The biochemist who seeks to heal through dancehall

Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
FOR Patmos “TeraDiBoss” Nyavanhu, biochemistry, his chosen field of study and work, and music, his passion, are one and the same thing.

While to the casual observer, there might seem to be nothing linking these two together, to TeraDiBoss, these are fields that are concerned chiefly with one thing — healing.

This is why, he is never disturbed when some, even his family, ask him why he mixes chemicals in the lab by day and goes to chant his lungs out in the studio by night.

“Some people in the family might wonder what someone who has a degree in biochemistry is doing making dancehall music, but for me it’s not really much of a wonder because there’s a link between music and science. If you look at my field, I’m more interested in clinical biochemistry which deals with medicines for healing people.

I believe that I do the same thing with my music. Science is about healing people physically but music is for healing the soul, for mending wounds that we can’t necessarily see. So, for me, there’s a relationship between both these fields,” National University of Science and Technology (Nust) alumni told Sunday Life in an interview.

The 32-year-old, who is inspired by Winky D on the local scene, said he was trying to introduce a new flavour of dancehall on the local scene, as music lovers had been fed a diet of monotonous dancehall for too long. As he prepared for the release of a single, Chimurenga, the former Jameson High School boy revealed that he had started out as a hip-hop artiste before making a U-turn later in his career.

“I started my journey around 2014 and back then I was still doing hip-hop. My music has been evolving since then and in the end, I decided to explore dancehall because I released that there’s more of a market for it especially here in Zimbabwe. The kind of music that I’m bringing to the scene is probably different from what Zimbabweans are used to listening to. They should expect a modernised kind of dancehall that is conscious, thoughtful and very much different from the mainstream type of dancehall people are usually fed,” he said.

TeraDiBoss, who graduated from Nust last year, said he would be releasing an Extended Play (EP) in August, as he now had more time dedicated to his music career.

“I graduated last year and this has meant I have a lot more time now to focus on my music and that’s why I’m going to try and push to the next level. I have been working with Impala Records and with my single and EP coming soon I expect to make enough noise to grab the attention of a lot of people around the country,” he said.