THE African Hip Hop Blog, which was founded six years ago by Zimbabwean Ross Hagan as a passion project while he was attending Rhodes University, has been nominated in the Media Organisation category in this year’s Zimbabwe Achievers’ Awards ZAA to be held in London.
Tinashe Sibanda
Since its launch, the website has built a strong following and established itself as one of Zimbabwe’s and southern Africa’s largest urban music websites.
The African Hip Hop Blog covers music & events from all over the continent and its writers are from Zimbabwe, South Africa and Zambia. Other local artistes who have been nominated for this year’s ZAA’s include Jah Prayzah, Zimpraise, Hope Masike, Tehn Diamond and Junior Brown.
“We are honoured to be nominated for such a prestigious award alongside other leading names in the Zimbabwean community,” Hagan said.
Hagan also said it felt great to be recognised for all the hard work the team had put in over the last few years to grow the site to where it was today.
He said that whether they would win or lose, they were grateful for the nomination and the support of all their readers and the African Hip Hop community who they hoped would vote for them as well. “A special mention must be made for all the amazingly talented Hip Hop artistes in Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa, without whom we would not exist,” Hagan said.
Late last year, The African Hip Hop announced it was working on a project titled The Pungwe Sessions with Zimbabwean born super producer, Rymez, real name Rodney Hwingiri, to help expose Zimbabwean Hip Hop music to a global audience.
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So far, three singles have been released with the first single Phil Chiyangwa topping the ZiFM charts for almost two consecutive months. All three singles have been receiving air play on radio stations across Africa as well as regular spins in the Big Brother Mzansi house.
Phil Chiyangwa was co-written and performed by Junior Brown who has also been nominated along with his rhyming partner Tehn Diamond in the International Music Artist Category.
“I’m just excited and grateful for the nomination. I lie, I’m more surprised than anything. And to be nominated in not just the company of my brother Breezy, but the likes of Jah (Prayzah) and Hope too, that’s massive,” an ecstatic Tehn Diamond said.
The ZAA, which are now entering their fourth year, recently announced the nominations list for the upcoming awards show via their website.
The list, consisting of 80 nominees was whittled down from over 550 public nominations. The Awards will be held on May 10 at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, London.
