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]

New Hot Music: All Dat - Mile(@263Mile) feat @Marcques_ [Download Link]

RnB singer Mile has come with a new offering call All Dat that features Marcques (the Zunguza and Viva hitmaker). The last Song of his that we had heard was Stain glass and so we were waiting eagerly for this. The song, produced by Anonzi Xndr is a great listen but if we talk more about this song we may not be able to tell you just how cool it is...just listen! use that Opera bundle, work internet or neighbour's wi-fi and get the track

so just click here to get the song. and while you are there just listen to the other songs, happened accidentally with us and we didn't regret it

If you want a feel good song with a nice instrumental that'll make you feel like you the coolest person walking (or Driving..don't judge us coz we're pedestrians), you need this on your playlist...while you do the washing, cook, take out the trash, and other PG activities.

Download and Listen to Mile - All Dat feat Marcques

don't forget to always Push.Ur.Sound.Hard

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


Thank you for reading.Did you think this post was utter crap? click here read some more of our crap

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