Sting 2014: The cause of violence revealed

The future of Zimdancehall is currently hanging by the hair on the sword of Damocles. The communications and Marketing officer of the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) Catherine Mthombeni has announced that they are currently carrying out an investigation on the actual cause of violence that rocked the recently held Sting Show. Some are fearing that the worst can happen: Zimdancehall will get banned! But what really led to this fracas?

Our team managed to carry out an investigation that revealed a can of worms. We are not going to mention the names of the people who contributed as some of them are well known people in the Zimdancehall movement.

According to the Sunday mail Seh Calaz and Soul Jah Love were to be paid $250/minute. They were supposed to perform for 2hours! However, they only managed to perform for 15minutes as violence reared its ugly head. They ended up getting $3500 each.

We have managed to reveal that their performance was never meant to last for 2hours.It was supposed to end before those 2hours. The plan was that a premature end of the clash would enable the promoter to hold a 'part 2' of the show!

If they were to perform for 2hours then each of them would have pocketed $30 000.Combined the promoter was going to pay them a whopping $60 000!

Surprisingly, the promoter told the Sunday mail that he could only afford to pay only 30 police officers to protect the lives of the people yet he was willing to pay artistes such a ridiculous amount!

According to our source on the eve of the show, the promoter made a phone call to a certain big artist in Zimdancehall.He asked him to find ways to disrupt the much anticipated clash between Seh Calaz and Soul Jah Love. The idea was that if the artiste disrupts the showthen a round 2 clash will be organized.

All this would have played well for the promoter as he would not have to part with $60 000 and he was also going to make a fortune again when the clash would continue during another show.

However, the artiste declined the offer as he refused being used as a pawn and in the process tarnishing his reputation. Hence the promoter had to go back to the drawing board to come up with yet another 'Sun Tzu' strategy.

The police were quoted saying the teargas canisters thrown on that day where not registered in their system. The promoter knew where they came from. 

"The promoter paid the people who threw the teargas" our sources revealed. 

Our source went further to espouse that, "there is strong evidence to show that the promoter had a motive to begin with. Zimdancehall hall should not be banned but the promoter should be restricted in holding Zimdancehall shows. The promoter and his spokes person have been misleading the public and investigating police officers. they will do all it takes to cover up for the mayhem. if the promoter is serious in making sure that the culprit/s who unleashed the teargas are brought book then can he offer cash to an informer. definable someone saw the person who did this life threatening act.

Probably the promoter never contemplated that people would get injured. Or did he?

Qounfuzed and Platinum Prince forms Alliance

Platinum Prince and Qounfuzed

The two have defied Killer T's philosophy of not belonging to any group 'hatiite zvema group'. The two talented and controversial Zimdancehall chanters have joined hands to form a group. This group will be known as Ndururani a Shona term that describes a miscreant individual.

Qounfuzed has been embroiled in a lot of controversies of late. First, it was the incident at Harare gardens with Seh Calaz. Qounfuzed punched Seh Calaz in the face and attempted to take off in a car the Hollywood style. Then recently he was reported to have had his dreadlocks cut off with a scissors by Seh Calaz.

His ally Platinum Prince is not a stranger to controversy either. He made a name for himself after he had stolen a riddim from Sunshine and went on to record a song before the riddim was officially launched. As if it was not enough he released a song on the blackout riddim dissing a lot of artists. He has a couple of controversial songs and diss songs to his name. According to him he will never keep his mouth shut as long as he is alive!

Hip hop artist T Gonz is also part of the group. Currently they have no new recruits yet and the group has only three members. Its not clear whether the trio plans on recruiting more members to their camp or not.

Only time will tell whether their move will garner more controversy or not. Only time will tell but what is clear is that this group will release a lot of diss songs. Time will tell whether Qounfuzed, Platinum Prince and their ally T Gonz are planning on punching more artists or they will stick to lyrical onslaughts only.

The sky is the limit for these talented chanters. They have spiced up the Zimdancehall industry a little bit; they have given people what to talk about in the streets and on social networks. They have made nurses and doctors get a job to do: healing wounds! 

  

Punchline Entertainment in a groundbreaking deal with Telecel Zimbabwe

One of the country's biggest music marketing and Distribution Company Punchline entertainment has signed and sealed a deal with mobile service provider Telecel. Under this new development Punchline will be supplying to Telecel songs for their service known as teletunes.

Teletunes is a value added service that allows subscribers to choose a song to replace the traditional ringing tone that callers hear when they phone.Telecel is the first network to introduce this service, which has proved popular in countries such as South Africa, China, India and Kenya Subscribers are able to select a song of their choice from a wide variety of songs from local, regional and international artists.

This development is a milestone for local musicians that are being ripped off of their intellectual property by rogue music pirates who are making money at the expense of musicians. Music piracy has been a blight to the music community. Unlike in such countries like the USA were musicians make a fortune from selling their music on digital platforms like iTunes and amazon among others, back home musicians have to rely on shows and at times dealing with corrupt promoters who end up duping them or pay meager fees not commensurate with their performances.

As a panacea to the aforementioned Telecel Zimbabwe currently the second largest mobile phone network in Zimbabwe, with more than 2 500 000 active subscribers has introduced the teletunes service.

Punchline entertainment has one of the biggest online repository of dancehall music. Their website www.punchlineent.com promotes Zimdancehall songs all over the world. According to statistics by Apple Corporation their site was ranked as number 26 most popular website in Africa. “We are currently having an average of 7000 downloads per day “said Ash Boi who administers the website from his base in Australia.

The entity also has  whats app groups administered by South African based Prince Kelvin. These groups are dedicated to spreading Zimdancehall tunes ecumenically. 

Punchline has also meandered away from its traditional modus operandi of digital marketing to a more physical endevaour. Currently Punchline entertainment headed by Mr. Hillary Mutake hosts an event known as the 'sexy and lush Thursdays' at the popular  Airport lounge joint .On the 28th of June Punchline will be officially opening the Archipelago joint which had temporarily closed for refurbishments.

Punchline is embarking on a lot of projects “i started this venture 4years ago king and i am definite that we are really moving forward i want to see this entity reach magnanimous heights like Sony or Def. jam." said Hillary Mutake the brains behind this entity. Punchline has diversified from promoting Zimadancehall only, the stable has signed Chenai and Nyarai two talented sisters who do contemporary mbira grooves. The sky is definitely the limit for this hard working team

 

Whose who in Zimdancehall part 1:Punchline entertainment

PunchLINE Entertainment is an independent Zimdancehall record label, located in  Harare. It is best known for producing mainly Zimdancehall artists although it hosts a whole lot of genres. PunchLINE Entertainment record label was founded in 2010 by Hillary Mutake and was later joined by Leeroy “Deejay Stayera” Pasi.

 Hillary started the label after realising that there were so many artists who lacked exposure due to lack of marketing skills by the recording studios.With two great efforts combined, Hillary and Leeroy both based in Zimbabwe proved to be a force to reckon with as they brought some of the finest artists the world has ever seen.

 As their appetite for growth kept growing they introduced Jonathan Tapiwa Masendu who is based in South Africa to handle the Marketing side of artists hence the label saw the introduction of new artists from towns all over and beyond its borders. 

Floyd Mutambiranwa who is based in the United Kingdom joined the label in 2012 and was assigned as the label’s Chairman due to his vast knowledge and experience in the cooperate world, so he can engage companies to invest and sponsor in the great talent discovered by PunchLINE Entertainment.

 Prince Kelvin based in South Africa joined the entity as the whats app administrator and facebook page administrator. He established a titanic online marketing network making Punchline the number one Zimdancehall distribution label. 

Ash Boi based in Australia came in with his expertise in Informattion and Technology.He is the Web administrator for the Punchline entertainment website which according to the statistics from Apple corporation is ranked as number 26 most popular website in Africa. 

Ras Tiraz based in Zimbabwe joined the entity in 2014 as the Public Relations manager and he has embarked on a massive campaign to spruce up the image of the entity. 

Punchline entertainment has worked with artists like Badman Freeman lady Squanda to mention but just a few.The story of Zimdancehall will never be a complete stoty without mentioning Punchline entertainment.

The Reason Why Qounfuzed attacked Seh Calaz...

The Zimdancehall community was left in awe last Saturday as Zimdancehall artist Qounfuzed punched another artist Seh Calaz in the face. The social media were awash with a lot of speculations regarding this incident.

What motivated Qounfuzed to punch another artist resulting in him getting  incarcerated?Did he loose the lyrical war and concomitantly decided to end the war physically?

A source close to Qounfuzed has revealed that this incident was not a publicity stunt contrary to widely held speculation.For Qounfuzed the rivalry with Seh Calaz was never a personal issue at all, but rather a battle of creativity .However the latter took the issue personally,instead of responding to the former's songs,Seh Calaz decided to frustrate Qounfuzed's personal life .Seh Calaz started dating Qounfuzed's girlfriend and he went on to have sex with her!He took some pictures while in intimate positions with the girl and intentionally leaked them.

The girl was not even aware that she was being used as a proxy in this 'war'.Seh Calaz and his crew started frustrating Qounfuzed and bragging about how their 'boss' had meted out 'judgement' on Qounfuzed.Hence last Saturday Qounfuzed was merely 'fighting fire with fire'-the source revealed.

Intrestingly, Seh Calaz played innocent and appeared as the saint. He capitalised on the situation knowing that the whole world was oblivious to what he had done to provoke the wrath of Qounfuzed.He posted on his facebook that he was going to drop the charges and alot of people started blaming Qounfuzed for being a coward who could not end his battle with Seh Calaz lyrically.The whole world saddled the blame clause on Qounfuzed not being aware of the circumstances that lead to this fiasco. 

Qounfuzed says he does not regret the night he spent in the cells because it gave him the opportunity to reflect on alot of things in his life.However he regrets punching Seh Calaz even though the latter deserved it.Now his fans will think he is a violent character yet anybody in his shoes could have done the same or worse.He apologizes to all his fans and to all the parents of the children who looks up to him as their role model.He urges other artists not take things personally after all music is just an art. This incident taught him that all conflict must be resolved amicably. 

I WANTED TO MARRY BONA! SAYS T GONZ

At one point everyone desires something in their life. For men usually it is driving the latest car, having a nice house, a fat bank account and a beautiful woman. However for Tinashe ‘T Gonz’ Gonzara all of that never mattered in his life-the only thing that mattered was the idea of marrying the President’s daughter: Bona Mugabe. He has released a hip hop song titled: Mukwasha wa president( The president’s son –in-law)

In this humorous song he claims that he once sent Bona a message on Facebook, but she never responded. He even goes further to claim that he once waved her at the heroes acre, but she never noticed and never waved back. However, even though expressing his disappointment, he wishes Bona and Simba a happy lifetime. 

When he came to my office I quizzed him why he had decided to record a song for Bona. He told me how Bona had done a good thing which other girls must emulate. “Most girls are indulging in pre-marital sexual relationships with multiple partners, something which is very dangerous. But Bona has become the embodiment of good virtue” Said T Gonz. Initially, I was afraid to write this article but after he explained to me what motivated him to record this song I became more than willing to draft the article.

It’s not the first time for the rapper to dedicate a song to a married woman. He has a song titled: Dear Tererai (Mugwadi). In this song he was telling Tererai how he had developed a crush for her ever since he first met her at Chigutiro studios. He narrated how he at one time absconded school just to meet Tererai after being told by a friend that Tererai had returned from South Africa.

 

T Gonz has worked with a lot of artists in his promising career. He has worked with Cindy, Tererai Mugwadi, Maskiri to mention but just a few. He will be working on some videos sometime this year. The sky is definitely the limit for this artist who with no doubt will take the Zimbabwe music industry by storm.