We’ve had enough of dancehall acts!

heads in ragga music will be coming to Zimbabwe country in a few weeks’ time.
Vegas, without doubt, has been one of the most consistent dancehall artistes of his time and what has been remarkable about his career is his ability to shy away from trouble.

Vegas could be described as the poster boy of good dancehall music behaviour due to his usually clean lyrics and somewhat sanitised gospel influenced lifestyle. For him to be coming to these shores is a good plus for our country and will definitely show that Zimbabwe is one of the best places to be or hold a gig.
Vegas becomes one of the very many Jamaican artistes we have seen coming to Zimbabwe and the trend or fad is continuing as I hear that Jah Cure might be coming to this country as well. Though I am very delighted to see so many foreign acts coming here especially my childhood idols I just think something is just not right.

It seems as if we are having an overdose of dancehall artistes coming to this country, if the trend we have seen so far is anything to go by. A lot of reggae artistes have come here some poor in quality like Brick and Lace and others mediocre like Maxi Priest and excellent ones like Beenie Man have all been here.
But I mean for how long shall we still be having this ragga muffin stuff on our plates?

I feel we have had enough of it.
Dancehall has been the in-thing of late and we have enjoyed the groups and acts that have been coming here but I think we have had an overdose and need another genre maybe.
I still remember that at high school, my English teacher, the good old Mr Mutshiya used to emphasise that too much of one thing is not good and I got thinking about this when I checked the foreign acts coming here.

We have had so many ragga and reggae artistes flocking to this country in the past three or so years such that I think our market has been saturated. There should be a shift to new grounds.
It’s ironic that these dancehall acts we are embracing here have made a paradigm shift from where they used to see Europe and North America as their cash cows, to now viewing Africa as the next biggest economic partner.

I believe if you see one dancehall artiste you have seen them all as their music is usually lumped together like what happens on the riddims, where a melody is made and different acts ride over the same beat.
From what I have seen people were keen on the reggae artistes due to curiosity but now they have their hands full of these selectors such that they need something different.

I might go to the Vegas show (that’s if he comes) but I won’t mind missing it if something more enticing comes up.
When Beenie Man came here I made it a point, that come what may I would not miss his show except after a close bereavement took place. I know our promoters have to make money when they bring in these foreign acts but I think some of them are just acting out of sentiment rather than reason in bringing some of these performances here.

It makes better musical sense if these promoters were to put much more effort and resources in grooming and developing our local talents rather than eyeing a quick buck from these Jamaicans.
Zimbabwe is no way different from Jamaica. We are both third world countries trying to make a mark on the big stage and if we are to learn from Jamaica how they have managed to be a world superpower in music we can see how we can rise ourselves.
Jamaicans have always been proud of themselves such that it is rare to hear of a successful reggae artiste without any Jamaican influence. That’s what we have to do now and rally behind our urban groovers who I

think carry the identity of Zimbabwean music at the moment.
The urban grooves although they sounded foreign at first; are now truly Zimbabwean sounds not mistakable with any music world over. Now we have a chance like what the South Africans did to have their own truly lekker sound in Kwaito which is seriously local though with some foreign infusions.

Templeman and company who want to bring Vegas here must make sure that they use that platform to expose and market some of our local talents. It doesn’t make any sense to see P Squared from Nigeria having a song with renowned stars like Snoop Dogg yet , where talents is, there is nothing.