BY TAFADZWA UFUMELI
THERE has been continuous debate on the local showbiz scene as to who rules the roost between contemporary singer Jah Prayzah and dancehall chanter Winky D creating tensions among the duo’s fans.
No doubt, the two artistes are the country’s finest musicians who are all crowd pullers in their own capacities, but still comparisons always emerged as to who gathers bigger crowds.
However, comparing the two artistes can be like comparing salt and sugar, to appreciate which tastes the best, yet they all taste the best in their own domains.
The rivalry has, however, been downplayed by both Winky D’s Vigilance and Jah Prayzah’s Military Touch Movement camps.
As dancehall is associated with dirty lyrics, drug abuse and unruly behaviour, the young tend to side with this genre meaning Winky D’s fan base is likely to be more of the ghetto youths who are still trying to find a way of life and who are also probably victims of the country’s high unemployment rate.
On the other hand, Jah Prayzah’s contemporary, traditional, and Afro-jazz music seems to appeal and incline towards the more mature population, thus the working class and the old, as his music is not noisy as compared to dancehall.
When Jah Prayzah released his latest “meaningless” song Porovoka on Monday, some Winky D’s “worshippers” said a lot about the song that has an accompanying video leading to micro-blogging Twitter polls comparing the track to the then yet to be released Winky D’s tune and the poll statistics favoured the MuGarden hitmaker.
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The debate escalated yesterday after Winky D released two songs Ragga Msambo and David and Goliath which are, however, poor in terms of sound production. I have observed that many artistes tend not to work with professional producers and this affects the overall quality of the music.
Look at Jah Prayzah, the guy is just different when it comes to art and that is why he stands out, he puts a lot of work in his projects, he uses the same people for his projects and they always take time to prepare, and in return, they produce quality music.
The Kumbumura Mhute hitmaker has maintained his working relationship with Umsebenzi Ka Blaq, a video director who has produced amazing visuals not only for the “meaningless” song Porovoka.
I believe Winky D’s Gaffa Futi album was his best offering in terms of sound as it shows no signs of a rushed release.
On that album (Gaffa Futi), Winky D worked with seasoned producer Oskid on a number of songs and it turned out to be a good project that no doubt maintained the quality sound.
He also worked with Oskid on the album Njema giving it a firm sound standard.
However, Winky D’s two singles Ragga Msambo and David and Goliath, seem to have been poorly produced and rushed, though they passed through the hands of Oskid and Jusa Dementor.
The songs instrumentals were done by Jusa Dementor while Oskid took the responsibility to record, mix, and master the tracks.
The video of the song, however, shows great visuals though there is room for improvement to achieve the best output of quality music.
On a related issue, up-and-coming dancehall chanter Poptain released the song Tetena that has an accompanying video whose visuals could have been better if he had taken a bit of more time to work on them.
While the video could have been colour graded in a better way, the concept was great, but it contains a lot of (highlights) which messed up the quality of the video.
Meanwhile, Winky D and Jah Prayzah tonight clash at a potentially explosive show dubbed Best of Both Worlds at Harare International Conference Centre.
Only 100 fans will attend the show at the venue while the rest have to follow the proceedings virtually on the Gateway Stream music application from 6pm to 8pm in line with the COVID-19 lockdown regulations.
All is set to determine who will emerge the hero tonight as the jury is out. Follow us on Twitter @newsday
