Takura launches album at Club 1+1

By Vongai Mbara

Award-winning hip-hop musician Takura launched his debut album titled “Somebody Had to do It” last Friday at Club 1+1 in Belvedere.

The 18-track album launch attracted hip-hop fanatics. A number of local artists came to support the hip-hop star, among them Stunner, Junior Brown, Kiki Badass, DJ Towers and Trevor Dongo.

The event started later than expected as the venue was almost empty around 9pm, the time that doors were scheduled to open.

People however, started pouring around 11pm and in no time, the venue was a full house.

Opening up the event was hip-hop musician Kiki badass. Dressed to kill, Kiki unfortunately did not deliver the best performance as she was mostly lip syncing and to a poor sound system.

The crowd was tense and her performance did not last for more than 20 minutes.

Next was sexaphonist Iam King who also features on Takura’s album.

He managed to charm the crowd, performing his cover versions of songs “Kutonga Kwaro”, “Particular” and “Akiliz. Ladies were in for a treat by Trevor Dongo’s surprise performance.

He performed a number of his hit songs among them “Ndashamisika”, “Shoko Rerudo” and “African girl”The crowd went ballistic with some even throwing money at him.

Trevor showed his rapping skills by singing Soul Jah Love’s part of their song “African Girl”. After a sterling performance, Trevor invited the half of Extra Large, Jimmy Mangezi who took the crowd down memory lane with songs “Wandinoda”, “Aiwa Mukoma” and “Reply Me One Day”.

Stunner was up next. Nicely dressed with a drink in his hand, the outspoken musician proved why he is one of the top hip-hop musicians in Zimbabwe. He performed songs “Kwese”, “Dhafu Korera”, “Ndoenda” and his duet with Baba Shupi “Akarohwa Mari” among others.

Baba Shupi joined him on stage and later performed his own “Bhero”, “Mamonya” and “Muridzo”. Junior Brown came after him with a polished performance of songs “Madrinks Askana”, “Happy” and “Amen” among others.

The man-of-the-moment took to the stage around 1am.

Takura came with a lot of energy, but was frustrated by the poor sound.

“You guys are killing my vibe, please do not do that. I am so sorry guys I do not know what is happening,” he apologised to the crowd.

At some point, he had to restart a song because of the bad sound. He went on to put an incredible performance of both his old and new tracks.

The new album has songs “Ndakabva Kujecha”, “Ngoro Yemoto”, “Mandebvu” “Chihwitsi Chemoyo”, “Mari Ine Mumvuri” and “Ita Yauri Kuita” among others.

He also collaborated with Junior Brown on a song titled “Takabva Kujecha”.

The album is full of promises considering the fact that Takura has been releasing a series of successful singles and EPs.

The crowd seemed to enjoy the new tracks as he performed them at the launch.

Takura said he will be working on some videos which will be released this year. The Herald