H-Metro
EXPLICIT content, or dirty lyrics and unsavoury visuals, have over the years been a source of controversy and condemnation on the showbiz landscape.
It’s unfortunate that most of the artists promoting this behaviour are youngsters whose future looks quite bright.
It’s also sad that there are some artists, whom we look up to, who keep singing such dirty stuff.
Despite being a season for silly songs, where even crap is now receiving massive airplay in most pubs and public transport, this should never be a justification for artists to promote this kind of behaviour.
This has blighted their vision and many of them have either sunk into oblivion or have simply been forgotten.
It’s sad when some of the artists go to extremes by releasing visuals of naked women in their videos.
In Tuesday’s issue, we carried the story of youthful chanter Ras Pompy, whose X-rated video got a hammering from social media users.
A promising lad at the height of the Zim dancehall movement, Ras Pompy seems to have lost the plot by dropping visuals of the song ‘Skin To’ Skin featuring a naked video vixen.
The video was beyond strip tease and can rightly be dismissed as hogwash.
Whether it was an attention-seeking stunt, or not, Ras Pompy’s handlers could have done better.
A role model back in the day, Ras Pompy gave hope to budding teen musicians.
He is that youngster who once got a scholarship to study at a private college in Harare after catching the heart of one of the benefactors in the capital.
With age still on his side, it’s never too late for Ras Pompy’s handlers to do the correct thing – shunning explicit content.
As a youngster, with a lot of potential that we saw in her early teens, the chanter can still do better.
There are genuine fears that other youngsters might be influenced by Ras Pompy and end up giving us such dirty stuff.
The arts regulatory authorities should be firm and act against producers of explicit content.
It’s high time the local censorship board or arts regulatory chiefs, such as the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe, flex their muscles.
This madness should not be allowed to continue happening at a time when technology can make such hogwash go viral.
While Ras Pompy joins the shameful league of musicians, who have been caught promoting explicit content, this should never be used as part of his defence.
Local artists need workshops where they are educated about the dangers of singing such explicit stuff.
Explicit was behind the spectacular fall of Jacob Moyana but it appears some people didn’t pick lessons from that.
Musicians should always think of those who look up to them before churning out such X-rated stuff.
Vulgar lyrics should never be promoted and disguised as good music and freedom of speech.
Our artists should learn to promote clean lyrics and shun explicit and harmful content.
Legends like Alick Macheso and Oliver Mtukudzi didn’t need such harmful content to become superstars.
