Song Review: “The City That Got Killed” by Pekayna

Voice2Rep is a groundbreaking platform that aims to discover, develop and showcase the vocal talents of Zimbabwean youth. Now in its third year, this year’s cohort features 13 young men and women who have written and recorded songs about social ills that are affecting all of us in our communities. The project was born of a collaboration between Accountability Lab and the Magamba Network.

SOS save us all, yeah you gotta pray to the Lord, you gotta pray to the Lord is the opening chorus of Pekayna’s song “The City That Got Killed”. This segues into rap that gives us a glimpse into the singer’s hometown, Bulawayo. Deftly mixing English and Ndebele, accompanied by an electric guitar, and religious imagery, this mournful track is about poverty and its effects on the City of Kings and Queens.

SOS sink or swim she mournfully in tones. “The City That Got Killed” is in some ways, one of the weaker tracks on this album, mostly because of the incongruity of the musical production and the vocal delivery whether sung or rapped. Pekayna can be commended for her rap skills delivered in old school hip-hop style. At the end of the day, the track suffers from insufficient production mixing – it somehow doesn’t come together in the tight fusion of the other tracks on the album.

Still, Pekayna can be commended for painting a vivid picture of her home city – the city that got killed and the malaise for which she is ringing the alarm and calling out, SOS silence of speech, yeah I choose to speak. The music throughout most of the track is pared down, leaving her rap vocals to punch through front and centre, often with only a plaintive piano and an electric guitar accompanying what sometimes feels and sounds like a dirge. 

Pekayna says: The City That Got Killed is [about] Bulawayo, and how the society is suffering as a result of some political Judases who have betrayed the trust the people have had on them. I speak of how poverty has caused the society to sacrifice its morals, values and principles so that they can be sustained. I speak about issues of sexual abuse, prostitution, gender based violence and the need to have a people who rise above to herald and address such matters to help build lives in the city.”

Pekayna began singing in Grade 0 and joined the church choir in grade 4 where she began writing songs and discovered her passion for music. In a difficult industry for a woman to succeed in, she finds that music gives her a freedom of self-expression. “In my industry I love the fact that you get to speak out or I can say and express to the world what you feel is right or wrong is the message that you have through my career”.

As with many of the artists on the Vakuru album, this is only the beginning of a serious foray into the music industry, and Pekayna who has a few other tracks under her belt but which have yet to be released shows promise. In particular, her rap skills should be commended. Ultimately “The City That Got Killed” paints a vivid and haunting portrait of Zimbabwe’s second largest city

You can listen to this track and more on the “Vakuru” compilation album on streaming platforms (Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube) or by sending a message to +27600806146 on Whatsapp.