Argus Mepo, Entertainment Reporter
HARARE – The year started on a bad note following the sudden death of dancehall superstar Soul Jah Love in February.
His absence from the musical pitch has greatly affected the music in general and the dancehall culture in particular.
Especially at this time when music is being consumed in numbers, also used as a remedy to overshadow the effects of the pandemic and other arising challenges.
Musically speaking, Soul was super talented. He had many hitsongs on his catalogue from diverse issues be it diss songs, social commentary, party tunes, love and real life issues.
Arguably, amongst all the Zimdancehall artists he was the one who made most hitsongs for the genre.
The late hero championed the ghetto youth’s concerns well using his voice and riddim.
Songs like “Taneta Nenhamo” and “Kuponda Nhamo” gave severe punches to the day to day issues that an ordinary youth encounters.
While it is a dancehall culture that each ghetto has its own rulers, that did not apply to Jah Love, he knew no boundaries, he was the King of all ghettos. Mbare, Chitown, Fio were all his powerhouses.
He was capable of bringing a ghetto to a standstill whenever he steps, just like what Passion Java is trying to do, however, Jah Love did so naturally without pampering the people with goodies and money.
With time he became a movement on his own, a notorious ghetto yut who played an instrumental role in influencing music and shaping the street lingo.
He was a dictionary, he either introduced or popularised many buzzwords to the streets which shaped contemporary slang and street talk (Makuruwani, Mind Your Hokoso, Naka Dhula Dhaka) to mention just a few.
His life story which he aired out in songs like “Ndini Uya Uya” , “Nherera” , during the primitive years of his career in contrast to his musical success gave hope and motivated scores of artists, some of them who are in the mainstream right now.
Many artists did it because of him and many upcoming artists are also trying to do it for the sake of Soul.
Whilst his image as a public figure was tinted with negative and bad publicity (scandals, drug and substance abuse, notorious and politically aligned) he remained the most loved.
Against a background were many artists have been affected by their political affiliations, he was a proud and devoted member of the ruling party.
And also despite the fact that he was known for absconding shows, sometimes due to health related reasons, he was one of the most sought after artist both home and even in the diaspora.
Soul Jah Love was one of the few artists who was always physically and emotionally attached to the streets.
He was not concerned much on YouTube views, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram streets and comments, but he was always glued to the real streets.
I can preempt that to him a million streams/views meant nothing, but what was worthy to him was being always available in the streets were his music was consumed.
As such he had no time for stunts and gimmicks which set him apart from most artists and celebs who are desperate to do artificial, staged and weird acts for the love of trends and social media likes.
The Zimbabwean musicians have showed their unending love to Soul which is worth celebrating.
Big artists like Seh Calaz poured their musical tributes and many studios also made tribute riddims to the late icon which is a good move.
The Zimdancehall Awards 2021 edition has also decided to honour our late hero in a unique way as a way to cherish the invaluable contributions that Soul Jah Love made to the dancehall culture.
Even in his resting place, his influence is also manifesting as many chanters are imitating his musical style, some are further claiming to be his ghosts, children and successor.
CONTINUE TO REST IN PEACE SOUL JAH LOVE!
