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Tafadzwa Zimoyo Arts Reporter
The organisers of the annual Zimbabwe hip-hop Awards have extended the dates for entry submission from the deadline of October 31 to November 7 2015. The week long extension is as a result of overwhelming response from artistes who are still flocking to the organisers with their works. Entries are being submitted at Jan Jam stores The annual awards will be held in December at 1+1 Longchen Plaza running under the theme “Five Year Anniversary”.
In an interview, awards administrator Sean Campbell, said all is going according to plan and nothing has changed so far except for the dates.
“We have seen the need to extend the dates for submission for the awards nomination by one week. This is because more are still coming and we chose to be lenient. The awards are for the people by the people. Remember we have re-branded the show following controversy and negative feedback that have previously trailed the ceremony,” he said. Campbell said they are still maintaining the 20 categories.
“This year is different as we have embarked on a re-branding exercise aimed at producing a different package with 20 categories on the line. Some of the categories include ‘People’s Choice’, ‘Best newcomer and Best Female and Male’ among others,” he said.
He said of late they have been a series of meetings with stakeholders and artistes. “So far, so good and our stakeholders meetings are fruitful with some of the top local hip hop gurus from musicians, producers, disc jockey, studio companies and writers coming together in a bid to make this year’s edition bigger and better,” he said.
“We have a new team which is now working with the founder of the awards show, Adrian, popularly known as Beefy. We have not taken over but we are working together. We want to bring sanity, the classy image and style. I am not saying these attributes were not there previously, but a lot of negative stories have been going around and we are just happy to be working together,” he said.
Campbell said they have also involved gurus like Mau Mau and Fred Zindi among others. “The awards ceremony is very big and like I said before we promising a lot of fireworks but this will be good if we have the pioneers in the music sector so we have their input. We have engaged gurus like Fred Zindi and Mau Mau among others so as to have a feel of genre in all ages,” he said.
He said they are hosting a nomination party end of this month. “We are hosting a nomination party at The Volt, where we will have more than hundred hip-hop artistes from as far as Mutare, Bulawayo, Masvingo, Gweru Kariba and Harare of course. The party will give platform to the upcoming hip-hop musicians to exchange notes with the top dogs,” he said.
Asked about the prize money for the awards he said they have engaged a local company to work with the help of South African award-making firm to come up with the prizes.
“We won’t change the gong style but we are just adding a little bit of flavour. So far a local company is giving us several designs and we will choose the best but we are also working hand in hand with a South African company that I can’t disclose now because of our contract but all I can share is they have designed some of the regional awards gongs,” he said.
Online Reporter