The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
“I AM starting with what I have, I am starting where I am and I am starting with whoever is with me. I am starting even where there’s risk of being blacklisting. I am starting even when there’s threats. I am starting even if it does not make sense to people.”
These were the impassioned words of Afro-pop sensation Bekezela to Sunday Life last week, a few days after he announced that his upcoming album, Vulani, would be his last.
Vulani, is to be the Bulawayo bred musician’s swansong, his last hurrah as he closes the door on his life as a performer and prepares for life behind the scenes. The announcement of what seemed to be a premature retirement, rightfully caught many off guard, and rightfully so.
This is, after all, Bothwell Nkomo, aka Bekezela, the young man who did what some might think is impossible. He is the young man who left the City of Kings and found his own crown in the cruel streets of Jozi, defying history and precedence. He went to the same place where thousands flock every year, with nothing but dreams on their minds, only to return with hearts filled with disappointment and bitterness.
Bekezela
When he walked on the prestigious SAMAs stage with Candy of the TsaMaNdebele fame, it seemed like an announcement that the young singer had truly arrived. He was now singing with the stars, and his star soared, only the sky seemed to be a distant limit.
Three years later, the world woke up to a lengthy twitter thread in which he not only announced that he was laying to rest a career that seemed poised for greater things, but was leaving his label, Muthaland, with nothing.
If that twitter thread was the tombstone to a suddenly deceased career, it would have simply read, “Here lies Bekezela, a young man that was unhappy with the music industry”.
There were many questions surrounding his decision but very few of his answers made sense to die-hard fans preparing for life after his melodies. When he spoke to Sunday News last week, Bekezela said he had made his decision because he felt he could be of better value away from the limelight.
“I’m ten times stronger behind the scenes than I am in front of the microphone. This is why in essence I am dedicating more time and resources to advancing other people’s careers,” he said.
His upcoming album, he said, would be a launchpad for him to catapult himself beyond his current standing. Life as a pawn in the music industry no longer appealed to him. Instead, he now wants to become a kingmaker, a boss that moved in any direction that his heart wills.
“Over the years, people write to us as artistes and ask, can you please help me and I’m telling you they’d be wasting their time. The artistes themselves don’t even know how they got to where they are. They were made by someone.
They were made by a manager or a record label owner. So now, I’m transforming from a mere artiste into a superpower, into a promoter and that the only way to help my brothers especially from countries that are marginalised musically. I am actually the answer to a lot of questions that people have been asking. How do we advance Bulawayo music? How do we grow Bulawayo music? The answer is simple: set-up administration stations,” he said.
While he was at Muthaland, Bekezela worked closely with Lance Stehr, a ruthless music guru has also worked with and managed artistes like Nathi Mankayi, Prophets of The City, Brasse Vannie Kaap and DJ Cleo. As he now breaks free from a shell that made sure that he never lacked for anything as an artiste, Bekezela acknowledges that things will not be easy.
“No one has the capacity to manage me fully. Because I was a bit vocal, they (record label) sort of close you out because they control even the gigs. If someone calls and says they want Bekezela they can decide Bekezela is not available. So, they’re in control. I know that if I’m leaving Muthaland, it’s like taking ten steps backwards. But if I leave Muthaland and establish my own record structure, Bekezela Music now becomes a catalogue.
Now we are going to promote artistes and create events. Mind you, over the years I have managed to create a network and in essence I know who does what and who you need to talk to get a certain thing done in the game,” he said.
So why leave the relative comfort offered by Muthaland for uncertainty in the dog bite dog world of musical promotion. Bekezela said the answer to that question lay in the history of his famous single, the same some he took his stage name from.
“The system is broken in the sense that first of all as an independent artiste you cannot break into the mainstream market without being signed by the so-called record labels. You can try all you want. I spent six years with the song Bekezela trying to break it and I did everything right. It was a hit song. It was a good song that was played underground by a lot of people and that is the reason why Muthaland looked for me because it was a song that was making waves.
“After Muthaland took me in, they had broken the song to all the radio and TV stations within a year. My network was now big and I was now performing with the likes of Caiphus Semenya, Ringo, my idols. I was headlining with Oliver Mtukudzi, performing for 40 000 people in a space of a year I was able, from gigs alone, to buy a house and car, the basic things everyone wishes to get. Now that I am getting out of the system, they close all those doors that they opened. It’s been happening to a lot of other artistes, Zola, Mapaputsi and different other artistes who were cheated by the system,” he said.
When he announced that he was ‘quitting, many were taken aback by the fact that he said that he was leaving Muthaland with nothing. Images of a down and out musician, starving on the streets, with stories of how might he once was his only currency, immediately came to the minds of many.
“How broken is the system? When I talk about this, I’m talking about money from my royalty earnings. I am not talking about money that I made from gigs. I made money from gigs but I am talking about royalties. Each time a song is played on radio, there are collecting societies that go and get revenue for that particular song and those royalties are then collected by the recording label if you are signed under them because they own the masters.
“They control the revenue and that is what we call licensing. They also exploit the royalties from the sales of albums. When a song is used on a television programme, there are royalties that come from that. So, when I said I’m leaving Muthaland with no money what I meant was that all my royalty earnings for three years, they have not declared them.
Their reason is that you have already sort of spent your royalties through advances,” he said.
As he changed focus, Bekezela said he saw himself as the answer to the perennial problems that artistes from his hometown face.
“A Msiz’kay is a brilliant, brilliant songwriter but is he necessarily an artiste manager? Is he necessarily an instrumentalist? Is he necessarily a producer? Is he necessarily a PR strategist? Right now, a Msiz’kay is doing everything and he is so limited because you can only do so much. So, a Msiz’kay needs an army of people behind him who sit down and think about the advancement of his career. A Justin Bieber, Beyonce or Celine Dion doesn’t write songs. It’s rare to find them doing that.
“So, there are people that are collecting cheques in America whose jobs is just to write songs for these big artistes. Then there are people who compose the songs because it’s a different altogether. Then that same song is given to a producer.
“While at Muthaland I learnt a lot about how the system works. So, while sometimes we might look at the negatives only, that is not what I am doing. I am looking at all these unfortunate events as a gift and an opportunity to then create Bekezela Music to be a catalogue and a launchpad for other artistes to succeed in this industry,” he said.
While there have already been clamours from those that believe it is too soon for him to hang up his microphone, Bekezela believes he has been patient while he gained enough strength and knowledge to do what he believes he was designed to do.
“I am a teacher. That is my true calling in life. I give advice, I give knowledge and power. It is my purpose so I’m quite excited at this journey that I am taking right now,” he said.
