Since his collaboration with Winky D, “Ibotso,” Holy Ten has become an artist who’s never far from controvesy. While his brash nature had long been evident in his lyricism (“Kupera kuitasei? Chimbovhunza Maskiri.” – Gundamwenda, circa 2021), this was a turning point in the personality he would allow the public to see.
From there on, the artist has grabbed more headlines for his antics than his music, even though there’s no denying that he’s one of the most talented figures in Zimbabwean music. Holy Ten himself seems to have an understanding of just how great his talent is. Whenever a scandal threatens to overshadow the music, he unveils a new release, then suddenly the conversation shifts from drama to music.
There has long been a global conversation about separating the art from the artist, and the public’s position on this has often been determined by the particular act in discussion. While the likes of Chris Brown dominate this global discussion, locally the central figure is Holy Ten.
From trading diss tracks with Voltz JT, to insulting Winky D in a slew of interviews and being a “leader of the youth” who revels in misogyny, Holy Ten seems teflon to the impact of his words. Last year he was booed off stage at Unplugged after his words towards N.O.P Makoni, Voltz’ NAMA award winning album, were not taken well by the audience, and he proceeded to fall off stage while intoxicated at the Harare Cup Clash later that night. This didn’t even put the slightest dent in his ego.
At some point 2025 seemed to be the year he might have gone too far and his cavlar vest might fail him, but once again his musical ability has rescued him.
After going on the Ollah7 podcast and insulting his wife, his fans and even Zimbabwe’s “ambassador at large” Uebert Angel, which would get Ollah7 arrested (and cause Holy Ten’s album launch to flop), Holy Ten went quiet for 2 months. He came back with an album announcement and the promise of being a changed man.
The public bought into his and the album he released being some of his best work ever helped to heal the rift his past utterances had caused.
Yet a few weeks later (days to be more accurate), after the failure of the “Personal” video, the promises to be better were forgotten and Holy Ten had insults for Voltz JT and misogyny for Voltz’ manager – Rain Midzi, and Fadzayi Mahere. This was met with widespread disappointment and it felt like this might be the final nail in his coffin but once again, new music arrived from the artist.
The “Hondo Freestyle” came first, and it’s reception was lukewarm, but then came “Wazora” and this raced to 100,000 views on YouTube barely 24 hours after release. The conversation once again shifted. Controvesy replaced by the music. Holy Ten seemingly doing it again, but how many chances can he have? Are we now not facilitators of his behaviour?
While on the overall this works him, Holy Ten is limiting himself from the career he could’ve had. He cuts his own album cycles to just a month and while being the most brilliant artist in the country over the last 5 years, he doesn’t have a NAMA nomination to his name. If the public won’t ostracise him into change then maybe his own ambitions will.
We will have to wait for the next saga to see what will run out first, Holy Ten’s talent or the public’s tolerance for drama.
