Online Reporter
Raisedon Baya
Mzoe 7 is not just a gifted performer, but many things. He comes as a fully wrapped package with so many gifts inside. Perhaps that is what makes him special and sets him apart from many of his peers.
Mzoe 7 is like water. He can fit anywhere and everywhere. Water is still water in the village. Water is water in a shack. Water is water in the township. The same water is still water in a palace or at the state house.
Mzoe 7 is a hustler. He will come and sell you ideas – any idea. Picture him sitting across a table, his big smile covering the whole room, designer clothes winking at you as he tries to convince you to support one of his hustles.
“Topi, this One-man show has to be magic. I want to create magic in the theatre. Something people have not seen before.”
That was what he tried selling me many months ago. That is what I saw last night (Saturday) at The Bulawayo Theatre.
Good hustlers are good talkers. I am using hustling here in its purest entrepreneurial meaning. Not the hustling that has sent many running or behind bars. I guess Mzoe 7 is what you may call a “Kasi clever”. Good hustling is about winning people’s confidence as quickly as possible, and Mzoe 7 does that effortlessly. I like that, where doors close in his face, he smiles and moves on to knock on the next door. Perhaps that has been his secret to success. Never giving up. And always smiling and “pushing”.
Mzoe 7 is a dancer. You’ve got to see him shake and twist and go down. He is a joy to watch. That Shake Your Kilimanjaro song was created so he could show off. On Sautrday evening, he nearly blew the roof off Bulawayo Theatre with his “Amapiano” song. When he followed this up with his rendition of a Lovemore Majaivana song, the audience was already eating from the palm of his hands.
He could have ended the show there, and no one, not even a single person, would have complained.
Mzoe 7 is an organiser – a runner. A believer in beautiful things. He had posters everywhere. He was giving interviews to everyone. He was posting about his rehearsals and his runnings. When you got to the venue, there was even a red carpet. He is one artiste who believes in giving his audiences the total experience.
Mzoe 7 is a weaver of dreams, a weaver of images and emotions. He is a proper magician. There I was at one point thinking I was looking at the great Fela Kuti. Thinking I was watching a beautiful musical or some kasi dance show. He knew his audience, knew what they had come for, and gave them just that — in great amounts too.
I haven’t seen a local artiste get people that excited before, except perhaps in the Tshibilika genre.
Big up to Mzoe 7, his crew, the 50 dates stage, and everyone who made Saturday night memorable.
