Jah Prayzah’s love bias

By Rest Mutore

MUSICIAN of the moment Jah Prayzah admitted his bias towards love theme on his new album Kutonga Kwaro.

The album carries at least six love songs and he believes the subject touches a lot of people’s lives thus the need to address it through song.

In an interview with H-Metro, Jah Prayzah explained the inspiration behind all his 14 songs highlighting his rural background and his experiences as a young boy back in Uzumba.

The musician also revealed a secret that his mother featured on the song Muchinjiko.

Below are Jah Prayzah’s responses on the meaning and what inspired him to compose each song on the album.My background is not a secret. I grew up in the rural areas so I used to attend traditional ceremonies and I remember very well that people who took control of the event were drum-beaters, vanoridza ngoma vaya. I liked one thing about them, they were so demanding because they knew that they dictate pace at the event. Sevakomana vekwedu uku atosviko udzira vanhu zvekuita, the first thing he would request kuti ngoma idziiswe.

So as a artiste, sometimes you just think of what you once experienced and try to come up with a song and obviously you then become creative and mordenise it. That is how I came up with the song Kutonga Kwaro. I don’t want to talk much about people’s interpretations, it’s their opinion and everyone has his/her own.

But here I am telling you what inspired me to come up with the song, your interpretation is a story for another day. In fact, I don’t think I want to keep convincing people that the song is not political as they claim because I have been explaining before the album was even released.

NDINI NDAMUBATA

This is a party song and is inspired by what I see even during my shows. It’s about a situation when a man finds a woman to dance with in a club.

So the man takes control of the situation, that anyone who tries to come and dance with the woman anoudzwa ndini ndamubata. Usually I get inspiration from the society.;s a love song about someone (man) who wishes to date a certain woman but he does not have contact with the person. So the moment he gets the chance, it’s like a dream come true but nothing materialises. You can only understand the story line if you watch the video, it’s like a day dream. So to me having a collabo with Yemi Alade was one of my wishes which I achieved unlike the Jah Prayzah in the song.

CHENGETEDZA

I live in a society where I see a lot of things happening between couples or something I read in newspapers. I compose music for people, I sing for the people who are my fans. It’s all about encouraging people in relationships to love each other. When in love, one has to do a lot of sacrifices to please his/her partner and go through some persecution only for love. It’s one of the oldest songs on this album because I composed this song in October last year. It was the first song I worked on with Tamuka after launching Mdhara Vachauya on October 12.>EMERINA

Another party song but it’s about a girl who goes partying and goes wild. After all if you continue with the storyline, the girl stands her ground for wild partying saying she needs to enjoy every moment of her life. They say we live once and this girl is saying there is every reason to enjoy her life nekuti kufa kwakauya.

POPOROPIPO

It’s about a ‘lover of things’, varume vanoda zvinhu. Those who propose love to every woman they meet. The title of the song is a melody which doesn’t mean anything or exist even in Shona or Swahili and that is what those guys who approach strangers do, vanongobvunza kuti zita rako unonzani. I decided to have another one with Diamond Platnumz after the success of our previous duet (Watora Mari). I also featured on his album and soon we will be working on a video for the song.

HALLA

Another one inspired by love life, it’s about long distance relationships and in this case it is the man who is raising his concerns that he misses his sweetheart.

What I know is every message will obviously touch someone’s life, that’s how powerful love is.

UNONDIZIVA

In life there are people who always talk about other people’s lives. There are people who think they can destroy what someone has started. So in this song I am encouraging people to ignore all that and remain focused to achieve their goals.

The reason those people are talking about you is testimony that they know you and that you are maybe a threat.

The same has been happening to me, people talk a lot of bad things, writing a lot of stuff sometimes discrediting my work or attacking my persona but again it means I am doing something that is grabbing their attention thus Unondiziva.This is a song for mama. Our mothers went through a lot to raise us and I am targeting everyone and it encourages people to take care of their mothers.

Again it is inspired by my background, when some people move to cities from rural areas to start new life vanopedzisira vakanganwa vabereki. So this is an encouragement to everyone kuti let’s remember our mothers, they are important.

Even a phone call or a message is really important unowana makomborero akawanda.

MASOJA

My admiration for soldiers inspired this song, again I call my fans masoja and it’s all about having fun with them when we hang out.

PIKOKO

It’s a love song I came up with after admiring a peacock, the way it shines with its wings it looks like a bride’s dress’ tail. It is a wedding song. I just decided to have another love song centered on a peacock. Again it touches the lives of many because everyone falls in love and many people are wedding.

CHIPO

The song encourages people to safeguard cultural values. With globasition people end up abandoning their culture but we have a background and that is what I am singing about here. Despite it being a love song, my wish is for Zimbabweans to know kwatakabva. There are some of the things zvinopasa manyewe, take for an example kunzwa mukadzi achidetemba mutupo wako achitenda. So those are some of the things that we should not abandon, if you continue with the storyline, it’s about a man proposing love the traditional way and he wants everything done the proper way, no shortcuts.

CHOKONYONYO

When people complained that I have abandoned my beat on my previous album I had to come up with this song. It’s in the category of Emerina and Ndini Ndamubata. So generally it is a party song. When composing party songs, you just take into account what people usually do and guided by that. So I was inspired by the criticism on my previous album because I only had few party songs on the album, I think Seke Mutema maintained the levels of Eriza and Chinamira.

MUCHINJIKO

This song was popular at my church Methodist Church when I was a young boy. It is an old song that I would hear my mother and a few old ladies sing because it is not in the hymn books. I then decided to redo it and spice it up. So I went to Uzumba and asked Machembere aiimbe while I was recording a video and came back to do a song. I actually invited my mother to help me on vocals and she did some backing vocals on the song as well as helping me to make the song interesting. H-Metro