The Sunday Mail
This year alone we have witnessed several new Zim-dancehall artists making their way to stardom.
Some of these artists include the man-of-the-moment Obey ‘‘Tocky Vibes’’ Makamure, Saul ‘‘Soul Jah Love’’ Musaka, Kelvin ‘‘Killer T’’ Kusikwenyu, Alban ‘‘Terminator’’ Nyatsamo, Tafadzwa ‘‘Ras Caleb’’ Kadzimwe and Tawanda ‘‘Seh Calaz’’ Mumanyi.
There are also some who created their brands some few years ago and are still going strong.
Wallace ‘‘Winky Dee’’ Chirumiko, Ras Pompy, Romeo ‘‘Shinso’’ Antony, Emmanuel ‘‘Guspy Warrior’’ Manyeruke, Emergy ‘‘Freeman’’ Chizanga, Darlington ‘‘Dadza Dee’’ Zhanje and Tulani ‘‘Ricky Fire’’ Takavada, among others, fall into this gategory.
One would be fooled into believing that only male artists are perfoming in the genre, yet there are female artists too.
One wonders: where are the female Zim-dancehall artists? Why do they seem invisible?
The likes of Lady Bee, Lady Squanda, Ninja Lipsy, Darulla and Empress Shelly are doing quite well but they are not being recognised as much as the male chanters.
Female Zim-dancehall artists speak out
Some of the female artists put the blame on the society in general. They say our society is patriachal such that women are not taken seriously in every sphere.
“As much as we may try to work hard in order to compete with males in the industry, our efforts are all in vain as people do not take us seriously,” said Tendazvaitwa ‘‘Ninja Lipsy’’ Chitimbe.
“Even if our music is promoted through the distributions of the disk to kombi drivers like how the males do, we never hear our music being played as much as the guys’.”
Lipsy added, “In general women are somehow jealous of each other. If one female artist starts rising, the others get jealous and start saying all sorts of bad things to tarnish their image.
“Maybe we need to be united and support each other for us (female artists) to be visible in Zim-dancehall.
“The other challenge we face is the inability to adapt to the street language that most chanters use to sell their music.
“Most of the time we will be doing house chores while the guys are roaming in the streets getting familiar with new ghetto sayings.”
Another female Zim-dancehall artist Dorothy ‘Darulla’ Karingo said society has negative stereotypes on female MCs.
“Since the origins of the genre, it was dominated by men and only a few females,” said Darulla.
The artists also indicated that there are cases were producers ask them for sexual favours.
“On the other hand I strongly feel that if you are talented you will be recognised. In most cases when a riddim is released, artists record several different songs on it but, only a few can draw the audience’s attention. Therefore, we need to produce quality crowd pulling products for us to be visible,” said Darulla.
Zim-dancehall producers speak out
Zim-dancehall producers dismissed the allegations levelled against them with regards to sexual favours. Instead, they claimed, female artists are are too risky to invest in.
“In most of our projects, we agree with artists to record without paying on a condition that after his or her project is complete, we will recover our costs and earn a mark-up,” said Kudzai ‘‘Mad P’’ Gahadzikwa, a producer from Legendary Music.
“However, working with women on such projects, there is a high risk of incurring losses because they are not as dedicated to music as men. All successful local artists I know have so much dedication to their work to the extent that they can work day and night especially if there are persistent power cuts.
“Women are difficult to work with because they have curfews and you cannot work with them overnight without being suspected of other intentions.
“This is one of the reasons why most producers find it difficult working with women. Some also demand cash up front.”
In a separate interview, Chill Spot producer Anorld ‘‘Fantan’’ Kamudyariwa said female talents are scarce.
“As Chill Spot our main aim is to promote talent and it seems the talented female chanters are never available,” said Fantan.
“In some cases you may see one or two coming for recording but after that you don’t see them coming again to push for their talent. At the end of the day we only focus on artists who show seriousness in pursuing their careers.”
Zim dancehall promoters speak out
It is no secret that promoters always show devotion where there is potential for returns. In every musical show that is held, the point is to entertain the fans and harvest maximum returns.
Therefore, promoters invite crowd pullers.
Unfortunately, in most cases only male artists are invited as a result as their music is greatly appreciated by the audience.
One of the promoters, Patson “Chipaz” Chimbodza said female chanters are not silent but they are practically not there.
“The main reason why there are few female artists in Zim-dancehall is that there are no icons to inspire the upcoming. Male Zim-dancehall artists are being inspired by other prominent talents such as Soul Jah Love or Tocky Vibes. There are a lot of talented girls in the industry but they are lacking guidance because there are no female artists in the genre who can lead by example.”
Artists’ managers speak out
The managers have got a major role to play on the overall performance of their artist. This makes them responsible for the invisibility of female Zim-dancehall artists.
Are they promoting and marketing their female chanters enough?
However, some of them are pointing fingers back at their artists saying they are not working hard enough.
Lady Squanda’s manager Stan ‘‘Minox’’ Chizanda said there is need for competition for the female chanters to become visible.
“I honestly feel that there is no competition, Zim-dancehall for female artists is still weak and for that, people are not giving these artists some attention,” said Minox.
“People want to listen where there is competition, competition on its own is a marketing strategy.
“If more talented female artists rise, automatically they start being visible.”
On the other hand, Chris ‘Boss Chris’ Chikwature who manages Ninja Lipsy has put the blame on the media.
“These female artists are working hard to pursue their musical career but, the only problem is that they are not being covered by the media,” he said.
“As artists’ managers, we try to invite the media to functions where these female chanters will be performing but journalists do not come to cover such events.”
He said female Zim-dancehall artists once launched a ‘Microphone of Hope’ compilation but it was only covered by a single paper.
ln September, female artists also came together with an initiative to fight child abuse, child marriage and rape, among other vices affecting women and children through Zim-dancehall music.
