Sugar Sugar opens up
By Silence Charumbira
Sungura musician Sugar Sugar real name Taruvinga Manjokoto has acceded his genre is under threat and opened up that he at one time gave up on recording after getting raw deals from his recording stable.
Sugar Sugar told Showbiz on Wednesday that he understands the pain that Alick Macheso endured when his music leaked before he had finished recording resulting in the delay of his latest Tsoka dzerwendo.
“It is three years now since I released my last album. I had given up although fans have been crying out. I was disappointed to hear Macheso’s pirated album. I heard the song Gungwa in 2014 but it was unmastered so I understand him,” said Sugar Sugar.
“He was busy stratergising. I respect him for what he has managed to pull off after his music leaked. I however never stopped playing but I had given up on recording.”
The Mairosi hitmaker said for some time he had been staying in Chiredzi and had been concentrating on gigs in the sugar farming town, Masvingo, Mberengwa, Chikombedzi, Chipinge, Gweru and sometimes Harare.
He said he was grateful to promoters among them Samaita Mupambiki, Jemius Moyo from Renko Mine, Phillip Chiyangwa, Ambuya Chitagu, Jeremiah Hove Lofombo and many others.
“Even though I have been spending most of time outside the country, I am staying in Stoneridge at the residential stand that I was given by Phillip Chiyangwa,” said Sugar Sugar.
He said he was contemplating to part ways with his record label Diamond Studios for his forthcoming eighth album Kutsemururana.
“I have nothing against the producer Bothwell Nyamhondera but as the owner of the music I feel the studio has not been handling business well. They needed just $90 for my album but they stalled the project. So you see even as popular as my music is they failed to subsidise. So I am realising if they cannot do that for me we should not be working together. I am still considering but I feel hard done,” he said.
If I could do it on my own I would do that. I would have loved to do everything on my own.
The musician conceded that sungura is hanging by the thread owing to lack of creativity and said he would infuse different sounds borrowing from traditional music and different instrumentation not normally found in sungura music.
“We have to pull up our socks. If we slacken we will be out of the game really soon. It’s game on. We have to fight hard,” he said.
