adminShingirirayi Mugodi
XTRA Large’s dynamic duo of Jimmy Mangezi and Norman Manwere are set to release an album which chronicles the journey they have travelled together.
Titled ‘‘Abnormal Load,’’ the pair’s 12th album comes with videos.
In an interview with H-Metro, Jimmy said they encountered a lot of challenges in their journey.
“We are going to be releasing our 12th album soon.
“So, what we have been doing, since we started music, is that we release an album each and every year. We sort of took a break and this 12th album marks our comeback in the music industry.
“We have been releasing singles though and they have gotten great responses from the fans,” said Jimmy.
He assured their fans there were no fillers on this album.
“The album has got 10 amazing tracks. In the meantime, we have named the album ‘‘Abnormal Load’’. It means that the album has an abnormal load of heavy tracks,” he told H-Metro.
He said that they decided to capture their musical journey.
“The album mainly talks about our journey, where we started and how we have been trying to preserve the flavour, feel and the Zimbabwean identity.
“It was inspired by the Zimbabwean society, the day-to-day living in Zimbabwe.
“When we did a collaboration with the guys from Burkina Faso, we tried to make them understand our Zimbabwean culture because there is a certain way we handle ourselves that identifies us as Zimbabweans,” he said.
Jimmy added: “Mainly, it was inspired by the Zimbabwean lifestyle because it tackles Zimbabwean issues.
“We are social commentators so in a way we are commenting on what we have seen and continue seeing in the society.”
Asked if they had collaborated with other artists, Jimmy explained: “There are different collaborations on the album.
“We have one international collaboration with a guy from Burkina Faso named DJ Ozi, and it was also produced there.
“On the other collaboration, we featured Roki.
“Roki and Xtra Large, we are family, we also featured ExQ and Maskiri.
“Other collaborations are surprises for our fans because we did collaborations with local renowned artists,” he told H-Metro. Like most of his peers, Jimmy conceded they were also affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This pandemic hit us hard when we least expected it as we were dependent on live shows and going out there.
“As performing artists, we were affected a lot because this is where we get our remuneration as there is a low sale of tracks in this country and royalties do not pay that much.
“The pandemic, however, helped us in a way as we got time to focus more on our work, making meaningful music that is not hurried. It has been a wake-up call for us musicians whereby we now have a way to deal with certain issues and our fans are lucky because they are getting music that has been properly done,” he said.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter