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

KNOW YOUR NOMINEES #1 : LADIES FIRST MK47

If you are true to your Zim Hip Hop, then you must have heard her at some point, especially if you remember ProjectFam, the sibling duo from Mutare. MK47 is the female half of the crew and trust us, not too many Hip Hop artistes can hold a candle to her when she starts spitting. Unfortunately, she, like most Hip Hop artistes of her era went on a hiatus but when she came back she was still spitting fire, with her deep Shona, tsumo and dimikira and a whole lot else we had to look through our old Shona notebooks to understand type rap. Its impressive, confident and there is a video and link to prove our word. Here is her come back song “Ndadzoka”  with Mr Noxxa and MC Flexxo, Check out the video to the song here.

MK47 is nominated for this years Zim Hip Hop Awards to be held on the 17th this month.

@pushzw

MASOFA PANZE 2 : ALBUM REVIEW

This album really has to be one of if not the best Hip Hop album to come out this year. I bet you this...if you try to quote a line from Noble Stylz’s songs you end up with the whole song on your paper. Best Vernac MC? we don’t really see the challengers. This album is a lovely collection of songs, well chosen by the Artist

1.maBornFree

“tamba game inonzi Josiah, panda mubhawa tongogaraaaaaaaa”

Arguably, PushZW favourite  track off the album and it just had to be track number one; this song got us hooked on to the album, there was no way we were gonna end here. The bars from Noble just drop one after another, you enjoy the song throughout, it just flows. Trae Yung’s inclusion was no mistake, her verse (and declaration that she is Queen of Hip Hop) really got us going.

2. Nyanzvi ft BlacPerl

“hanzi nd’chabuda game, havafariri kuona Noble ane Crown/ Hanzi nd’chabuda asi handis’ kubuda seAlbum raJunior Brown”

You know, coming from maBorn Free, this was a perferct song choice. The song that features Masofa Panze Queen, BlacPerl makes for a good partnership. BlacPerl’s ability to smoothly transition between rapping and singing..this young lady is seriously talented, definitely worth keeping an eye on. We can clearly see why the social media circles have been making so much noise about this.

3. Kudakwashe

“…koshesha ruzivo kupinda mari/… tese tirivatadzi muporofita haasi Mwari”

We don’t remember hearing a word of English in this song...yes a single word! Kudakwashe was a purely vernac record. A really deep song that seems to talk about life, its difficulty and people walking together but reminding that the ultimate faith should be placed in God. There is this almost out of body experience that one is prompted to get when they hear this song. The bridge, the chorus, it was just really good. It’s like converting a well written Shona poem to a song.

4. Patinosangana feat Arnold Gara

The guy goes ultra-soft on this one, The Arnold Gara featured song is a very well documented description of long distance relationship pains and longing to be with ones lover. At first we thought it was a mourning song about a lost lover. It can be used in both situations. We would like to focus on Arnold Gara, we haven’t heard of him before but his well-balanced (vocally) chorus and verse on the song we loved a lot, we hope you like it too. We also hope to hear more from him.

5. Supa Sub ft Quonfused

“back on pole position saBev atiza Prophet Magaya”

After maBornFree and Nyanzvi this is the closest to a really free and maybe “turn up” song. Quonfused kills it on the chorus and on his verse in this song that generally says that the industry is boring now and whats neded is the Suer sub – Masofa Panze. Truthfully right no it does look like that is the case. We didn’t know what to do; dance (maclarks) or just enjoy Noble’s wordplay. The song has definite Zim Dancehall Undertones. We did the whole PUUUULOOOO thing when we got the part where Noble ran an undistrupted number of bars rhyming with one rhyme scheme JUST LISTEN TO IT

6. Dai Maiziva ft BlacPerl

We first heard this song at The Shoko Festival 2014. The song is a two pronged story about a girl (BlacPerl) who narrates the unfortunate situation involving an unplanned pregnancy, sexual abuse and prostitution. Noble carries on the song on the second and third verse with a case of an irresponsible musician and lifestyle. The song again has a chilled feel to it, a little more thought provoking like “Kudakwashe”. It was oh so emotional how the song really tackles the issues of the abuse of women in the capacity of mothers and girls at large.

7. Success

Its not the usual to hear Noble rapping over a sampled beat. The instrumental to this song is a lot different from the usual Noble Styles-Maskiri type beats. It’s pretty much about Success, the way one doesn’t understand it or comprehend it. This song is really a “I’m better than yall” clothed in a pseudo message about his inability to understand success.

8. Let me Know

One of the songs with the most different feel on the album is the let me know that features Mr Noxxa. The past couple of weeks we have heard a couple of Mr Noxxa records and concluded that this guy is just NOT LIKED ABOUT ENOUGH. “Let me know” has (we hope this will not be offensive) a feel that can be likened to a great blend between urban grooves and R &B..the blend that was the original Urban grooves sound before Russo came to town. A love song where the girl has started acting up and crossing borders of ratchetry and Noble is just asking the girl to show him love before he thinks there’s no love and moves on. Great verses from Stylz and Mr Noxxa did not slack! Great track all round.

9. “Vakafa vakazorora” featuring Meister and BlacPerl

“Meister, Masofa Panze tapinda, me and my brother in the game takuita Adam na Madinda”

“chinzwa wordplay, right, mashoko aya akutamba sele/ I run this game single handedly saSomandla Ndebele”

A very rare thing happened on the third verse, having three rappers interchanging on one verse, quite impressed. This another favourite in the PushZw team. Its probably the song with the most witty lines in the whole album LOVE IT!

10. Zim Hip Hop

“shona rapper akaita mbiri nemabig moves/ ndiwe unotanga kushedzera kuti ava urban grooves”

This song is an address to the Zim Hip hop industry that he refers to as a person that he is talking to.  A great message that doesn’t target any artist but just urges the industry to make the right decisions for growth and wants a situation of no factions. The song really asks about the elephant in the room which is, why is there such a class system, a disparity between the way rappers who spit in vernacular and those who don’t? Why people like South African Hip Hop more than the local… we could go on but, this song is one of those you have to hear for yourself.

11. Tsamba Yekupedzisira

This is a very personal song whose opening verse is a letter to his parents. It is a praise to his praise for raising him. The next verse is even more, for lack of a better word “sweeeeeeeeeet”. It’s a letter style verse addressing his daughter. The last verse is addressed to his brother, deceased as you will hear at the end of the verse. Krimz produced a really soul full sounding beat to go with the song. Another really properly done song.

Overveiw

Noble Stylez, has grown so much ever since Masofa Panze (the first one). This album is a little more relaxed compared to the first one. The mastering is better, the instrumentals are not ear disturbing, to be honest, this album is one of the best Hip Hop albums released this year if not the best. He chose the features well. We don’t quite know why BlacPerl had to be featured three times but thank goodness the young lady knows how to sing.

What we didn’t like

Well, the album artwork is not as good as his first one, COME ON NOBLE!!

4.0/5.0

The album is available on OLOVA  from googleplay or from OLOVA and from @noblestylz get a copy and hear for yourself!!

@pushzw

ITS BANGING IN THE ART DEPARTMENT

We were probably last to this song, (our apologies) but the good thing about all that is we downloaded it late night, coffee high at its peak, earphones in so we wouldn’t wake the neighbours, and we put the volume on high, (which is how you should play this song or close all windows in the vehicle that you may be in and again turn the volume up).

We profiled the ART DEPARTMENTS first song “Ride with Us” (chart topper, they aren’t messing around) which featured Alaina, the R & B artiste who probably has the best video from Zim this year. The Art Department are a rap trio from Bulawayo with members Tone Lakeside, Robbie Illsicker, and recently joined member Navy Seal. They dropped their second single from their upcoming album “While you were sleeping” called BANG which was  produced by one of Bulawayo ‘s best producers First Class.

What we like about the song is that, even after the heavy criticism of having music that doesn't have vernacular hints some people continue to make it anyway and they do it well. The Art Department is pretty good making you feel like a GEE. They are clear, the mastering is properly done, their lyrics are the New York type but they don’t make us feel like we aren’t home!

You can like their facebook page https://m.facebook.com/artdepartmentburg and also follow Navy Seal on twitter @navyseal487, or facebook.com/masimbanavyseal, or whatsapp on +263 773 930 128. Follow Robbie on twitter @RobbieIllsicker, or facebook.com/robinsonmuripa, or whatsapp on +263 778 367 242. Follow Tone Lakeside on twitter @tonelakeside, or facebook.com/edwinmakuyana, or whatsapp on +263 773 205 445.

follow us on twitter on 

@PUSHZW