Last year, was a
fun year. By April last year, no one couldn’t have gone on Twitter or Facebook
without the slight expectation of some juicy hip hop news, a new release,
“shots fired” in one song or the other or a hash tag to a countdown to a new
release of sorts. Bloggers found it hard to keep up as things happened so
quickly that the face of Zim Hip Hop would change its expression in a matter of
hours. People argued on line, beefs started, spoof videos were made, songs were
released, people took sides, Few kings dropped an album which we all liked, a
week later MMT dropped theirs which most say was better, the awards came, Few
Kings ruled like the Kings they were and then… it just kind of died there.
This is not to
say that Zim Hip Hop wasn’t based on any other two outfits but one couldn’t
definitely talk about Zim Hip Hop without mentioning those two clicks,
especially their “friendly competition”. A lot of artists made last year hot,
Noblestylez, Trae Yung, Schingy, Marcques but somehow, this year just aint the
same.
Bloggers are
quiet, rappers are not releasing songs with as much oomph as the one they
released last year. Let’s take a look at this year. The African Hip Hop Blogs
project Pungwe Sessions Vol 1 had three dope songs released, “Phil Chiyangwa”
with Junior Brown, “ live it up” with FTR and Abnorm and probably the dopest of
the three with Simbatagz and Metaphysics which they only have for streaming (we
can never forgive you for that). All of those songs made momentary noise,
nothing so long lasting like Madrinks or Happy. Tehn Diamond dropped “Simudza
Gumbo” and ah well, people say “it’s a dope track but…” then they find one
reason or the other to say it kindly that it didn’t live up to its billing
especially with the two great names on it. MMT dropped “Koovah”, yes it charted
number one, on a local radio station but a good number of people discredited
the song because it was another “drinking” song and well, drinking is sooo last
year.
Our point is,
this year, or at least the first quarter, in terms of Zim Hip Hop stamping its
authority on the Zimbabwean map, has been a bit on the “nyeeh” side. This is
why we titled this post as “Life after MMT vs Fewkings”. Their competition made
the industry fun, the subliminal shots thrown by associates of both teams made
us download, share and somehow that seemed to be the heartbeat of Zim Hip Hop
for a bit. So does this lovely industry of ours thrive on BEEF, we wont say yes
but we will not totally rubbish that notion. Because somehow without it, its
just not the same.
HOWEVER…AS FOR
THE FIRST QUARTER, WHO HAS MADE US PROUD
1.
Ilceey
This guy is on a
level of his own, bars, mastering, his fan base, his exploits, his message. If
you haven’t heard, IBVAPO or Tuscan Leather (remix) then you really don’t know
Zim Hip Hop. http://t.co/oyqYw5XBbz
2.
GZE
“Rusambo” made
noise for a minute, still nice sounding.http://t.co/oUmA1tLpoC
3.
Amard
A new chick in the game, created a buzz on
twitter with “ Lose my number”. We cant wait to hear more from her. https://t.co/wkT8vmpVVW
4.
Noble Stylez
A fresh release,
“Maborn free”. The song is pregnant with punchlines, a good beat and equally
awesome feature from the reigning queen of Hip Hop as Noble put it on national
telly. http://t.co/JlEeEQbAYq
Not to say these
are the only people who dropped, but these are some of the highlights this
year. It cant be denied though that the feeling aint the same this year. (I
mean Zim Dancehall already on another level… AGAIN). Zim Hip Hop, compared to
last year, isn’t kicking it the way we would like it to. So rappers, producers,
WE WANT MOREEEEEE… not just from the big guns, but the up coming ones too.
PUSH… is back
@pushzw
