The Sunday News
Nhlalwenhle Ngwenya, Sunday Life Reporter
DUBBED the sharpest double-edged sword in hip-hop, conscious rap is a sub-genre of hip-hop that focuses on creating awareness and imparting knowledge on different contentious social issues.
Conscious rappers since time immemorial decry violence, discrimination, and other societal ailments, its main thrust is to change society for the greater good through social commentary lyrics.
MacSomar Sibanda (23) with three single tracks to his name believes he is on the right path to revive conscious rap in Zimbabwe.
Despite commercial music dominating airplay the young rapper is of the view that eventually society will listen to positive messages.
“I started conscious rap in 2009. Back then I did not record any material until this year when I managed to record three singles titled Ngisizani, Lala Kahle and Successful. In these tracks I talk about daily experiences I come across in society,” said MacSomar.
Most conscious rap songs contain positive, uplifting messages, MacSomar doesn’t stray away from that DNA strand as his music, especially in his single track Ngisizani which focuses on social turmoil faced by unemployed youths.
“Most of the tracks that I have worked on focus on my society. The things that the unemployed youth go through. That’s where I anchor my music to reach out to afflicted youths and give them hope that eventually things will change for the better,” he said.
With the scourging piracy, MacSomar hasn’t pushed his music on many platforms, even for airplay as he fears that his music will be stolen from him.
“In the mean time I am just circulating my tracks on a few channels until I register my music, that’s when I will start pushing it far,” he said.
With Godfathers of conscious rap like Grandmaster Flash and The Furious 5’s, MacSomar believes he is his own greatest inspiration. Packaging his music in Ndebele and a bit of Shona he thinks it’s only a matter of time before the right audience picks his music.
“My intention is to reach out to the correct audience and vernacular language is the best vehicle to do that,” he said.
Conscious hip-hop is often confused with political hip-hop, because both speak to social turmoil and have a strong disdain for commercialism, a setback in this case which might solely see MacSomar despite consented efforts failing to revive conscious rap in Zimbabwe.
@nhlallo
