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RENOWNED music producer and arts critic, Clive “Mono” Mukundu, reckons the urban grooves movement was a futile exercise which suffered still birth.
He believes the genre is dead and buried.
His sentiments come at a time when a number of pioneers of the genre are trying to revive the movement.
On Saturday, a number of urban grooves artists held a get together show in Avondale, Harare, which attracted a full house.
In his “brutal” assessment of the genres’ resurrection, Mukundu said:
“Urban grooves was too foreign to make it in Zimbabwe because it impossible to take a foreign genre and localise it
“The urban grooves artists failed to localise their genre and, as a result, it could not be exported.
“You can’t make money with music which cannot be exported since we don’t have money here in Zimbabwe to buy it.”
He added: “Those who used to blame Delani Makhalima for stealing their money are crazy because there was no money to steal.
“Even if Delani wanted to steal the money, there was no money to be stolen.
“The same applies to people who accused Tinashe Mutarisi of stealing their money at some point during the Covid-19 period.
“Even if Tinashe Mutarisi wanted to steal the money, there was no money to steal in the first place.
“In fact, Tinashe Mutarisi put in more money than what he got in return.
“This is the case with Delani Makhalima who wanted to experiment with the new sound and urban music culture.”
Mono believes poor musicians are bound to play the blame game each time they fail to make ends meet.
“Vanhu vane nzara are not nice to each other. They end up blaming each other as is the case with urban grooves artists.
“This is totally unacceptable since most of the artists don’t have other side hustles.
“Music in Zimbabwe is really challenging as many people take ages before they make real money,” he said.
The likes of Decibel, Plaxedes Wenyika, Madiz, Trevor Dongo, Roki and Pauline Gundidza have been sharing their memories of this genre.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter