Muridzo and the politics of music:

SOMEONE out there please tell Andy Muridzo that talent is cheaper than table salt yet if well managed it can buy the world.

Talent alone amounts to very little of what makes one successful. I can bet my last cent that you dear reader, your neighbour and I know someone who is hugely talented and unsuccessful.

This is primarily because of the choices that these highly talented and often arrogant people make. I was disappointed when in 2017, Andy Muridzo decided to join the Military Touch Movement, a label which I saw as decidedly set up for the purpose of scuttling his progress.

A search for musicians who have made career threatening decisions as the one that was made by Andy when he decided to shelve his ascendency to the apex of Zimbabwean music industry will draw names such as Franco Slomo, Zakaria Zakaria, Taz, Innocent Mjintu R&K African Sounds to mention but a few.

The difference however, is that the aforementioned did not have as much potential as Andy has or had.

Andy Muridzo might not be as stupid but the idea to join MTM was stupid from the beginning and that he wants to leave through the press is resoundingly foolish.

It did not need a rocket scientist to predict the reaction Andy would get. Jah Prayzah has an army of faithful ready to defend and deify their idol.

This same army of people congratulated Andy when he joined MTM and now they are roasting Baba Keketso. In my view, in dirtier ways than this article. The result is that instead of making news through his music it’s his person that’s making the news.

It could have been better had he been making good headlines. Remember he is the guy whose manhood brought an end to Bev’s career. Anyone remembers Bev, the bottle girl?

His second album Ngarizhambe made waves at a time when Jah Prayzah had released an effort which was ordinary; at least according to JP’s standard.

Ngarizhambe managed to penetrate the market without social media hype, glamorous launch, corporate endorsements and all that we have known to couple Jah Prayzah’s album launches.

Andy had managed to fill the gap left by his “mentor” who was wandering through the maze as he tried to identify with Africa.

Indeed, he has found a sound palatable across Africa. What did Andy do during this time? He copied everything except that he did not have a budget for collaborations with regional stars.

I hear he expected JP who was preoccupied with both salvaging his career at home and making inroads in Africa to finance him. Again if this is not stupidity then nothing is.

Andy ought to have known that music is a business and in business you have competition.

His competition was Jah Prayzah. All that nonsense about being brothers from Uzumba does not even measure to bedtime stories my granny used to tell me.

Team JP played the man and now the man cannot even play music. He plays his own mind. It’s not too late, contract or no contract.

Hope is that he finds someone to augment Gift Peturo’s efforts. Andy needs a thinker in his team otherwise all that talent and Gift’s industriousness goes to waste.