Award-winning music producer Shelton ‘Sunshine’ Masiwa says ZimDancehall is declining and will be overtaken by Zim Hip hop as the most popular genre if certain things are not done right.
Masiwa, who owns Sunshine Studios and has over the years produced songs for artists such as Winky_D, Freeman, Seh Calaz, Kinnah, Qounfuzed under his stable, believes unnecessary competition between producers as well as rushed projects, can better explain ZimDancehall’s decline, and the resurgence of HipHop.
He said: “ZimDanchell, as a genre, is declining. It is declining because we no longer take our time in producing music with good quality. You can have a situation whereby production of a song starts today and by tomorrow, it will be out.
“A whole album cannot be produced and released within a week, of which that is no ideal as far as our industry is concerned.
“The other problem is that as producers, we are involving ourselves in unnecessary competition. What we only care about is fame, we produce substandard staff and release quickly just to ‘beat’ the other producer and that is not good for ZimDancehall, as a movement.
Masiwa believes producers now prioritizes fame and that limits the growth of ZimDancehall.
He said:
“In the good old days, when ZimDancehall was at its peak, we (producers) used to give each other time to release music so that the listeners focus on one thing at a time but not anymore. These days, we just release for the sake of releasing, just to get fame.
“The reason why Winky D remains relevant despite ZimDancehall being on a downward spiral is because he takes his time to produce music, he is not pressured by anyone to release it.
“Hip hop is back and can eclipse ZimDancehall because they (Hip hop artists and producers) take their time in making music and it will be sounding good.
“As ZimDancehall stakeholders, if we don’t swallow our pride and accept criticism as far as releasing rushed projects with the literally the same melody over and over is concerned, we will kill our industry and Hip hop will easily take over.
“The impact of HipHop is there for all to see, everyone knows about Holy Ten and the likes of Saintfloew. They started the same way we started, people initially ignored our music but later got used to it and started liking it and it can be the same with Hip hop.