RAP music is traditionally associated with violence, protest, filthy language and gangsterism. But a young local female rapper, Chido Valerie Mbuvah — popularly known as Cverb — is reinventing the wheel.
BY ABIGAIL MATSIKIDZE
As a Christian, she is slowly establishing herself with clean lyrics gospel rap in an arena dominated by male artistes.
Cverb believes that women have the same abilities as men and there is much more to rap gospel music since it has its own unique way to educate and preach the good news about Jesus Christ.
“However, it sometimes gets overwhelming in a male dominated industry. I also wanted to educate people on how Christian rappers can still bring hot bars and not compromise their beliefs because the God I believe in does not do substandard work so why should we?” she told NewsDay Weekender.
Not only does she reach out with the gospel through rap music, but Cverb is also very good with her language as a poet.
“I have been in love with rhythm and rhyme for as long as I can remember and started writing poetry when I was 11. I later picked up rapping in 2013 and my love for music emanates from my entire family and their different tastes in music came down to me as the last born and formed this diverse preference in me,” she said.
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Cverb is also determined to help empower every undermined woman in Africa, who are taught that they are fields in life meant for men only and have faith that they can fit in any situation in life “I’m also passionate about women empowerment, how we as women can make it to the top of whatever we set our minds to do. And I believe any woman out there can be anything they want or dream to be,” the rapper said.
“Music and poetry is ministry on its own as it inspires many regardless of their beliefs and rap is a different kind of Christian ministry. It cuts across the border of believers and non-believers.”
Currently, there are groundbreaking Christian rappers such as Prophecy and Courtney Antipas, whose music has impacted the youths in an immeasurable way because of its high quality content and instrumentation.
In her six-track album, Cverb explores the power of resilience in a lifetime life of a female Christian rapper, who stands out and achieves her dream.
“I have always been that girl, who got along with boys more than girls, so I tended to have some tomboy traits here and there, but it faded as grew older and became more in touch with my lady side and this all shown in my Cverb image,” she said.
Having collaborated and shared a stage with Courtney Antipas, Michael Musekiwa and Noel Borerwe, Cverb said she discovered that people are warming up more to hip hop and engaging more into poetry and at this rate Christian hip hop and poetry can also take a sit as one of Zimbabwean genres.
“I admire Noel and other rappers I once worked under them and I have learnt to embrace my talent and use it as a tool to speak life to lost souls out there,” she said, adding that rap music may be considered ungodly, but it can be used to ignite a Christlike lifestyle in the younger generation.
Cverb said through rap music, she preaches freedom in Christ and the need to pursue a personal relationship with God rather than leaving to please people.
“I see myself expanding globally and growing as an artist and inspiring ladies into following their dreams too. Because my upcoming album is definitely a raw dishing out of my heart, a lot of diverse tempos throughout the album and something you can listen to with your elderly loved ones and the kids too,” she said.
