Shayzar takes Hip hop to Africa
By Munashe Rungano
Decorated hip hop producer Shayzar, born Shingirayi Zimanyi, is not looking back in taking the genre to another level as he has embarked on an African tour to record hip hop musicians around the continent.
Shayzar- who is the co-founder and head producer of the Mix Masterz production team, is spearheading a campaign to bring hip hop to the fore front in Africa by going around different regions of the continent and identifying raw talent.
The Mix Masterz production house comprises a pool of Zimbabwean wheel spinners, dance choreographers and music producers.
The award winning beat maker said Southern Africa was becoming too tiny for them as a group as they felt their quest to push hip hop had to expand to other regions.
“Having been actively involved in the recording, mastering, mixing and remixing of hip hop in the Sadc community since 2007. l feel l have seen it all and its high time l share my experience and knowledge with my fellow Africans across the continent,” he said.
As a member and Ambassador of the Maranatha Shelter Orphanage Foundation, Shayzar added that the burden to identify and rear talent from the less privileged and isolated areas in the continent laid on his shoulders.
“As you know hip hop music is mostly regarded American, so we going out there in the remote places to eradicate that stigma which surrounds the genre and preach the good gospel that it only takes talent. Nothing else to make it as big as the likes of AkA or Cassper Nyovest,” Shayzar said.
He said they had set goals to achieve and standards aside which they believed would see the mission a success.
“Through the continuous production of good music and being a creative force behind African hip hop the job is good as half done, the remainder lies at the disposal of the aspiring or unknown hip hop artists around Africa,” he said.
He said seasoned producer told the Showbiz that the nation is still lagging behind as other countries are producing much competitive music on the market.
“We are lacking business minded artistes with a vision and passion to take the genre to another level. On Southern African point of view you can clearly see South Africa is ahead by far. It’s not always because of funding like many would want to believe but the willingness and zest to achieve greatness through creative ideas, which l see in none at the current crop of Zimbabwean hip hop artistes,” he said.
Shayzar further took a dig at the Zim hip hop musicians saying that they lacked proper marketing skills and visual representation.
“They need to be at par with other African hip hop musicians especially when it comes to music videos. Hip hop is fast paced so they need to drop quality videos which can regularly make it on Trace Africa and Channel O,” he said.
He added that there was a need for the artistes to up their game when it comes to professionalism and engage qualified personnel to manage their respective brands.
Shayzar boasts of a colourful CV; from jingles for top radio stations in Southern and Eastern Africa, to producing award winning albums and also directing screen plays.
He has won the best producer award at the first Zimbabwe Hip Hop Awards in 2011 and has gone to produce and master music for the South African multi award winning Gigi la Mayne.
To date he has done a number of projects with reputable international organisations in film directing and production of audio adverts.
