{"id":90896,"date":"2021-10-26T15:12:47","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T13:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/?p=90896"},"modified":"2021-12-02T15:54:01","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T14:54:01","slug":"zimbabwe-artists-to-follow-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/zimbabwe-artists-to-follow-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe: artists to follow in 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The modern Zimbabwean sound is a fusion of local and international genres curated by various native music producers. For example, Tamuka \u201cDj Tamuka\u201d Mponda-Makuluni of Mushroom Media, who recently executive produced Nutty O\u2019s critically acclaimed debut album Mustard Seed<\/a>, pulls from r&b. Another producer of note is Simbarashe \u201cCymplex\u201d Moyo of Cymplex Music, who produced 2020 Zim-dancehall song of the year contenter, Fadza Mutengi<\/a> by Poptain and Allanah. Prince \u201cOskid\u201d Tapfuma of Oskid Productions made a household name in 2016, for his production work on Winky D\u2019s Gafa Life<\/a> album, a distilled version of Zimbabwe pop. Macdonald \u201cMacdee\u201d Chidavaenzi of Eternal Productions is another versatile local music producer who has worked with several Zimbabwean artists including Trevor Dongo on his latest album 5136 Born In Highfield<\/a> for a smoothed out afro fusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local genres that influence modern Zimbabwean music are Mbira, a traditional Zimbabwean instrument which was popular within the rural areas and sungura \u2013 a more established retro 80\u2019s Zimbabwean genre influenced by Kanindo from Eastern Central African origins \u2013 that grew from farms and ghettos. Internationally, the genres that influence Zimbabwean sounds are primarily Dancehall, Hip Hop and House music. This is mostly thanks to Zimbabwe\u2019s diaspora community, an estimated 5 Million Zimbabweans \u2013 a third of the country\u2019s total population \u2013 is scattered all over the world. Local musicians who pursued this international sound were initially bundled together in the early 2000s to form a new genre called “Urban Grooves” but the current generation of artists and producers have moved away from the term. Instead, local dancehall is called Zim-dancehall, local hip-hop is called Zim-hip hop and so on and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zimbabwean modern sound is vibrant and much too diverse for us to sum it up in a couple of songs but below are a few artists and their standout tracks that can help lift the Zimbabwean music veil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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