The year 2013 comes to an end today and you and I both can agree that it was quite colourful in different aspects of the Zim Hip Hop Movement. A lot of good things came to life, and so did the negative but I guess it just gives a balance to the whole picture. Here is a breakdown of the year, in music ( the highlights obviously) .
January – Opening the year was POY with his tribute to King Pinn in song, a track titled ‘Imperial’. This song was received with much confusion than anything else. POY’s message was not obvious but none the less, the song made noise. On the 17th, Tehn Diamond and Jnr Brown released a banger of a party jam titled ‘The Realness’. Looking back, one can conclude that words have power. In this song the pair clearly made a statement that they were out to shine (this year) and they did just that all year round. We’ll find out later. In the same month, new artist Promics dropped a well made mix-tape titled ‘Street Prezz’ that was received quite well by the masses.
February– On the very 1st day of this month, Zim Hip Hop community went in a moment of silence. The moment didn’t last long though. Then there was talk everywhere. A trio by the name MMT, made up of Mariachi, MC Cut and Tatea da MC came on the scene with their debut single titled ‘Wake Up’. Some labelled it a diss song, some called it the truth in song, some called it a waste of studio time but the one thing that it successfully did was to grab the attention of everyone and had the Zim Hip Hop community together, talking about it. We also saw Raiza Biza collaborate with our very own Depth on a monster of a song titled ‘Waves. In the same Month, ill Ceey boosted women’s esteem through a song called U.G.L.Y (U Gotta Love Yourself). Cape Town based Zimbabwean rapper Kapital K dropped the viral (an unofficial video) of his remix to Beanie Sigel’s ‘Feel it in the air’, with the same title. Now this remix caught the attention of many because of its message. It addressed gender based violence and the video did a great job to depict that. Gud Ntentionz dropped a video to ‘Timeless’ and Tehn Diamond and Breezy released ‘I Need’.
March– Jae Mac’s ‘Oxygen’, a party track that made it into South African radio waves, dropped . It featured the rap talents of Q Rigga and made a lot of noise even back here in Zimbabwe. Ill Ceey released the ‘Business’ video. Still speaking videos, Bulawayo based Orthodox 6 gave us ‘Street Child’, a well directed video. Promics and Sharky celebrated their African identity when they dropped ‘Africa’. It will stand as one of my favourites for this year. MMT stopped the show as expected with the release of their second song ‘Zvidhori’ , that was followed by a shadow of mixed feelings. The song however became an instant anthem at parties, in the street and in clubs. Highlight of the month was Tehn Diamond’s ‘The Year Before Rap’. Now remember what I mentioned about him and Jnr Brown? This pair joined forces with producer Take 5 to form the outfit ‘Few Kings’. Keep reading as they will appear a lot later on. Then we had the young and talented Karma giving us a song titled ‘ I’ll Shine’. He too made a statement and came through later on to fulfil the promise .
April – Like he promised in ‘I’ll Shine’, Karma released an album titled ‘rein.KAR.nation’ which was well received and named one of the few albums to really represent hip hop. This album carried hit songs such as ‘Throw your hands up’ and HTTT featuring DJ Naida, who hit a Kendrik Lamar on other female emcees. Dutch surprised all of us with an album titled ‘Live.Love.Dance.’ . Dutch is one of the best producers in Zim Hip Hop and in this project featured the cream of the genre Tehn Diamond, Simba Tagz, Kapital K, Jnr Brown, TRK and FTR. Live.Love.Dance had hit songs ‘High’ featuring Kapital K, ‘Take off ‘ featuring TRK,’Backstabbers’ featuring FTR, ‘Make me proud’ featuring Tehn Diamond and Simba Tagz and the ever popular Overdose, that also had a remixes from different artists, the most popular being the disgusting remix by Ahsayn Beatmaker. Still on all round projects, Malaysian based GudNtentionz dropped his mixtape called ‘The Cure’. I believe it was one of the most slept on mixtapes for this year. It was absolutely worth the effort. Hanging around slept on projects, fans were a little disappointed to discover that ‘No Love’, the amazing heartbreak jam by Dutch featuring FTR didn’t make it into ‘Live.Love.Dance’. But however, great music survives. The song went viral. Highlight of the month was split between the album ‘Live.Love.Dance’ and the emerging of a new female rapper, Alvina. The Rehab Entertainment affiliated artist dropped her debut single, ‘Kuti Pwee’ featuring Anonzi Xndr and it was well received.
May– This month was action packed. A lot of hit songs were released all at the same time and this was quite interesting. Asaph Quanfire from Bulawayo released an excellent LP titled ‘Sky Music’. This project blew away a lot of people and hit competition by surprise. It’s lovely to note that gospel hip hop is alive in Zimbabwe. The hardest working woman in Zim Hip Hop Trae Yung collaborated with Shingi Mangoma and made a song preaching women empowerment. It was called ‘Who We are’ and had impressive response and airplay. On that hard work tip, MC Chita gave us ‘Hustling All Day’, a song that talked about just that, working hard all day everyday to make it through life. I mentioned this month to be one in which hit songs were released. We saw Marcques coming out with ‘Zunguza’, an instant hit, 1989Cay with ‘ Another Drink’, a serious party jam on a trap tip, MMT with the Zvidhori all star remix featuring Stunner, Alvina, Simba Tagz, Dj Smiley and Boi Mac. As if the party would stop, Crooger gave us ‘Ma broke niggas’ , one of the most catchy tunes for 2013 featuring Tatea da emcee , Jae Mac and Navy Seal dropped ‘Elevated’, an instant hit with a great message and to tone it down a little, Alkami and Simba Tagz’s classical package in the form of a song titled ‘Classic Nights’, which is also a song that was quickly slept on soon after stopping the show. The highlight of the month was Simba Tagz’ s release ‘Black’ , the album. Allow me to mention that this one project has the best sound quality compared to all other albums released. It carried hit songs ‘Ka Life’ featuring Jnr Brown, Yagi and Juan Take , ‘Man of the year’ featuring Tehn Diamond (who dropped a verse that qualifies to be in the top 5 best verses for 2013) and Don’t leave .
June– June saw Kapital K giving us the video to the Dutch hit song ‘High’in which he featured. The video was modern and well received. Yung Stash brought out his mixtape titled ‘Setting The Standard’ and it clearly set the standard. Highlight of the month was the first project to be rated 10/10 on Bars 263, ‘Download These Nutz’ by Abnorm was released. Read the review here to find out why.
July– The Future released ‘The Overdue’ mixtape. This project had heads nodding and people wanting to know who this artist was. Ill Ceey then dropped the anthem to the #LWDR (Live Wise Die Ready’ movement, with the same title. Again, let me mention that gospel hip hop is alive in Zimbabwe and it is also very much up to standard. Highlight of the month was the Zim Hip Hop First Half Chart on Bars 263. The blog initiated the idea of an online chart nominated and voted for by the fans of Zim Hip Hop and the masses bought the idea and came up with one. This was after I had done the First Quarter chart independently and it received a lot of positive responses. A big shout out to the followers of the blog and all those who participated on this initiative.
August– DJ Naida came out of the closet to give us a freestyle named ‘All Hail The Queen’. Now here is the issue with DJ Naida and Zim Hip Hop fans. We totally love and appreciate her talent but feel she needs to give us more. She always makes it a point to kill it whenever she steps on the mic. Shemade statements earlier on in the year on ‘Make My Own Doe’ and in her feaure on GPB’s banger ‘Whine With It’. DJ Naida, we want MORE! Later on, a bit of an unusual collaboration hit the waves. Mr Gwi ‘s ‘New Code’ featuring Josh, FTR, Ill Ceey, Simba Tagz and Gore. It was great to see that line up of artists praising God on a song. Highlight of the month was the ZIM/ZAM 2013 UNTWO 2013 Mix-tape that featured artists of Zim and Zambia. It was released during the UNTWO Conference which was held in Victoria Falls Zimbabwe and Zambia sides. Hit songs ‘Who we are’ by Trae Yung featuring Shingi Mangoma and Abnorm’s Poverty made it onto the tracklist of the mix tape.
September– Lewis The Artists, Toronto based Zimbabwean artist told his ‘Far From Home’ story in the form of a mixtape with the same title. Music makes a difference when it is made from the heart. ‘Far From Home’ was very relatable in different ways. DJ Naida listened to the plea from her fans for her to release more material when she rapped on a house beat , resulting in the party song ‘Get down’, that has two remixes. This goes to show just how much her music is anticipated. Shoko Festival, the biggest arts festival came to town. Shoko is also the biggest hip hop festival in Zimbabwe. The festival showcased a lot of local talent from dance groups, poets, deejays to emcees. As expected , the event was a success and saw artists of 4 different continents come together to celebrate art during a week in Zimbabwe. The incredible Munetsi started what he called ‘mU Mondays’, a series of freestyles released every Monday by Him. The first freestyle dropped on Sept 30th and ‘mu Mondays’ has been alive since then. Highlight of the month is split between the Shoko Festival and Outspoken and The Essence’s double album ‘Uncool and overrated : God before anything’. This project is a great mix of conscious hip hop, real life stories, humour and pretty much a taste of underground Zim Hip Hop.
October – Mau Mau made a comeback after years of silence with a song called ‘Ndamutswa’. In this song he was just sending a signal that he is back and that he is different from what we know him as. He featured Alvina. Synik and Depth released the video to their debut song as a pair (Soular Rayze) called ‘Odyssey’. Now in this song these two were just letting us know what defines them as artists and both Depth and Synik brought out their A-game in their verses. DJ Naida collaborated with various female emcees from the Southern African region on the ‘No Sleep’ remix, which was presented cipher style. Thumbs up to the ladies for the job well done. Earlier on I’ve been mentioning Tehn Diamond and Jnr Brown in bits and pieces. Here’s when they were close to completing the puzzle they had been creating all year. Few Kings dropped their debut album ‘The Feeling Aint Fair’. They opened up the year with ‘The Realness’, ‘I Need’ on Valentines day, ‘Boyz Dzangu’ featuring MC Chita weeks later, Jnr Brown’s ‘Madrinks’ making waves everywhere and Tehn Diamond’s ‘Happy’ video making rounds locally (before being banned by ZBC a few weeks ago) and across our borders. With all that happening in the background, surely the formation of Few Kings simply showed that greatness was to be unleashed. The album ‘The Feeling Aint Fair’ carried the hits mentioned above and other hot songs such as ‘Summer’ featuring Simba Tagz and their 1minute long intro and outro named ‘The First Feeling’ and ‘The final feeling’ respectively. Also of note is the outstanding sound quality of the album. Highlight of the month was Black Bird’s video ‘ Waiting For Love’. The video was well directed, had great motion picture quality and featured Tatea da MC (creating rumours about him and Bird being a couple). However I personally believe ‘Ambitious Journal’ (pre-mix album) by one third of the Bulawayo based trio K.A.R.M.A.H., Bizzle Bad Boy was the best project released this year and in that month. But the problem is the project was not marketed well and will most likely lurk in the shadows. You can get ‘Ambitious Journal’ for free here.
November– Run 263, a clothing line came up with a cipher featuring Preach, Marcques, Boi Mac and MC Cut. We all appreciated the effort of hip hop culture being practiced through the ‘Run 263 Cypher’, with rappers rocking street apparel. Soular Rayze gave us their second single titled ‘Cloud 9’. You see the thing with great music is that it speaks for itself. Crime Heat of 2Door Records was behind the production of this smooth love song. Orthodox 6 dropped a hot video that was all about Bulawayo. It was for the song ‘Where I’m From’ . This is one of the notable videos out of Zim Hip Hop this year. Highlight of the month was the release of the long awaited MMT LP. MMT had been on a roll releasing bangers (and controversial verses) and took everyone by surprise with their track list. Turns out these guys can actually get serious and spread positive vibes through their music. Tracks of note were ‘Ngirozi’ featuring Tinashe Makura, ‘Funeral’ featuring Simz 27, ‘Clear’ featuring Kapital K, Munetsi and Alkami, ‘Vonozviziva’ featuring Marcques’ and the hit songs Zvidhori and Party Yatanga. Also to the surprise of everyone, the album was for sale ONLY and is available in music stores for only 3US Dollars. It is worth the three bucks anyway.
December ends today and a lot of material was produced. G Records dropped their compilation album ‘Summer Is Ours’ featuring various artists from the label. MC Chita did it again and this time even bigger. He gave us a killer album titled ‘Red Gold and Green’ that is still shining. Amvis Instruments in collaboration with 7.30 Apparel, Bars 263, The Juice Entertainment and Zim Link initiated a song competition titled ‘ The No Limits Song Competition’ that is still running. Read more about it here. Madzitateguru gave us ‘T.S.I.N.E’ (The Struggle Is NEccesary). The project is highly creative and carries various messages that are told in the most genius ways. I feel this project is being slept on . Check it out here. The Zim Hip Hop Awards came and went and were a disappointment as usual. Mudiwa came out as the biggest winner after bagging 3awards for ‘Best Gospel Artist’, ‘Best Video’ for his song 10/10 and the people’s choice award. Highlight of the month is Karma’s official debut album. Find out why by checking out the review here.
2013 was indeed very interesting. The genre grew in so many ways. A lot of music came out as compared to last year. Hip Hop conversations have changed from just being all about the music but also touch other issues that have to do with the growth of the genre. Local hip hop artists are getting a lot of media coverage than last year. This has resulted in the general public getting to know what Zim Hip Hop awards. 2013 also saw fans getting into cyber wars after some songs were released. In the negative is also the sad fact that strictly hip hop live shows are never sold out. Music sales are not impressive and some material is not friendly to the public ear. In a nut shell, we are not there yet but the ball has been set rolling.
I would like to take this opportunity to commend all artists for the hard work they’ve put into their projects this year. Hard work pays off even if the reward is not monetary. I would also want to thank everyone who has contributed to keeping the Zim Hip Hop movement alive, that is radio stations for playing the music, the public for taking time to listen, bloggers for showcasing artists and their work and other various promoters. All we need is each other’s support to grow. A big shout out to Richard ‘Young Rick’ Bwanya for handling the Bars 263 Facebook page and keeping conversations there alive. Celebrate and support local music, have a blessed 2014 and stay amazing!
Bars 263 
Gigi La Mayne speaks on upcoming mixtape
Award winning female emcee GiGi la Mayne is back ! I connected with her to talk about what she has in store for us.
You are working on a mix-tape. Tell us more about it?
Readers might be wondering why a South African Hip Hop Awards winner is being interviewed on this platform. Do you mind sharing the ‘secret’?
Just like me, you’re a young African female artist breaking new ground in the music industry. What keeps you going?
Let’s get back to ‘Colour of Reign’. As you put in work into this project, what are your predictions for the final product?
When can we expect it?
City Lights has had positive reviews from the media and public alike. Can you tell us what made you pen this song and what message you were hoping to put across?
Like she said, ‘City Lights’ is now available for everyone and it is for free! All you need to do is have enough data and the song is all yours. Download City Lights for free here . To keep up to date with GiGi and her music, follow here on twitter @Gigi_LaMayne_
Posted by Mars on April 4, 2014 in Artist promotion, Entertaiment, Events, Female emcees, Mixtape reviews, Music Production, New Music, News, Promotions, random commentary, Zim Hip Hop (diaspora)
Tags: Bentey Records, Gigi La Mayne, Shayzar, South Africa