“Rap In Zimbabwean Languages”- Mau Mau

Zimbabwe’s own Shingirai “Mau-Mau” Sabeta has slammed the local hip hop artists for using foreign language in their music saying it’s the reason they are not successful.

“Artists need to master their mother tongues and rap in those mother tongues so that we develop our own voice. Few artists are currently doing that. If you check out, for example, Zim dancehall has appealed to a bigger audience because it’s music that can easily be identifiable with,” he said.

The rapper who used to rap in English but recently turned to his mother tongue and rapping gospel songs is convinced this will change the Zimbabwean hip hop popularity in a great way.

The Ndamitswa singer says Zimbabwean rap should be next to blow up the same way South African and Nigerian rap has. “We’ve been taking notes, we now have to work hard and put a lot of effort”, he said. He might have a point here considering the most successful rap artists in the countries mentioned use heir local languages.

It also looks like christian rap is going to be the way to go for Zimbabwean rappers. Recently another christian rapper Courtney Antipas got two nominations in South African Gospel Awards for his latest album.

Mau Mau says he is a fan of the new Zim rappers on the come up, the likes of Tehn Diamond, Junior Brown, MK47 and Black Bird.

We will be watching if Zim hip hop can get big the same way other dominating genres like dancehall, sungura and afro pop has.