Samanyika Hip-Hop Festival explodes
THE much-awaited third edition of the Samanyika Hip-Hop Festival will roar into life this weekend with more than 50 upcoming and seasoned rappers from across the country expected to converge at Golden Peacock Villa Hotel and Courtauld Theatre.
The fiesta aims to promote urban hiphop culture in the eastern border city and the country at large. Speaking at a press conference at Golden Peacock last Friday, the organisers said the festival will start tonight (Friday) and ends in the wee hours of Sunday.
The potentially intriguing festival, which was recently endorsed by the Zim Hip-Hop Awards as an official g event for the promotion of urban culture, will hand over some of the proceeds from the event to charity in a bid to transform lives of the less privileged people in the society.
“This is another opportunity for local rap artistes to shine and exhibit their prowess on the mic. Our genre has been often overshadowed by Zim dancehall despite being one of the oldest genres on the music scene.
“This is a festival where we use music as a communication tool to youngsters as we teach them to abstain from anti- social activities but be more focused.
“We also intend to market local urban culture artistes by giving them a platform where they will build synergies with other artistes, promoters and fans,” said the fes- tival’s spokesperson, Chengetai Mapenzauswa.
He added: “This year’s carnival seeks to become the leading and prestigious musical festival which will also promote Government’s economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset), because it focuses on empowering youths through hip-hop music.”
“Foul language”
He said the festival also aims to demystify myths that the hip-hop genre was associated with crime, foul language and arrogance.
“We are confident that the event will be an effective tool of promoting good social morals and decampaigning drug abuse, sexual immorality, early marriages among other social ills,” he added.
Kritic Igwee, Flexxo, Fourbeat Family and Witty Boo are some of the notable rappers who are going to grace the festival.
The hotel’s entertainment manager, Willard “Dhombz” Madhombiro, who has managed to transform the hotel into a formidable entertainment hub in the eastern border city, said it was all systems go.
“This is our first time to host the festival and we are proud to be associated with such a creative initiative. We believe this is going to be a platform for youths to educate each other through music. The hip-hop genre has got a very strong appeal among the youths. We are looking forward to having a successful fiesta,” he said.