Category: Mhanzi
-
Drunken Piper – King Kwela Spokes Mashiyane
Click or not: Drunken Piper – King Kwela Spokes MashiyaneKwela pennywhistler Johannes “Spokes” Mashiyane (1933-1972) is one of the most influential names in African music. Sitting atop the loose genealogy of South African movements from kwela and mbaqanga to kwaito and amapiano, Mashiyane is also an old head in the township music renaissance of Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho and other scenes. …
-
Is Tocky Vibes the Next Tuku?
Click or not: Is Tocky Vibes the Next Tuku?As if it is not mathemagical enough working out how Tuku did 66 albums in 42 years – a yearly album for each of his 66 years on earth – Tocky casually dropped four projects in 2019 alone. At a conservative rate of three albums per year, Mr Vibes will have recorded 100 albums by… …
-
Hokoyo Is a Great Zimbabwean Album
Click or not: Hokoyo Is a Great Zimbabwean AlbumHokoyo Is a Great Zimbabwean Album I have previously written some of the harshest criticism of Jah Prayzah, unimpressed by his easing into an undemanding, bubblegum template. The songs worked for his high-octane, fast-paced performances but were socially distant “music about music.” As Jah Prayzah got more polished, he gave up his original vulnerability and… …
-
The Solo Years of Biggie Tembo
Click or not: The Solo Years of Biggie TemboThe Solo Years of Biggie Tembo Out of Africa is the more solid artwork, spawning memorable hits like the poetically cryptic “Punza” and the politically assertive “Mozampique.”Baba of Jit is, on the other hand, filled with themes of loss, subdued, resigned, sorrowfully see-through, nostalgic for career highlights without quite recapturing them, content with literalist songwriting and reflective… …
-
10 Zimbabwean Breakup Classics
Click or not: 10 Zimbabwean Breakup Classics10 time-tested jams, featured in no particular order, to help you enjoy your heartbreak. Sizeably genre-defining and record breaking, they prove that no songbird sings more movingly than the one with broken wings. …
-
How Mono Mukundu Got His Groove
Click or not: How Mono Mukundu Got His GrooveNot yet 50, Mono has played more than 1000 albums, sungura, chimurenga, reggae, rhumba, even holding his own as the go-to guitarist for the Pentecostal community. …
-
Lovemore Majaivana’s Totem Feast
Click or not: Lovemore Majaivana’s Totem FeastOnai Mushava discusses the metaphysical dimension of Zimbabwean mbaqanga pioneer Lovemore Majaivana’s music in the context of Ndebele orature. …
-
The Butterfly Dialectic
Click or not: The Butterfly DialecticThe Butterfly Dialectic Karl Marx is out of a job in black America. His last prophet, Cornel West, beats a grumpy retreat from blackface capital everywhere he turns. The culture, with its emphasis on appearance and acquisition, is not so much an ideology as it is an ontology. “Money trees is the perfect place for shade”… …
-
Michael Lannas Inspired By Migrant Workers
Click or not: Michael Lannas Inspired By Migrant Workers“I grew up in what was Rhodesia. At a very early age (three or four years) I fell in love with African music. I would wake up at 5am to the sound of African migrant workers singing as they made their way to work at the Makgoweng (the place of the white people),” Lannas recalled. …
-
Poptain Got the Right Mix
Click or not: Poptain Got the Right MixZimdancehall newest star, Poptain, brings to the craft a mix of social consciousness, intricate wordplay, effortless cadence and casual patois fluency. The animated lyric video for his latest single, Freedom, may belatedly bring music lovers up to speed with his song writing abilities, but the underrated chanter has been ably grinding underground for half a… …