, (some really tear jerking stuff). It’s the reality that in Zimbabwe, It’s still almost impossible to live on rap music and that really sucks. It’s a very open and transparent song/ prayer for direction, protection and strength.

Penga Tione

On a mostly dub-step beat, this is a, for-lack-of-a-better-phrase “Turn up” song, of course all in the context of the associated spiritual subject matter. It features J-Bars who delivers brilliantly on the song.  Probably targeting critics who downplay the radical methods of expression of praise to Christian deity, the song encourages living differently in the midst of being called crazy.

Overview

So why would we call him the King of Mixtapes? Check his repertoire! Courtney Antipas has been for years delivering fully packages mixtapes and EP’s that have seen him tour with some of the worlds and regions finest rappers! Your average MC hasn’t seen past your cities toll gate with his half- baked album.

To the EP itself, Live Wise State of Mind Vol 2, now takes the best EP this year (for us) joining the  Cutfface EP (Back 2 Basics) which dropped earlier this year. To begin with LWSOM Vol 2, has a bit of everything all in the context of the title. The two features don’t mess the project up, the production is good but what’s most impressive is the delivery on each song. Every song here besides the first and last one have very distinct and different messages. They were well addressed and articulated. While most Hip Hop artists may be able to write a song, some don’t know which beats to choose for that song, which tone to use on that song or who to feature on the song. Courtney Antipas has mastered that art well, changing the way he sounds with the song and not being monotonous as the EP goes.

It seems like he has a thing against prosperity gospel rappers though, if only it were possible to know who they were…

Any bad sides, well, its short, but it is an EP, we shall not complain. Get the LIVE WISE STATE OF

 MIND Volume 2 here or stream and download it from this link 

You think this is all nonsense, read more of beautiful nonsense from  PUSH OVER HERE or just follow us on twitter @PUSHZW

NEW ALBUM + REVIEW : WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

We have been waiting for it, now it’s here. The rap trio, The Art Departments, “While You Were Sleeping” album is out now! You see, when you go out and say that the industry has been sleeping on you and you offer the industry an album, you have to show us that we were wrong for sleeping on you. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to have the album for over a weekend and as it drops, here’s what we thought about it.

The album starts off with an intro that summarises pretty much all the songs on the album, but it’s not one of those intros we can say a whole looot about, let’s go to the first song.

Bang:

This song was the official second single from their album. The instrumental was appropriate for the song. We won’t say much about this one, because we already talked about it here

For The Money

It’s that song that has never ceasing affirmation of what rappers/ hustlers/ anyone really will do to get money. Only this one was more centred on them. The flows switching content slightly between first, second and third verse, Tone LakeSide on that gotta grow up tip, the second was on the more retrospective of how irrelevant Illsicker was before and the third being about what we do for the money, “sell a shirt for $3.00” anything but selling cough mixture hopefully. Veiltorn laid a beat that people could dance to, not full out shake it but move to slightly.

Ride with us

This was the introduction we got to the Art Department. The PHD produced and Alaina featured song as explained in one our blogs is really a “we will have the last laugh” typa jam. Message to the unbelievers of the crew that they are “fly with the Desert Eagles”.. well, we get the message fellas, you have guns and you don’t want us to ride with you. The feeling of being underrated is one that most rappers in Zim and albeit, the world over have, however not most of them can put the words in song and bring it out properly. The Art Department did a good job at this. Alaina was great on the chorus vocally but we think a lot more could’ve been done there in terms of the wording.

Drunk in The Morning

This song excludes Navy Seal. The beat is not vicious or hard so much that you nod so hard your neck hurts or anything. BUT, the title of the song and the content are misleading. One would think “Drunk in the morning” would have more to do with being drunk in the morning, e.g, we were partying all night and woke up drunk in the morning, but more than anything  else they were talking about the city having their backs or yes again, getting money (it would be hard to get money if you are drunk in the morning to be honest, unless of course you drink for a living). The good thing is the delivery of the verses was top notch but it’s one of those songs which leave you thinking “so what are these guys really saying because we don’t see the connection between the phrase “drunk in the morning” and the song itself…except on the chorus.

All night

Once this song goes on, you magically turn the volume up and get a head dance going. Navy Seal starts it off like he was born with the beat on his tongue! The synthesiser effects that jump in mid verse make you wonder who the hell produced such artistry! Good thing we have the answer, PHD! By that time, you are in the chorus which sounds oh so delectable, Rob Illsicker takes over, more effects are added as he murders the second verse like Navy did in the first. The song is a party jam straight from 2003! As the third verse starts, some effects are removed, we get a closer feel of Tone Lakeside who like the first two verse owners kills it with finesse. The song is so good Navy comes back with a bridge like thing and magically, you press replay. WHAT MORE CAN WE SAY!

Dreams of a man

After “All night” the feel of this song sobers us up. “Dreams of a man” sounds like a more mature, poetic, real and honest version of “For the money”. Robbie to us had the verse which we feel stood out, the word play and how he just carries the mood of the song without the usual rap “the more that I get colder the more I write again, the more that I feel lonely , the more I can hold this mic again” , something really special about the verse. If one thought that these guys weren’t lyrical, it’s the song that shows you that they are.

Cooling Off

The reason why this song is good is really because you just can’t find anything wrong with it, NOTHING! It was not made for radio exactly but it would still be good for radio. It’s a drink in cup song or driving home from a lit situation type of song. The really lovely bit of the song is that it was produced by PHD who produced the two songs before this one on the track list. The guy is versatile. It might not be played like “All Night” but it will probably never leave your play list. “ you know we international, the flow is metaphysic” If this was a play on words with the name of  the diaspora legend MC Metaphysics then… good one Navy

Bring it Back

Navy seal goes solo on this TR Hitz produced song. Like “All night” it’s straight out of the early-mid two thousands. You immediately confirm that Navy Seal was probably influenced by Aftermath/ G Unit / Dr Dre sound. The awesome thing about it all is that he left the song in a body bag. We think it’s one of the best songs on the album. Party jam but it still packs a major gangster punch.

Set It Off

“Beats I am f**king the beats up, means I am leaving em pregnant, which means you gotta get these f**king beats some contraceptive”

This is a straight up street, gangster rap sounding; take no prisoners, ME AND MY CREW ARE BETTER THAN YOUR CREW type of song. First Class showed us why he is named that way. We thought this song was a killer till we heard the third verse, after that we had no words, just listen to it.

Like This

Braggadocio flows, The song seems to be supposed to get our hands up but, with the current way in which turn up songs are done, it might not be the most possible thing to do with the song. Not too much stands out about the song. it’s a good song. It doesn’t hold a candle to some of the better moments on the album.

Top of the World

This track is a motivational song. “why fly when you can walk on water”, it’s all about being on the top of the world without the fear of falling. The mellow nature of the song and the message behind it merge to take the message through to the listener. It was a good way to close the album. It has a good balance content wise, a more intimate and honest version of the come up of the crew. The Grind continues

The Over view

This collaborative effort was a success. The Art Department have excellent synergy, their articulation of their manner was well presented. They don’t sound like they are confused about what sound they want to present or what they are associated with. There is an undeniable American Hip Hop from the peak of the 50 Cent, G- Unit era influence in this album. Strong hints of Aftermath type Dr Dre, 2002-2006 type of hip hop are underlying characteristics of their music. These are especially apparent in “All Night” and “Bring it back.

Question is, is there a problem with it all? Most Zimbabwean MC’s are looking hard for the next exclusively Zim sound? There is this “originality” thing that Zim rappers have been told to look for but in the case of the Art Department, they seem to have taken all that and flushed it down the toilet. When you listen to the album again and again (like we did) you see as Navy says, that they make music for real G’s, that he will still wear Timberland boots to church. THEY DON’T WANT TO SOUND ALL VERNAC OR ZIMBO LIKE. We think that it was a bold approach and they nailed it. Their choice in words, phrases, metaphors and similes really sound like they are from some neighbourhood in New York but for some strange reason, it’s not irritating, it’s really good.

One thing that we noticed is that in as much as the songs are different, they all pretty much talk about the same thing, “I am outchea hustling, tryna get paid, don’t mess with my crew,” and repeat. We were not going to let them go especially with “Drunk in the morning”. The album is pretty long too, slightly monotonous sometimes mostly because of the content. The other noticeable (could be) flaw is that, unless you listen to the whole album at least three times, you might have a hard time picking out which one is Rob Illsicker, which one is Tone Lakeside, you might just hear  Navy Seal because of a slightly different voice and style. Our issue here is that, they all have the same style. Compare this with other groups, say G- Unit or MMT, their individual differences in style make us anticipate what X will rap like in the next song, as in say, at the beginning of the song when the beat drops, it’s a healthy thing to always be prompted to have a , “I wonder what Tone Lakeside will sound like on this beat”. However, because of their similarity, we can kind of predict what will happen.

The Art Department have songs that are nicely cleaned out, mastered, flawless in delivery. There aren’t any words out of place, the instrumentals are balanced perfectly, chosen appropriately for their content and just sound beautifully mastered. They are disciplined in their approach; one can tell that they put a lot of thought in this project. They respected the art and the producers didn’t give them a shoddy job of it. We have nothing but praise for the technical team, the producers of the song, the ones who arranged the songs and the artwork. The only feature on the song, Alaina, didn’t do a bad job either and we hope to see the visuals of some of the songs.

In conclusion, this album has brought a sound which we had missed from Hip Hop in general. We are so used to the trappy DJ Mustard sounds, loud bass, ear tearing beats or slightly pop going Nigeria records where men dance but these guys kept the G in HIP HOP. They stuck with the theme and truth be told, we have been sleeping on them.

You don’t have to take our word, just download the album here and see if we are calling a bluff or we are PUSHING THE SOUND HARD.

Rating 3.5/5

RUN 263 Returns + Karma's Run From Me [Watch Video]

 Everyone I’m sure remembers the year when the Run 263 looked to be the biggest Hip Hop Associated apparel on the market. If we could pick an MVP for the Hip Hp game that year it would have been the Quinton McVandal (QMCV) label Run 263. The only sad thing about that year is well, we’re sure our tees got lost in the mail…they will explain themselves.

These guys were surely part of the pioneering clothing lines to be associated with ZimHipHop, something that has become normal now in 2015. Needless to say, their disappearance from the game was note, the gap was there, And we hadn’t gotten our tees!!

In the wake of the sudden passing on of co-founder of QMCV apparel, Michael “MyKol Riley “ Mupeti, changes and developments had to be made to fill void left by the co-visionary and creative force of the company. Some of you may be aware that some time last year the industry lost the young but Talented Rapper cum graphic designer Mykol Riley (who had designed multiple award nominated artworks) to a car accident. Understandably, the QMCV team seemed to have been at a loss after this loss and had to hit the drawing board. It took quite a while but founder Panashe 'Arcane' Madziva has promised that those loyal to the brand that they will not disappointed.(Nigga, where our tees at though??!!)

QMCV Apparel, after this rather lengthy hiatus, brought back their signature RUN 263 range in early January, in what promises to have set the tone for another great year for the brand. QMCV has shown us in the past that they have great work rate and their love for hip hop always makes sure that their influence on the industry doesn’t go unnoticed. This can easily be seen in the way they chose to return to the game.

In early January, QMCV Apparel teamed up Mix Masterz' artist Karma & Rebel TV to made a video for the somewhat controversial song Run From Me (Run Jozi Remix) which went online on the 3rd of February. This promises to be the first of many videos made by QMCV Apparel to both advertise their products and promote Zimbabwean Hip Hop on a mass scale through cutting edge visuals, which is something they see as lacking in the local hip hop community, as it (QMCV Apparel) is a hip hop based and inspired brand. With the promise of more RUN 263 merchandise and more designs in the works, this is looking to be a good year for the clothing company.

Karma as always kills it on the Run Jozi instrumental, we're quite sure heads are gonna turn on this one. the video itself was well done and we heard some news of some developments on that front, but that's a story for another day. watch the video below:

We know just like us you like the idea of wearing local…so let’s not just wear local, let’s wear Local Hip Hop.

For more information, visit the RUN 263/Quinton McVandal Apparel pages on Facebook & @qmcv_apparel on Twitter.

Don’t forget to Push.Ur.Sound.Hard [P.U.S.H]

Valentines Season RnB: Mik & Mile - Like Oooh [NEW VIDEO!!]

2015 has started on a very hectic tip, artists have been churning videos out non - stop. so much so, we are having a hard time keeping up. The song Like Ooh is one we got to hear some time last year and we couldn't resist but write an article on the young man Mik when we found out it was part of his Ep titled The Listen Ep; mostly produced by Team Rehab Anonzi Xndr and Delani Makhalima. Like Ooh was produce by Anonzi Xndr.

Before we go any further, if you haven't heard this song and you think there is no young RnB in Zimbabwe, you have clearly been looking in the wrong places. a sound like this one is truly refreshing in a country where good singers either end up in urban grooves or are forced to go the Jazz path so that they are more "marketable" as brands. these young boys have come out giving us a sound that is pure RnB and wow, they do it quite well. these two are very talented, great voices that make you wonder where they were when we had to listen to Pax Afro and Slice? why the people who go to Start Brite think they can sing when there is talent like this? and who on earth is deciding what gets played at radio stations if they are not playing this?

Our advice from here on is two pronged: ladies, don't watch this with your man or he will catch you dreamily looking at these two boys with their "I-can-dance-but-I-wont-all-out-dance" moves; guys, download the song for her (valentines package), watch the video and learns some moves on swooping in on those girls.

The video was shot in good quality and was well scripted; the song is appreciative of a girl, and how some girls just get you feeling some typa way. We're glad Mik and Mile didn't cramp the video with an attempt at putting a long winding story-line into it. you can tell they put time into and it wasn't a rushed project with the different shots in it. We were at a 50-50 split on deciding on the indoor shots but they were quite nice; the natural feel of the quality then brings a certain realism to the shots and you can appreciate the cuteness of time spent fooling around with your girl indoors, makes you forget that its acting. The garden scenes during the Mile verse proved for an environment fitting of the lyrics and what he was saying to the girl.

Now as PUSHzw we are dedicating this small paragraph to the beautiful ladies in the video. That is all.

Love songs are a difficult area to write for and do videos for because its very difficult to escape "cheesy", we would like to applaud these gentlemen for the fine effort and not at any point making us feel like it was cheesy. If it had been another NSSA house shot video ka! Its really nice to be able to see local videos that we aren't embarrassed to share with our snobby friends who think local is always hideous!

Okay you can watch the Video below and tell us what you think

As usual its us, your favorite Know-it-all bloggers, please remember to

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

...and follow us on twitter @pushzw and like our Facebook Page PUSHzw(notice how we didnt say 'please'?)

Mik - @hypemik

Mile - @263Mile 

VIDEOS: TAMBISA VS SKUBU :WE BREAK IT DOWN (watch vids here)

This year has started with a lot of videos dropping, and the videos haven’t disappointed as well. Last week or so, we had #Mushikashika dropping and a lot of people received it well. These past couple of days, there has been some buzz over two videos, the official Tkae Chidz, “Skubu”, video and even more recently, award winning song by Tricky J, “Tambisa”. So whats with us pitting them against each other? Firstly, they all are pretty much similar, they both sound like spin offs from Peekay and Baba Shupi’s Ma1, they are both clubby, dancy, rump shaking (just check the videos) and both have videos better than Ma1’s video. Suffice to say, even Skubu artist made a comment on the social contention on which video is better,

So, here's our comment

If an advanced video has visual images that demonstrate an excellent relevance to the music and/or lyrics, or tells a story which follows the music and also that the lip synching/singing throughout appropriate increments during the video is performed in a professional manner that demonstrates comprehension of the lyrics, then “Tambisa” takes it. I mean the song is called “Tambisa Dako” meaning “make your butt dance” then well.. we had a enough of that in the video. Skubu, an ode Harare night life with particular reference to the dopest spots in the city, yes, we did see the change in venues which was well thought out and everything but hey, Tambisa had a better performance of it all. You have to admit that the dancer on Skubu had a variety of dances though… great stuff.

Both videos had a strong link to the objective of their message and the interpretation of that message to the video. Draw there…

What of the concept and development? Well, we had a cheeky but funny take on housemaid and employee situation going on running parallel to the dancing and rapping on the Tambisa video, then on SKUBU, we had the really good dancer babe, going really personal with TK, running parallel to the clubs shots with a healthy number of cameos and appearances (know your celebs people!!). both healthy concepts but if you look at the “Zvirinani” video directed by Chris Shoca and compare it with the SKUBU one that he also directed, then you see the similarity and might get bummed by the lack of variety he shows as a director, the white background… Come on guys! Agaaain! The visual interpretation on Tambisa showed an outstanding skill, showing some imagination and creativity in content and production techniques. In terms of superiority over SKUBU in an attempt to create a product that shows originality, well, we have seen that type of video many times before so, they are at par.

Finally, the technical bit, creative use of Lighting, audio balance, camera work , shots and angles that could provide impact if the editing used enhanced message, the graphics/titles. You know! Both videos have an acceptable video quality, Its always good to see different squads endorsing each other, that’s rare in this world full of...erm what do the rappers call it? yes, Hate. it was nice seeing Team Bhoo merchandise in a song that’s not theirs, nice move guys. Skubu did try to show the club hopping that's in the hook and the Tambisa boys surely put in a lot of work. We didn’t quite like the @[place-twitterhandles-here] that was going on, on the Tambisa video but the props, the dancing, shots and set on this one outclassed the ones on Skubu. This didn’t make the Skubu video bad, NO, it just made them superior to Tkae Chidz and squad. Hell, someone take us to Tricky J, we wanna know where that alley type set is.

Final verdict, both videos were crazy amazing, it’s a good way to start the year. However, “Tambisa” by Tricky J had a better video, not necessarily a better song but a better video. Actually, we wonder what the crowds who booed Tricky J’s particularly the gentleman who gave this irritated look, “who is Tricky J any way” look when he announced Tambisa as the people’s choice award winning song would say now.  

Hey, that’s just our opinion, we are just gonna track the views while you...check the vids out here

 Besides...who says the guys from PushZw know what they're talking about? this year's videos are on fire..this is proof
 #Tambisa

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtU3MWq7Pc

#Skubu

Skubu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQqvN0pH_pA

Cutfface EP (Back 2 Basics) : REVIEW

When local hip hop began to be taken seriously, there was a balance between party jams and some of the more conventional thought provoking (sometimes slightly ignorant) joints that one couldn’t listen to with a silly smile on their faces, we liked that. We have been waiting for this one for the past five years or so. The last we heard of the two as a duo was “Findi” featuring Junior Brown. Dark Face and MC Cut have been an act since way before MMT, dropping remixes for tracks like “Spot light” by the girl group Ammunition and “Nerudo” by Cindy.

The projects opens up with a nicely cleaned up “Can you believe this” featuring Tinashe Makura. Smart opening to the EP as it is easy on the ear, “still got more verses than the kids up at Sunday School”. Dark Face’s verse on this one was a little less theatrical with more serious undertones than witty bars.

The second song on the EP is a Cypha. The beat was killer “if you cant nod to this one then you have no business listening to Hip Hop”. Chita, McKnife, award winning Tricky J, Young Nash, Prometheus feature on the song. Like any cypha, people always ask “who killed it” and our answer is… download it here and you tell us.

Oh yes, Tehn Diamond is also on the EP, I guess if you had been team [place name here], you have to deal with the “working together” vibe this year. Crimson blue sings to the chorus on “Thank you”. Tehn Diamond on this song sounds like why we liked him in the first place that “SOTG3” sounding Tehn. The song sends gratitude to all those to who have been vibing it to them “you are welcome guys”.

You can do it, If you have a younger sibling, take a second to play this song for them. On this Farida Caprice featured song, they really play the mentor role (straight up life coach type of song), and by that we mean REALLY MENTOR! We like it, it’s almost like that “I can” song by Nas. So the basic message is, stay in school.

The last song has a more uppy beat, (mean mug and tell em to go to hell… or school like the previous song said). Trae Yung opens up the song, passes it to Cut “I gotta keep it coming like a porno star” erh em… I guess, they are really going in.

Verdict?

We have always been fans of the duo, MC CUT and Dark Face, they are very different, where MC Cut shines with a higher pitched voice and clever punchlines, Dark face backs up with a heavy set street voice and presence. It’s a good pair. Unlike most of the music that’s called Hip Hop these days, this EP probably isn’t for those who don’t like Hip Hop in its raw state. It might not be Wu Tang Clan or Crook Ave but it definitely isn’t Young Thug or “Zunguza”. We got to talk to MC Cut and he explained that, Hip Hop has to get back to “spittin”, the art, when music speaks for itself and not the hashtags or little meaningless arguments. The three producers, Russell G, Xndr and YoungNash who worked on the music did a good job, but that’s our opinion, download and listen to the Cutfface EP (Back2Basics) here

 OH yah.. did we mention that there is hardly any vernacular.. just saying..

@pushzw

#Mushikashika (Ghetto Life) Sets The Bar High For 2015 Videos (watch Video here)

the artwork for #Mushikashika

“Porisi nekanzuru zvakadzvanyaaaaaa”

Kombi surfing?

A week or so back we had a track sent to us, we had seen it’s hype doing the rounds on social media and we was like “hmmmmmmmm, Mushikashika, wonder what this will be about.” Mushikashika (Ghetto Life) is a track by NickBwai that features Cuttybeats, Zarzu, Vito and Gfingers, produced by CuttyBeats who co – produced Junior Brown’s#Maria. If there is something we have learnt from listening to CuttyBeatsproduced songs it’s that there is a certain richness and clarity in the sound that he produces; clean music without too much going on. In our books, he deserves to be rated up there with some of the local big guys.

The song looks into the life of every working and or non working Zimbo out there, talking about how we all have the different goals we are chasing and different means we are using to get there. #Mushikashika talks about the struggle for those in search of money, trying to make a living. Not just the usual rapper “I’m out here in the streets chasing paper, making records for my fans” struggle. These guys talked about everyone’s struggle from the airtime dude to the CD dudes who make sure none of our artists get an income… all of them. The instrumental is awesome, with a guitar riff that has a sound that will have you thinking of the days when we watched “Everyone’s Child” on ZTV, when ZTV wasn’t too bad. The deliveries were on point as well, we heard some Gze sounding flows but hey, Stunner and Mudiwa taught us that no one owns a style in Zimbabwe.

smell an endorsement here

So while we here at PUSHzw were busy slacking and enjoying the song, procrastinating on the post we started getting the pictures from the behind the scenes, then a short clip of the work in progress. Yes! After viewing the video last night we know now… these guys have come guns blazing with a great song and what could be one of the best videos for Zim Hip Hop in a while. The video was directed by CuttyBeats (jack of all trades much) and Gze directed the video and we gotta hand it to them...panotodiwa slow clap apa!

No attempts to give us shy amateur twerkers or mediocre beauty yellow bones awkwardly touching rappers faces. It was straight up shots of Harare, the beautifully filthy sunshine city and people at their daily hustles, grinding away, and scenery of the Harare ghetto with its outside sinks. One of our favorite shots was from the top of kombis taken from Market Square; you can tell the guys had a blast shooting this video. Going around Mpedzanhamo around Mbare to show us the picture they had painted in their song. It was a great match of what we had heard and what we finally saw.

is this my good side?

At the end of the day the song is great, with the wonderful quality of the shots they took for the video, it has the potential to be a modern day soundtrack to a movie about Zimbabwean life...hell this isn’t a Turn up track, but it is the soundtrack to our Zimbabwean lives.

Mushikashika turned out to be a breath of fresh air from the majority of Zimbabwean videos so disjointed from the audio and obviously lacking a script. These guys have the blueprint for making a good video and other artists will have to put in as much work if they want to be taken seriously. I hope people took notes.

Enough of our talking! Honestly! These PUSHzw guys think they know it all... watch the video below

Remember to always

Push Ur Sound Hard


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THE PROMISED REVIEW : ZIM HIP HOP AWARDS

Awards are supposed to exist to make industries better, to recognise the hard workers for the year and push others to work hard so as to get their acknowledgement...to assist everyone in bench-marking. Each and every year for four years now, ZHHA does the opposite. I would like to blame them for the 6 month industry silence that we had this year! Who wanted to work when the only overall industry recognition was biased?

ZHHA 2014, just when we thought that ZHHA had given us progress, Beefy and his team showed why they are the best at what they do. Heck, they've been doing it for FOUR years...that's experience!!

ZHHA 2014 looked promising, having had not too many complaints on the nominees’ side (lack of complaints could have been our “they should just do whatever, not like they ever listen to us anyway..) This year they really tried in that department. Of course there’s always one or two, but the generality of it was that they did well with the nominees. Their job was of course made easy by the lack of really ground breaking, relevant Hip Hop for most of the year.

The fans and the artists didn't disappoint, everybody dressed up for the night. Everyone was looking beautiful as they always do...the rain tried to ruin the mood but hey, it wasn't going to spoil our awards night..That's Beefy's job.

First awards of the night were well deserved awards, McPotar (who had by far the most consistent blog in 2014), Sindiso Dube, Mark Vusani, DNA...these were all very deserving award winners. The problems came with the awards everyone came to see.

Unlike last year where we had a publicized panel (though they dropped out at the 11th hour) we kinda knew who was responsible for the decisions, this year we certainly didn’t know. We must've missed the memo. Noise broke out in the last quarter of the awards, artists and fans alike chanted "BullSh*t! BullSh*t!" and we can't blame them.

PUSHzw would like to take this moment to thank HAKEEM for doing what no one else who went on stage would do. Saying what most people felt was the truth. Who needs Kanye?? However, to say that Tehn Diamond deserved what Peekay isn’t exactly something we would stand to agree with, Ma One Vs Simudza Gumbo? (bearing in mind that its awards for 2014)

These are the categories where we think the noise erupted from, and where we think Beefy and his awards did his thing:

BEST DIASPORA: Rhyme Assassin. Sarai muchiita Digest that.

BEST ALBUM: It went to Blood Money Jacob - POY. Look, it was a good album, good, content wise but also an album people didn’t hear. How much of it was played on Radio? (which we believe is part of the criteria for nomination) How much of it did people hear? The Category had Albums like Masofa Panze 2 and the Many Moods of Trae Yung all with better airplay and content that was just as good. Our winner of the night though should've been THE MMT LP. That album was so good most of the music of the night was from it! How else could you get people bumping if you didn’t play the MMT LP? It had great songs that went viral a good quality product. You would think that after the great introduction Stunner gave the award, ZHHA would have respected people enough to give it to the rightful winner.

BEST NEWCOMER: PEE KAY. Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this one because we don’t know what criteria they use for Newcomer. We remember very clearly a song with PeeKay in it more than four years ago, when he was still skinny, Ill Ceey was still secular...and Ill Ceey was still Ill Ceey. PeeKay with Illceey on Blue Jeans is from when we were in high school, and now it’s been a year since we graduated from Varsity and they give him BEST NEWCOMER. Utter F$#ckery! This award had fresh blood more deserving of a chance to be recognised and they gave it to the guy who is probably a lotta rappers' role model. Young Bulawayo rapper Cal_Vin was killing it, Nash Da King, had a good song this this year, Masofa Panze 2 artist Noble Stylz was on fire...and the awards panel killed all hopes for new acts. Who knows next year, they might put Xndr, Junior Brown or BETTER, the Major Playaz!!

BEST FEMALE: BLACKBIRD. What?? I mean “what?” Put your hands in the air if you heard more BlackBird than Trae Yung this year or any BlackBird actually, No takers? We thought so. Hanzi nhingi akapihwa award ranhingi.. #NDIKOKO. Plus, Blackbird is very Loud pa mic...barely survived with our ear drums. But she did tell us that she is the only rapper on Channel O from Zim… ah well!

PEOPLES CHOICE: Tricky J, The boy had a really good song, and if numbers don’t lie, the he won because more people voted for him than your artiste of choice, If you want your expression felt on this one, GET MORE PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR YOUR ARTISTES!

What still pisses us off about ZHHA

1.      TIME, Gosh, if you say you shall start at 1900 then start at 1900, at least at 1930, not TWO hours late, AGAIN!

2.      VIP, nominees, free for all…we will only be serious about it… for the first hour of the awards

3.      SOUND..SOUND…SOUND..

4.      If they don’t treat these awards with the importance that is due, neither will we!

5.      Can you switch off the lights,… switch off the lights!! This should be all cleared at rehearsals folks.

6.      Control your people, the audience becomes rowdy, irritable and plane simple out of control. This happened last year too

The Good bits

1.      Turn out, maybe the smaller venue gave it a better effect but it’s cool to know we have fans

2.      The visual aid for the and nominee list call out was a little more organised this year

3.      Back drop, smile and take a picture, don’t we all just love feeling cool!

4.      The drama moment had a slightly lighter side to it, though it was really disappointing, it did make for a somewhat, moment of entertainment

5.      Free Style battle, short, precise and we all liked the winner. Together with performances from Calvin, High Definition, Amard, they did put in great work. Team Bho always with something surprising on stage. It’s all hip hop.

h

@pushzw