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Tafadzwa Zimoyo
Entertainment Editor
At the turn of the millennium, a new musical genre emerged in Zimbabwe was named “Urban Grooves.”
It took over the local musical landscape and coincided with the Government’s introduction of the 75 percent local content that saw the birth of new young talent that competed with the gurus in sungura music, who had dominated the post-independence era.
Urban grooves was the music created by young urban musicians in Zimbabwe from 2000.
The music was a fusion of genres such as hip-hop, soul, rhythm and blues and dancehall.
However, with time — a sub-genre of urban grooves dubbed “Zimdancehall” emerged and appeared to have overtaken the genre compelling music critics to submit that urban grooves was dead.
Like a dormant volcano, urban grooves is set to erupt as evidenced by a show held last week in Avondale at 7Arts.
“Urban grooves remains popular, it will never die, it was just resting,” said Pride Kasuso a music critic. “If you saw the crowd at 7Arts last week, you can agree with me. The majority of the revellers sang along to all songs, proving that the vibe is still there.”
The subjective narrative that urban grooves is dead is set to be dispelled with yet another potentially explosive urban grooves reunion show organised by Kayse Connect set for June 17 at The Venue in Avondale.
“The overwhelming response given to the show shows how urban grooves is very much alive and it appeals to a lot of music lovers of all ages,” said a music promoter who preferred anonymity.
“It is, however, a fact that some of the artistes like Roki, Take 5, Nesto, Nembo-Bwoy and Cindy Munyavi are a bit older now than the new crop of dancehall artistes, but experience is the best teacher, like wine these guys matured with age.”
One of the pioneering promoters of urban groove music, Gilbert Muvararirwa of Shamiso Records, recently introduced an online music platform where he lined up several collaborations between urban grooves and international artistes.
Muvararirwa is the brains behind one of the most successful urban grooves albums, “The Future”, which introduced the likes of Willom Tight, Roki, David Chifunyise, Roy and Royce, ExQ, Leonard Mapfumo, Ngoni Kambarami, Sanii, Nesto, Alexio, NME and Plaxedes Wenyika.
The album was produced by Delani Makhalima who was to later start Galaxy Records which produced and nurtured most urban grooves hit-makers.
“Urban grooves is evolving and with technology, a lot of studios are coming up,” said a local producer. “Back then we had a few state-of-the-art studios like That Squad (Chamhembe), Wheels of Fortune, Chigutiro, MoVip, and a few others.”
The Kayse Connect show on Saturday will be a litmus test for the survival of the urban grooves genre.
The rich line-up includes Roki, Decibel, Tererai, Shinsoman, Xtra Large, Stunner, Mafriq, Diana, BaShupi, Plaxedes, Madiz, Dino Mudondo, Maskiri, EXQ, Nasty Trixx, Dj Tamuka, Willom Tight, Trevor Dongo and Pauline.
The list has divided urban grooves music lovers, with some saying some on the line-up do not deserve to be there because their music genre was not urban grooves.
Others say the organisers omitted pioneers of the genre.
“I think they should have done proper research on urban grooves, from having the right master of ceremony, especially those disc jockeys that used to play urban grooves in the early 90s,” said 38-year-old Monalisa Mpariwa from Highfield, who is looking forward to the show.
Yesteryear urban groove singer David Chifunyise of the “Tauya Naye” hit-maker said urban groove has never died.
“I think it never died,” he said. “The age group that consumed urban grooves is now the working class, meaning that they are the people with money.
“Therefore, there is a captive market for those that did urban grooves before to organise concerts and be guaranteed of passionate fans attending. I would say promoters just need to arrange the concerts and it is done.
“Most urban grooves artistes already have a healthy following on social media, so if promoters organised the show they would be easily advertised over social media.”
Chifunyise said it was important that urban grooves singers move with the times.
“New recordings need to be done and this is an opportunity for corporates to sign certain studios to record new songs by urban grooves artistes and that sponsorship will advertise their brand through brand placement in videos and on social media of the artiste,” he said.
Another popular urban groover, Nesto, who surprisingly was not invited to the concert on Saturday, said the urban grooves story was not being told correctly.
“I feel urban grooves morphed into different genres with each artiste, musician, or act finding their different space,” he said. “What could make it have an impact once again could be the packaging.
“Pub choir was a great initiative and I feel it could have been bigger had it been sold almost as a Broadway show, with the story of how the groove came about to date.
“So, this could have been sold as different editions, as there is so much music that still touches people’s lives. It would be a joke to say that all these artistes lost their talents. Most are still making amazing music that just isn’t making it to the consumer. The package is what needs to be fixed. How to use social media to get the music to the people.”
Online Reporter