adminMaria Chiguvari
A NUMBER of urban groove artists, who made a mark in the early 2000s, believe the genre gave birth to a number of stars.
The Xtra Large duo, Jimmy Mangezi and Norman Manwere, told H-Metro that urban grooves was a movement which gave relevance to other genres like Zim dancehall, Zim Hip Hop, Afro-fusion among others.
A number of urban groove artists are set to reunite for a concert that is likely to bring memories of the past on June 17 in Avondale, Harare.
Manwere told H-Metro:
“Urban grooves was never a genre, urban grooves was and still is a movement and a culture.
“It was and still is the urbanisation of our local music.
“Under urban grooves, genres like Zim Hip, dancehall, Rnb, Afro jazz, Afro pop, reggae and house all made up the movement and culture, hence there was Xtra Large, Roki, MaFriq, ExQ, Willom Tight doing Afro pop.
“Sniper, King Labash, Winky D, Yombre Man, Honey Vibes, Bootkin Clan doing Dancehall.
“Trevor D, Sanii Makhalima, Alexio, Plaxedes Wenyika, Ngoni Kambarami doing RnB.
“Stunner, ExQ, Leopard Mapfumo, Maskiri, David Chifunyise etc doing Hip Hop,” he said.
Asked if the movement eclipsed by other genres like Zimdancehall, Manwere argued:
“To answer your question, nothing went wrong, genres under urban grooves are becoming more popular than the others but it’s still urban grooves.
“We will forever be proud to be associated with the urban music movement and every genre that came up under the culture of urbanising our local music.
“Urban grooves is the foundation and it paved a way for all the urban music coming up such as Zim dancehall, Hip Hop, Afro Pop, RnB and we will forever be proud of being pioneers of such a successful movement.
“We wouldn’t want to be anything else besides urban grooves because we are the foundation.
“We are still making music; we are still topping chats.
“We released an album last year and our track titled Blue Tick featuring Sanii Makhalima hit the number one spot on Power FM, another collaboration with Jah Prayzah called Maskodobo, is also doing very well at Radio Zimbabwe and actually got interviews for that track.
“Before this album, we had a track doing very well up until now titled Murudo Ndapengeswa Newe feat Nox, so by saying a comeback we’re not really sure, we’ve been right here,” he said.
Another star, Pauline Gundidza, believes they were a bit unfortunate.
“I think in essence the music industry was not yet ready for us, urban grooves was a revolution against what had been considered as the norm and with any new changes, there are bound to be some challenges, which some urban grooves artists managed to navigate through while others did not.
“But what I know is that we paved the way for the music industry to start developing into the new era that we see today and we captured the hearts of the people.
“I do not think the genre has been swallowed up, we still have artists from the urban grooves generation who are holding their own today, the likes of ExQ, Roki, Diana Samkange, Shinsoman, Maskiri, to name but a few,” she said.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter