Online Reporter
HOLY Ten is an artist who divides opinion.
There is a constituency that loves his music which, to a large extent, is very good stuff.
There is also a constituency that don’t like his music, not because it’s not good, but simply because of the man behind the product.
This constituency feels the star rapper is a lost cause.
It believes he is a very bad human being who likes to cause a lot of chaos with his rants on social media and his attacks on other musicians.
It’s the constituency which believes that he is not a very good role model and rather than use his influence to become an agent of good things, he is actually doing the opposite. Holy Ten is not the first wayward musician we have seen.
This industry is dominated by such characters around the world.
Chris Brown, for instance, is another wayward character.
He is a gifted musician and he has millions of fans around the world.
He pulled 180,000 fans at the FNB Stadium on two consecutive nights, just to demonstrate his massive appeal. To put that into context, it’s like Winky D filling up the National Sports Stadium on three consecutive nights.
But, for all his creative genius, Chris Brown is also a deeply flawed individual. He was convicted of the assault of his former girlfriend Rihanna and narrowly avoided spending years in jail.
He is now in court dealing with another assault case in the UK.
Another American musician Kurt Cobain, who formed the super group Nirvana, was a huge star during his time on the big stage.
But, he became a slave of drugs, as he struggled to deal with the pressures that come with fame, and one day on April 5, 1994, he shot himself dead in his garage at his home in Seattle.
His body was found six days after his suicide. Cobain was just 27.
There is no question that these young music stars find themselves overwhelmed by the personal and professional pressures that come with being successful and being loved by millions of people.
Many of them fail to handle their transformation into superstars.
This is what we have been seeing from Holy Ten.
He became drunk on his own success and started believing that he is the best thing that has happened on the local music scene.
He started believing that he was even bigger than Biggie Tembo, Simon Chimbetu, Oliver Mtukudzi, Thomas Mapfumo and Leonard Dembo.He started believing that even the women, who came into his life, were toys that could be used, and dumped, as and when he felt like doing so. We are happy that he seems to have realised that he was going down a dark and dangerous valley.
We are happy that he seems to have found a reason to change his wayward ways.
However, what will shape his future are his actions, and not his words.
Can he really transform himself?
He has no other choice.
Mathew Masinge