Afro-Soul Trap Artist, Takura is what’s exciting about Zimbabwean Hip-Hop right now. A big critic of the genre myself, you should know this compliment does not come lightly. Takura came onto the scene as half of the Afro-Jazz duo Soul Afrika back in 2012/13. Not too long after the duo broke up for one reason or another which saw him pursue his own musical journey. With singles like ‘Zino irema’, ‘Ma-Obama’ it was clear there was something different about Takura’s approach to the general Zimbabwean understanding of Hip-Hop. His videos appealed to the audience that Zim-Dancehall dominated…‘ordinary’ low-income, high-density and urban dwellers-ghetto youths, his lyrics spoke into social commentary and related to everyday young Zimbabweans who had ambitions beyond their everyday struggles and circumstances across the class divides we so dearly cling to.
After releasing his first Album titled ‘Someone Had to Do it’ with some wavy-ass visuals and well arranged music, Takura, Mr. okay, okay, okay had scored yet another one for the underdogs. No, he isn’t a motivational speaker (yet) BUT this has translated Takura into some form of Musical Hero who really gets what the ‘people’ are going through.
This comes straight out of the Thuto aka Cassper Nyovest‘s playbook; and heck it’s been working and it’s paying too with notable endorsements from Smartphone giant G-Telecoms through jingles, ads and placements.
Speaking to Takura over the phone(see what we did there) he said,
“The response to SHTDi has been great, I think it’s because no one has really pushed this hard in the genre like mine, we retreat when people say we aren’t great but I’m proud of myself, I’m standing tall amongst the giants.”
The question, ‘what can Takura get wrong?’; might make for a great essay, although, as usual voices online might have a few pointers. In April of this year Takura shared his ambition to fill up Zimbabwe’s biggest conferencing venue with his own hero Cassper Nyovest if he got at least 5,000 retweets. Zimbabwean Twitter true to it’s messiness got into it with naysaying and cheer-leading in equal measure.
“this has been my dream for a while, and I had decided that I would do it when I was ready but I realised that you’re never ready so I tweeted….I’m taking all my chances with this and I intend to go further, we can’t keep celebrating the same Artists for ten years…how do we expect to grow? I hope I can inspire people to do things that I couldn’t. Zimbabwe doesn’t have a single genre all we need is the support…it’s not about numbers it’s about people willing to support and to go beyond what they call reality” responded Takura
A few naysaying influencers took to the web to give Takura some unsolicited advice for their own retweets we’re sure! One even went as far as to play onto Takura’s new album hashtag stating “#SHTSi Someone had to say it”, such phooey!
Takura hasn’t headlined a show in Zim, I think dai ambotanga ne fill up Centurion oimba hake 5songs dzake.
— Advocate Tuwe (@BatanaiTuwe) April 26, 2018
Takura was quick to highlight that hate wasn’t an unusual encounter and that he had his fair share of critics mostly from his peers as he rose,
“People hate and don’t realise where you’ve come from, no one knew me two years ago, now a good number do I recommend the people to look back on where I came from that’s how they’ll know that it is possible to rise.”
In all fairness the continent has had its own fair shares of Fill-Ups, from Orlando to FNB now HICC, we asked Takura what he hoped to achieve besides having 5,000 bodies vibing to his good ol’ trappy beats.
“First it’s creating a Culture, it’s not just about Fill up which was definitely inspired by Cassper, South Africa was almost l like Zimbabwe especially about House, no one expected somebody from Hip-Hop to pull such a thing off, to make such History but there’s space for everyone but to do it we need to be united to make this happen I’m going to do something that’s never been done, especially for Zim, it’s a big deal it’s not a joke…you’ll see what it’ll do, it’s going to change a lot of things in the industry” Takura gushed.
Regardless of the fact that the tweet is as we write just over 4,000 retweets; Takura confirmed that #FillupHICC is a go later this year. #ENTHUSE will drop the dates as soon as we get ’em and we’re hoping not only for his sake but for every Zimbabwean Creative with a dream, he pulls this off and proves the power of Art.
We’re rooting for you Takura baby!
What’s your take? Have your say in the comments or on Twitter @enthusemag or on Facebook.
