Local musicians should put more effort on lyrics

see the heel of wonders they were doing.
Due to the strong connections I have with the producer and the history that comes along with it, I couldn’t say no and grudgingly agreed to the invitation.
So we went to the studio and saw how the dudes do their work and that’s when I realised that being a producer is one of the worst jobs in the music industry – it’s like being a lawyer you do other people’s dirty jobs and clean up their mess.
First, there was this one young cool dude who was recording his works for the first time, though he seemed timid here and there, making unnecessary mistakes. However, the talent and voice were awash.
It was just that he lacked a mentor and seemed so overwhelmed that he went breathless and would go out of sync altogether, but I had no doubt that the kid was talented.
In the midst of the mix came one of these so- called veterans who declared that he was running late for other appointments and wanted to record there and then.
The request was granted and though I felt that the dude had used underhand tactics to get studio time, I think that incident opened my eyes on how generally music is taken locally.
The cat without even rehearsing or warming up went straight up to the booth and started spitting out his lyrics which lacked bars and co-ordination and was a non-stop ramble. The producers had no option than to stop him and ask him to re-organise his act (had it been anyone else I think they would have asked him to leave).
The man went outside and after five to 10 minutes he was back and now he had got more inspiration and had changed his earlier format and had something even much more remarkable.
A new tune and format in 10 minutes that got me thinking real bad, even the lyrical geniuses like 2Pac, Elvis, Biggie Smalls, Bob Marley, Elton John and Ben Taupin, John Lennon and Paul MaCartney, no matter how good they freestyled, never wrote a song in such record-breaking time.
However, my cheeks fell to my boots when the man started doing his thing on the mic, to say the least it was like someone trying to sing with a mouthful of “mbwirembwire”.
Besides the lack of rhyme and rhythm in the music – the lyrics were very poor, to say the least; meaningless abstract, cartoonish and sometimes misogynistic such that my brother Alvin remarked “Haina sense kana, hapana zviripo apa” (this is drivel).
That experience only showed me that most of our local musicians especially the urban groovers really don’t appreciate the importance of meaningful lyrics in their music.
As long as the words they spit out rhyme, no matter how senseless they might be these cats think they have what it takes to tickle the record-buying public.
I think our musicians should put more effort in their lyrics as what they are dishing out to the public are just half-baked efforts which my little boy Sylvain can even surpass without much effort.
Honestly, how can someone write a meaningful song in a matter of 10 minutes when greats like Michael Jackson would sweat over one song over months.
We really lack perfection and purpose in our music as some of our cats are taking it as just a hobby something that should be child’s play.
Lyrics in my view make the backbone of the music no matter how strong the beat may be, if the rap tunes we hear all the time are anything to go by.
Even the best song of all time “The Times They Are A’changing” by Bob Dylan is marked by its sort of prophetic and iconoclastic lyrics which denoted what was happening during that time.
Please take a listen to some of the lyrics of our local musicians especially the urban groovers and rate out of 10 which ones really make sense.
l Comments can be sent to [email protected]