INspire

FRIDAY Knight

Music, Politics, Fans and below 5% Artists

by Mazuba Mwiinga

I am not that easily impressed by what is called Zambian music today. Who cares, one may say; I am just one little voice inside an empty drum of fuel. But play any track of Danny Siulapwa, well no-one beats me on the dancing floor. That I can bate on my forbidden fruit.

Then a day after 2016, my friend and I visited Muyanganas in Kafue. One Chester, was hosting the revellers with his fellow musicians. And I was like; what on earth is that one tickling my limbs! As they say the rest is history. He joined Danny on my list of my favourite Zambian music artists.

I am not a good judge of character. Wouldn’t it be wiser if I was? Like watching the movie ‘Lucy’ where one attains the full capacity of their brain? Alas, many of us only manage five per cent of the whole medulla oblongata stuff! Until recently when the trite phrase of looks deceives, came true, when I was forced to think some of our favourite music artists may be using just below five per cent of their brains!

In the beginning there was a word. Well, was it a statement spoken or a voice recited or a lyric produced? Doesn’t that tell one-world order that certain careers aren’t personal but universal? That when one indulges in them, one unifies the entire human race? Where there was sorrow, comes joy just because someone has listened to a lyric, regardless of what tongue produced it? Kalimba, salsa, rumba, chi-ching, kabbanjo, kankobela, kalumbu, sinjonjo – name any and I will show you no boundaries on who should listen to it. Isn’t it that in music all the souls of the universe merge into one?

Haven’t we seen them rise like a rocket headed to Space with fame and delight; and suddenly fall from grace like rotten mangoes the moment they fall in love with politics? Check them out brand today brings shivers in the ears of those who applauded it a few months ago. Was it because of the court case or the political line it took? Wasn’t it that the court case brewed even more fame of sympathy and freedom for singing while behind bars? Where is the story today?

Who remembers Bikkiloni and friend after RB lost the vote? The two, too lost property. And what was the story of one D Crazy? The Dochi brand, like a boomerang came back for his neck. High sensed music artists think bigger than the pot belly of politics. Isn’t music is a social science and those behind it sent to speak for the voiceless? Rebranding your brand is as good as buying a bra whose purpose is to create a cleaverage for attention. As the size of the boob changes, depending on the body morphology changes, so is the old bra disposed of and new one recruited to carry to the job.

Chest wasn’t meant for public consumption; unless one adds –er to the noun to spice up the day before public humiliation calls in for duty.