adminKusile Madlela Chronicle Reporter
Some artistes seem to prefer having their music recorded in South Africa with the hope of producing hits, something Khulekani “Khuxman” Bethule has condemned.
According to the Zimbabwe Music Awards Best House Music Album winner, there is no need to use a lot of money travelling to South Africa as good music can also be produced locally.
“It surprises me that our artistes believe they have to travel to South Africa in order to make good music. The number of artistes going abroad to record their music but still fail to make an impact with those projects is worrying,” said Khuxman.
The Vumelan’ Isangoma hit-maker said most local music was instead failing to appeal to audiences because of lack of relevance in lyrical content.
“Artistes need to sing about what is happening in communities in order to give people a valid reason to take them seriously,” he said.
Khuxman said some up-and-coming artistes had since lost hope in recording their music as they had been made to believe that their music had to be recorded out of Zimbabwe for it to be appreciated.
“Some of these young artistes haven’t recorded anything as they insist they want their music recorded in South Africa so that it’s appreciated by the local market. That’s not the case as most of our legends and big artistes such as Lovemore Majaivana, Skhue and Achuzi recorded their music locally,” Khuxman said.
He mentioned artistes such as Cal_Vin, Djembe Monks as some of those who had made names and won awards with their music produced locally.
“There’re producers such as Skaiva, Joe Maseko, Khotso and Polite who produce quality music, some of it which has gone on to win awards,” he said.
The musician cited Zimdancehall as a genre which was appreciated by local music lovers, just like Kwaito appealed to South Africans back in the days.
He however said artistes could not be entirely blamed for opting to have their music recorded in South Africa because of the expertise and advanced equipment there.
“There will always be a difference between a producer who is self-taught and one who attended a Music Academy. The truth is that South Africa has better sound engineers so music produced there has better sound,” said Bethule
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