I spend a lot of time watching live telly and listening to podcasts, especially those that feature underdog artists, athletes, celebrities, thought leaders, and creatives. My favourite is Questlove Supreme because it’s a fun, irreverent and educational show where they somehow book many of my favourite creatives and human beings.
Questlove and the rest of the hosts are all music nerds and ask the kinds of questions I’d want to ask about specific songs, stories and rumours. As opposed to staying topical and doing the standard-issue “tell me where you were born” type of questions, they tend to go wherever the interview or show takes them as they dig deep into the stories of musical legends and cultural icons in a way that only QL and Team Supreme can deliver.
Now, there is a new visual podcast in Zimbabwe that evokes not only a homogeneous enthusiasm in me but even counts for much in its magnitude of being informative, messy, and overly interesting. The podcast is called (drum roll, please) Threesum.
With an offbeat combination of NeoSoul virtuoso Prayersoul, photo and videographer Zezuru Rockstar and radio personality Patience Musa, the conversation never goes in the direction you think.
“It’s the perfect zen zone, that laugh you’ve been waiting for and that moment of truth that you will see yourself in. The three will talk about everything…and unfiltered too – fun, infectious – the right amount of everything! It’s a Threesum you’ll be proud to indulge in with your parents…” write the Threesum camp in their official communique.
See, I was prepared to hate it when I first came across the show’s trailer last year. I had my “I’m gonna hate this shit” cup of tea ready to sip. I knew how gorgeous and thrilling Patience is, like she is an actual definition of what a gorgeour is; I knew how serene and levelheaded Prayersoul is, and I knew how crafty and blunt Zezuru is. That alone assured me in advance that the show or podcast rather was going to be everyone’s next obsession where folks watch to gain new insight on life and the day-to-day issues in today’s world and get their next conversation starter.
But I just couldn’t imagine sitting through a reconstruction of Wendy William’s show. Or BOMM: Black Opinions Matter. Or the Chicken and Jollof Rice podcast. Or Osagie Alonge, Steve Dede and Ayomide Tayo’s “Loose Talk”. Or Kevin Hates Hip-Hop. Or Busy Being Black. Okay, not that one but that’s almost entirely beside the point. The point is I just didn’t think it was going to work.
And then the show premiered on YouTube two weeks ago, and that cup of tea remained unsipped. I was captivated by their performances, the story, the production and just the spectacle of it all that I even stopped being bothered by the fact that it didn’t have a structure and the invisible banner in the background that conspicuously cautioned me “If you want structure, go somewhere else asshole.”
It was a show where you hear three disparate individuals talk about anything and everything. An invitation to primarily explore the urban-Harare culture, the folks picked and chewed cuisines from Zimbabwean double standards, pot-bellied men’s promiscuity, sextapes, the Rona, best sidechicks and food spots in Harare, and Tamy Moyo getting sexy and thick. Olala! It was all here!
Tell you what, I’ve seen nothing like this before in Zimbabwe. Maybe because there’s been nothing like this before. Watching this made me feel how I felt when discovering that eating shrimp and grits and bacon at the same time was actually a real thing you could order at restaurants and not just a fake meal dreamt up by me while drunk.
I know I’m weeks late with this, and some have even written or spoke about it (some dude named Gerald Mazhawidza even suggested they should rename the show to Pub-talk podcast), so this is a raindrop in a sea of acknowledgement. But fuck. Threesum Zimbabwe deserves all the flowers. Like literally every flower. Flowers should exist nowhere other than their living rooms.
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The podcast is both enthralling and relatable. I like that they do not deny their messy tendencies and, in fact, openly embrace them. That’s their brand, and fans love them because of it. Their “say it as you mean it” approach reminds me of the local busy-body someone takes out for wine to engage in petty gossip about people they know. They are the unpredictable but super fun friends you call when you want to dig up dirt on a frenemy.
Save for the indecorous tittle, it’s good TV you can binge with your mama and cousins but would get you in trouble if you play it when your pot-belly pops is around.
