The Hook-Up with Admire Kudita
…time to get out of the boozers’ league Winky
My take on the rara concerning the Winky D space suit gimmick is that it is part and parcel of showbiz.
As an artiste grows in fame, he may need to sustain it via these kinds of gimmicks.
I remember Michael Jackson post -Thriller album.
Michael seemed to metamorphosise into a cult figure.
His shows tended to rely more on theatre and spectacle.
Maximalism in terms of production value is what a Michael Jackson show was all about,complete with the pyrotechnics and smoke machines.
There was a steady stream of stories leaked to the Press by his team that furthered the mystique of the Gloved One.
Michael Jackson pic pigeonsandplanes.com
Most of the stories bordered on the macabre and wonderful. For example, he was purported to sleep in an oxygen tank. He was also wearing a glove in his hand because he was afraid of contracting germs through shaking people’s hands etc.
The point here is this: fame requires it of those whose very fame subsists on braggadocio i.e. l am the greatest! That I am different or in a league of my own.
You always need to tear away from the rest of your pack when you are this sort of artiste.
The question I have is that how far can you go with the gimmicks?
At some point, the music must speak for you.
Now if the hit songs dry out as they do, and the risk of losing public interest is looming like a dark cloud over your head, you just have to keep feeding the sharks as it were.
Madonna is another artiste who seemed to be pulling off these sort of stunts in the eighties.
She would scandalise the world with the stunts.
One time she appeared to be committing sacrilege by mixing sexual imagery with Christian iconography in her Like a Prayer video.
There were other stunts like the coffee book of nude pics when nudity was scandalous in the public domain.
So allegations of occultism regarding the Gafa Chi Extraterrestrial project by Zimbabwean Dancehall king Winky D are spurious in my view.
They merely feed into the superstitious nature of a Zimbabwean society already prone to believe in the supernatural and has a voracious appetite for the dramatic.
Just look at the current “thirst” for miracles in the religious arena…the stories about the sperm raiders and money snakes…
So yes, the question must arise: do artistes feel pressured by a demanding public to pull these stunts in a bid to stay relevant or it is more a case of the artist believing in their own hype a tad too much ? More importantly, does the music not suffer in the creation of these “legends”?
Am yet to review Winky D’s album to offer my thoughts on the weight of the – creative content (not that it really matters where fans are concerned).
But I must submit that perhaps Winky D is done with Zimbabwe in terms of fame.
He must now begin to challenge for the higher stakes. He needs now to export his “product”.
He really cannot continue to jostle for attention with the likes of Seh Calaz no disrespect).
Rozalla Miller pic www.daily-mail.co.zm
His “gafaness” now needs to be tested on a bigger stage and contend with others on the African stage which is currently being dominated by the Naijas and the South Africans.
So there is your challenge Winky D: to go as far as the Bhundu Boys or Rozalla Miller did in playing before stadiums full of screaming fans back in the day.
You know you have made it when you have the attention of world class influential broadcasters such as Sir John Peel as a fan or you are opening for either Madonna or an artiste the size of Michael Jackson king of pop.
The reliance on gimmickry may be misconstrued to imply a drying up of hits for there is a thin line to be drawn between Art and artifice.
The two are different.
Time is fortunately the great reavealler of all truth.
Gafa has a shot at the big time but he now needs perhaps to leave the boozers’ league.
