Argus Mepo, Entertainment
All Zimdancehall artists, deejays and artists might fade and hibernate but the City Sports Centre venue will remain firm and occupies a central place in the chapter of the Zimdancehall music.
Indeed it is the home of music or colloquially put Kugomba ndikokumusha kwemangoma!
From the 1990s up to present, Kugomba has been an assembly point of ghetto youths were they mix, mingle and interact. All being done for the love of dancehall music.
Some of the elders in the dancehall fraternity, the likes of Madcom, Daddy D, Major E, Badman, Culture Kid, King Labash, Winky D and Sniper Storm, to mention just a few are also champions that also managed to capitalise from the exposure they gained at City Sports.
The venue baptised, raised and nurtured the careers of many Zimdancehall superstars.
Performing there was a golden opportunity that every artist was in dire need of.
Champions were made and losers were created too.
Performances at City Sports were also used as benchmarks to measure the relevance of an artist.
Right now with the use of social media, almost every artist has been referred to as apera (finished) unlike back then when stage performance proved the otherwise.
It also holds a number of memorable events that will not be erased in the history of Zimdancehall.
It annually hosted the Cup Clash in August. It also hosted the Ghetto vs Ghetto Clash in 2013 which put the Mbare boys Seh Calaz, the late Soul Jah Love and Kinnah on the limelight.
And remember it also hosted the memorable Zimdancehall Sting in 2014 which ended in disaster.
Musically speaking, City Sports Centre is sacrosanct musical shrine that must always be respected by all music acolytes.
As we speak, there is a crisis of hit-songs this year but back then, City Sports created hit-songs.
But the halting of shows as well as the failure of artists to perform there has contributed to the shortage of hit-songs.
We all know hit-songs like Seh Calaz’s “City Sports” , Killer T’s “City Sports” and Soul Jah Love’s “Ndakamukwapaidza” were inspired by the stunning performances they made at City Sports.
The post Covid-19 performances at City Sports Centre will not be the same again especially with the death of the late King of Dancehall Soul Jah Love who was the gatekeeper and the owner of this prestigious venue.
He would electrify and charm scores of ghetto youths only with his signature chant “Conquering”.
There is now need to fill this big gap he left. Moreover with the Covid-19 pandemic the buck has been passed from the old school to the new school.
There is also a higher probability that the likes of Nutty O, Poptain, Anita Jaxson, Jah Master will aggressively fit in the late Soul Jah Loves’s shoes, dominate, conquer and own the City Sports Centre.
