Winky D bares his soul
POPULAR dancehall artiste Winky D says his upbringing in one of Harare’s high-density suburbs shaped his character and approach to life. Winky D (WD) told Alpha Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncube on the online talk show In Conver
sation With Trevor that growing up in Kambuzuma provided him with many life lessons.
He also spoke about his thoughtprovoking lyrics and why he has not done any collaborations with artistes such as Jah Prayzah. Below are excerpts from the interview.
TN: Winky, it would be inappropriate to start without saying condolences for the loss of Delroy ‘Scara the Drummer’ Maripakwenda. Condolences for his passing-on!
WD: It’s very much a sad loss to us as a family and the entire fraternity as a whole.
We are yet to accept the reality because at any given time when you lose someone . . . he wasn’t sick for a long time.
I think two or three days at most and he was up and running, kicking; so just to hear the news really, we haven’t accepted it as yet.
TN: Are we at liberty to know what happened to him?
WD: We haven’t had time to sit with the family as yet to get the specific details of what actually transpired, but I think once the dust settles, we will have to sit down and get the story from the beginning.
TN: How long had you played with him?
WD: It depends with how you are going to classify the play because we grew up together.
He was more than a friend, I regard him as family.
TN: What do you think you will miss most about Delroy?
WD: Most of the stuff I’m going to miss about Delroy is rather on a personal side of life. He was humorous to say the least.
TN: A very talented young man to say the least. He is going to be missed, may his soul rest in peace.
A lot of people are surprised that we actually managed to get you to agree to come for In
Conversation with Trevor and on our Twitter feed one of the questions that has been asked is: ‘Why is he so social mediashy, why is he so quiet, why does Winky D live in a shell?’
What’s your response to that?
WD: I don’t think I live in a shell, maybe we look at things differently a bit as far as my social media handles are concerned.
I think everything concerning the brand Winky D we give people updates as things happen.
It’s not like when I’m going to eat sadza, I will take my camera and say let me take you to the world, I’m eating sadza.
I have made sure it is a platform for me to send my messages concerning the business side of Winky D as a brand.
TN: And they say Winky doesn’t respond to social media conversations, he allows his many millions of supporters to respond for him. That’s why they say you are too quiet?
WD: It’s really difficult to respond because most of the things that will be circulating would be rumours.
I can’t respond to rumours, but when people approach me to hear our side of the story, I am free.
We have always been doing that from the beginning of our career until today.
TN: One thing that is not a rumour is that, you have so many names.
I can’t keep track. Your name given at birth, and I’m sure
most people don’t know, is Wallace Chirumiko, but you have other names, so many of them.
I want to know why so many names as the late Oliver Mtukudzi would say mazita kupfekerana.
You are Winky D, you are president of the Ninjas, Professor, The Gaffa, Bigman, talk to me about why so many names.
Do you give yourself these names or your many fans throughout the world give you these names?
WD: I think you left one, Chi Extra, I think they move with the anointing and also judging with the space I’m at, at any given time.
TN: But the one that has stuck is Winky D and it means Wicked DJ.
You have stuck with that, is that your favourite name, has it become your brand?
WD: Yeah, that was the genesis of the name.
TN: You grew up in Kambuzuma. I once lived in Kambuzuma Section 2 or Section 3.
You went to Rukudzo Primary School and then you went to Kambuzuma High 1.
Talk to me about growing up in Kambuzuma, what life was that for you in the ghetto as it were?
WD: It’s that a typical ghetto life story. When growing up, one will be regarded as naughty.
That’s how people looked at me, but if I looked myself in the mirror I would see someone different.
Growing up in the dusty roads of Kambuzuma, I was actually at school.
It was like a schooling that I couldn’t get from the formal school.
There were so many lessons. The challenges that we faced, some may say they are challenges, but I regard them as lessons. They made me who I am today. TN: What would you say would be the biggest lesson, the biggest takeaway from that schooling you got from growing up in Kambuzuma?
WD: I will give credit to the struggling, we may not like it when we are in that situation, but it hardened me and made me a stronger person at the end of the day.
If I am to be in that situation at the end of the day, it won’t be an alien situation to me.
I will know how to hold on to the ropes and sail through.
TN: When did you discover that you have the talent and the passion for music?
WD: When it comes to discovery now, it will appear like the Great Zimbabwe situation where the Portuguese say we discovered Zimbabwe, but I think the anointing was there from birth.
But as an individual, I think it was the early stages of my primary education.
I used to have a collection of, in those days, we were playing tapes before flash discs and CDs, so I started having my collection, and
I think I was in Grade 5.
When I look at the present youths, I can’t just imagine whether they have a collection of CDs.
TN: My favourite is Njema, talk to me about that creative process, what triggered that creativity?
WD: What I was trying to bring out is that we our prisoners of ourselves in most cases.
Our habits have actually become the cell block. We should not look at things through a keyhole, let us open the door.
TN: You have created these songs, 11 albums, is there any of the albums or any of the songs that is a favourite to you?
WD: With my music, I wouldn’t want to say they are all my babies even though they are. My music is based on situations.
TN: You have done collaborations, one of them with Oliver Mtukudzi, Panorwadza
Moyo, when you look at that generations of musicians, do you think it is a continuity of a story in terms of the creativity and the music they produced?
WD: The story might be continuing, but the packaging has changed by different circumstances within the fraternity.
TN: Talking of collaborations, one of the questions that has been asked quite a number of times is will you ever have a collaboration with Jah Prayzah?
WD: I’m free to have collaborations with anyone. It just depends: Do we have a good song at the end of the day?
We are not supposed to just jump into the studio and say, let us do a track because of a certain hype or a trend that is there at that given moment but if we have a good song, nothing must stop us from getting it to the people.
TN: You have also played with international artistes like Sean Paul, Akon and Beanie Man. I was wondering, what does it take to be part of those international collaborations?
WD: There are two aspects, there is stage collaborating whereby we work on the same stage, and there is also collaboration whereby you are making a song together.
As for Akon and Sean Paul, we shared the same stage when they came to Zimbabwe around 2010.
As for Bennie Man, yes, we shared a stage, but later on we did a song together. So the criteria really, concerning the stage sharing is based on the promoter.
TN: As you sit here, what’s the next big thing for you?
WD: We have dreams and we are ambitious in a way, we always want bigger and better things for ourselves in a way, but there are certain things that might be beyond our control given the circumstances.
We are limited in many ways to achieve greatness.
TN: How do you deal with potential threats associated with the message in your music? WD: Threats from where?
TN: I think this raises the issue of rumours that one of your songs was banned.
WD: I’m yet to see an official statement on that.
I haven’t been handed over an official statement to say ‘Winky D, this song has been banned because of ABC’ss.
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