Mutodi vehemently disagreed that dancehall has outpaced sungura music, which has been dominant for decades. He ridiculed dancehall musicians as misguided youngsters instilling negative social values in the society through their foreign borrowed music.
“There is nothing good one can learn from these bad small boys’ music. They don’t even play live music but play CDs and only act on stage. Do you think a tourist coming from America or Europe will enjoy that music, when they are coming from countries where it is done best?” questioned Mutodi.
Bad attitude
The struggling sungura musician blamed the media for giving exposure to “artists whose music leaves society absolutely divided, apart from instilling bad behaviour, bad manners and bad attitude among the youth.”
Mutodi, who has been marred in one controversy after the other, risks trapping himself in another hostile confrontation with the ever increasing dancehall community.
Dancehall star Winky D received wide criticism from the dancehall community when he released the though-provoking single Mafirakureva, described by some as being disrespectful to the genre.
Last month, Tazoita Ca$h Records boss Stunner was forced to kick-out a budding rapper, Carlos Green, from his stable after the latter released a song dissing local dancehall artists. Chances are high Mutodi will receive the same criticism from various quarters of the local dancehall community.
Above 40
“Sungura has its own fans especially those above 40 years, while Zim-dancehall is for the youth. Who is Mutodi to force us to like his music?” asked Anderson Mhunzi, a dancehall fan.
“Saying dancehall is now the most listened (music) doesn’t mean that (Alick) Macheso no longer has following. It’s just averaging the audience. In as much as Macheso can fill a stadium, Sugar Sugar is singing for an empty stadium,” said Daniel Tonderai Muzana, adding that Leonard Zhakata once echoed such statements before the statistics.
Prolific urban music producer Joe Machingura of Heshi Mfeshi is of the view that Sungura has lost its steam. But he hastened to point out that the sungura sound would remain for generations to come.
“There is no doubt that sungura has taken a back seat this year and, in my view, dancehall is the most prominent genre at the moment. The genre has the greatest number of acts who have released hits this year. Their dominion is largely because people grow with their genre of choice.
“In this case, the youngsters who used to listen to dancehall decades back are now grown and can afford to buy the music and attend the shows. Some of them are now in strategic positions such as radio DJs and they tend to give prominence to their sound,” he said.
Post published in: Entertainment