The Sunday Mail
Creative lyrical content within the dancehall genre seems to be fast becoming a challenge as artistes are now concentrating more on dissing each other.
It is disheartening to note how artistes with potential to strike it big are fast losing the plot by directing their energy towards hate and dirty lyrics.
Zim dancehall artistes seem to believe they can quickly rise to stardom by launching verbal attacks at each other or using dirty lyrics.
The cancerous culture which has been adopted from countries like Jamaica and the United States presently stands as a big threat to the fast rising dancehall genre.
It appears as if dancehall music has become a channel for the spread of negative messages within society since innumerable dancehall songs border on sacrilege and dissing.
Definitely that is not the way to go!
The hate-laden lyrics not only incite hatred among the artistes, but also extends to the fans.
Sometime this year, at the inaugural Zim dancehall awards, a fatal case was reported after a young man believed to be from a rival camp was heavily assaulted for throwing a bottle at Winky D, real name Wallace Chirumiko, in protest of his victory.
And the tragic lesson seems not enough for the dancehall artistes as they continue churning out the diss tracks.
Presently, a track attributed to Soul Jah Love has lyrics dissing Seh Calaz and Kinnah.
However, the “Gum-kum” hit maker has since distanced himself from the track.
Dancehall followers say the track is a retaliation of an earlier attack on Soul Jah Love done by the Mabhanditi advocate.
The youthful chanter, Seh Calaz, who has also grabbed headlines for violence over women with fellow artiste Quonfuzed, was recently embroiled in a nasty war of words with Soul Jah Love and his wife Bounty Lisa was dragged into the fight and verbally attacked in the song “Life Yemboko”.
To his defence, Seh Calaz said he was merely responding to Soul Jah Love’s song “Ndine Musindo”.
He (Seh Calaz) boasts that he is at the top of the diss game. Critics argue that he might be a talented musician but his obsession with dissing is going to be his downfall.
But this is not to say the aforementioned chanters are the only ones involved in this crude way of doing business.
The list of dancehall artistes that are always on each other’s throats is endless.
Erstwhile rivals Sniper Storm and Winky D have also mocked each other.
Their diss tracks are camouflaged, leaving the fans to do the math for themselves.
Perhaps, as seasoned dancehall artistes, they borrow the trait from established musicians from other genres that have gone on to pen songs for each other but without necessarily revealing their cards.
For instance, after the controversy at the Mavado Show, Sniper released a single titled, “Hapana Hapana”, which used clever lyrics that seemed to respond to Winky D’s “Sando Dzangu”.
Winky D, the man who is arguably at the helm of the genre, has somewhat decided not to engage in personal battles with every artiste that crosses his path.
Instead he has come up with compositions that deals with groups.
Lyrics like “vanovenga, ngavavenge zvavo, ini life yangu irikufaya,” and “Ini ndini Messi WeReggae,” sums it all up.
And with this trend, aspiring local dancehall artistes can be pardoned for assuming that dancehall is all about dissing.
What with one artiste showering praise for a dreaded lot, terrorists, through lyrics like, “Tirikupinda Pachi Terrorist”. And such tracks have unfortunately found their way on to national airwaves.
Jamaican-born artiste Trevor Hall aka Ras Jabu contends that dancehall music must be kept pure.
He is always urging local dancehall artistes to be more creative and desist from promoting violence in their music.
“Local dancehall chanters must be creative and positive in composing their songs.
“They must stay away from dissing each other, which is dangerous since lyrics are influential,” Ras Jabu said.
