The Sunday Mail
Rising Zim dancehall artiste Ronald Salirana, popularly known as Ninja Kabhidha, seems to have finally arrived as far as music is concerned.
With hundreds of artistes battling for recognition in the extremely competitive Zim dancehall genre , it is not easy to get into the limelight.
For this 18-year-old, his breakthrough came when he recorded “Kuseta Pace” on the recently launched Xmas Money Riddim at Chill Spot Records.
And the song has become a hit, receiving airplay on local stations.
True to his Vigilance Music roots, Ninja Kabhidha’s tone and lyrical content is similar to that of his mentor Wallace Chirumiko aka Winky D.
In “Kuseta Pace”, it is easy to tell that he is a product of the Vigilance family.
Winky D’s manager, Jonathan Banda, who is currently mentoring the teenage artiste, said Kabhidha has a lot of positive messages in his music.
“He has a unique talent of conveying constructive messages to the youth, especially in the ghetto.
He is set to go far,” said Banda.
“Kabhidha has huge potential to grow big and our role is to reinforce what he can do, in the same way that we reinforced Tocky Vibes’ talent a few years ago when he was still doing his Form Two,” he said.
“Zim dancehall music is not for us alone but for all the communities surrounding us. The music is meant to bring a positive change among the youth and artistes such as Kabhidha are on the right track.”
Banda added that he would have loved to unleash Kabhidha’s works in 2014, but due to his heavy workload, Ninja Kabhidha’s work with Vigilance Music will only be released at the end of this month.
Ninja Kabhidha confirmed that he is working on his debut album with Vigilance Music and it is set to be released at the end of this month.
Under the management of Trust ‘‘Sparks’’ Nyatsanga, the teenager had outstanding performances at Mverechena Hotel in Domboshawa on Christmas Day, leaving Zim dancehall fans clamouring for more.
He recently recorded several freestyles on different riddims, these have gone viral on social media.
In a separate interview with Ninja Kabhida, he said his music is strongly inspired by Winky D.
Said Ninja Kabhidha: “Winky D is my role model; he inspires me in pursuing my musical career. Originally my stage name was Kabhidha, but the fact that I am being groomed at Vigilance Music, where Winky D and Layaan are based, established local radio DJs started calling me Ninja Kabhidha.”
He said he struggled to be recognised over the past three years while recording his music in “underground recording studios”.
Ninja Kabhidha released his first song in 2011 with Edward “Equivalent” Ndia, a producer at Parliament Studios in Mbare.
He went on to record the song “President” on the Silver Screen riddim, “Hatibatike” in 2012 on the Monstership riddim which was produced by T Fresh from Chitungwiza, and “Tsikamutanda” which was produced by Equation.
However, some of these songs did not see the light of day while others only received a little airplay for less than a month.
Ninja Kabhidha’s musical career started gaining momentum last year when he released his single “Mbakumba Like”, a song inspired by Winky D’s “Sungura Like”.
The chanter was born and raised in Chitungwiza where he attended his primary school at Seke 6 Primary School from 2001 to 2008. He did his secondary education at Seke 6 High School from 2009 to 2014.
He is the first born in a family of four.
Ninja Kabhidha says that initially his parents discouraged him from pursuing music as a career, insisting that he had to continue studying and get a much more respectable profession.
“Since I am the first born in my family, my parents had high expectations for me as they believed that I should lead my siblings by example.
“It was only a few months ago that they accepted what I do and started giving me support.”
