The Sunday News
Kudzai Mpangi, Sunday Life Reporter
POPULAR urban grooves duo Extra Large, seem to have hit the right chords with their recent released album dubbed The Truth.
The duo of Jimmy Mangezi and Norman Manwere was stung hard by criticism and their album is just the perfect fit for their versatility in the music industry which has revived their limelight once more. The duo has been around for quite a while consistently churning out good music, but their existence was being questioned due to the rise of Zim dancehall.
“Extra Large never went silent, we have been around and relevant. Urban grooves never went under any genre, we believe music is a mission and not a competition so as much as there has been a shift of attention from our genre, our music has always been appealing. People have always listened to our music and The Truth is a revelation of our existence,” Mangezi said.
The album has so far been released on radio on various radio stations around the country. It was first released on 7 November on Tione Cake, a local radio station in the capital. Since then the duo has been doing radio releases on other radio stations.
“So far we have been doing radio releases which have seen a quite lot of airplay. We did our first release on Tione Cake, then on Power FM, National FM, Radio Zim and we are still doing our radio release until now. We hope that by the time we do our official launch we would have toured or been interviewed in almost all the radio station nationwide,” Mangezi said.
“We are planning for our launch probably during this festive season as it has been difficult to get clearance due to the recent events that have been taking place around the country, but now that things have settled down we would be announcing our official launch soon. The launch will be a unique one because a local company is coming on board and funding the launch though we can not disclose it yet,” he added.
Mangezi is optimistic about their album release which has afforded to win people’s hearts.
“We are really excited now that The Truth is finally out because people where getting impatient and it’s so amazing to actually realise that we are still favourites of many and our music is still appreciated and listened too,” he said.
“Our songs are already popular on the radio stations especially the track “Msoro Bhangu” which features Sani Makhalima as well as on Power FM its receiving quite a favourable amount of airplay. Ndakuwana is also another track which has been topping the charts on Power FM,” he said.
Mangezi said the message that is embodied in their latest album seem to be slowly penetrating into fans.
“We have a track titled Papi Pacho which features Stunner and Bashupi, this track clearly explains the title of the album and theme. It also has an amazing video which will play a part in revitalising urban grooves as a genre. We urge fans to also look for the video as it is appealing,” he said.
The album has 14 tracks with prominent artistes who include Stunner the rap king, Trevor Dongo, Ras Caleb, Sani Makhalima, Bashupi among others.
