C O V E R S T O R Y
GMI : Welcome to GMI Freeman , the HKD boss . Most people love your music because it rocks the party scene with hits like ' Ngaibake ', ' Pombi ' and of course the latest , ' Unobvuma Here ?' Would you take us back to the path that brought you here and who is Freeman ?
Freeman : Freeman HKD is a young man who is one of Zimbabwe ' s biggest artists from Bindura . Yes people do like my party anthems !!!
GMI : Talk to us about your genre of music and when the spark started , was music always a part of your life and did you know this would be the path you would take ?
Freeman : I ' m a dancehall artist , I sing and write any type of music but the genres that are evident in my music are ,
dancehall , Afrobeats , Afro dancehall and reggae . I didn ’ t always know that I would be a successful musician growing up . I played soccer . I was actually drafted for a division team and I played for a bit . I was quite good . But you know the hardships in many industries in this environment we are in , there isn ’ t much funding and remuneration , so I quit . When I moved to Harare for my advanced level in school , I was staying with my uncle in DZ ( Dzivarasekwa ). That ’ s where I met Nhubu weManafu the producer of ' Joina City .' From that the journey to Freeman began .
GMI : From awards to tours - home and away , would you say the response to your music has been constant over the years in the entertainment industry as well as the communities you have gone into . Has the journey been easy ?
Freeman : No this journey hasn ’ t been easy . I don ’ t think there ’ s a journey that is easy . Any journey one partakes in comes with its challenges and issues . It ’ s no secret that we have many issues in our own industry here , but despite that you prevail . There ’ s so much piracy in this industry that the minute you release anything within hours your music is already being pirated online or in the streets , but this has its slight advantages , your music gets to more people . Getting responses becomes automatic , you get praises and criticism from every angle . Over the 10 years that I ’ ve been in the industry I ’ ve been getting positive remarks from my fans and that ’ s what keeps me going . At times they even request for more music when I ' m not even thinking of releasing anything . It ’ s such an overwhelming experience when you go to places in the corner of the country and you don ’ t expect people to know your music to like that because you think it takes time for music to reach those places . But you see an old lady the age of my grandmother singing my songs .
GMI : ‘ Robbery ’ is out , the title of the album paints such a vivid picture and most people will have different interpretations of the meaning at the first go . What ' s the concept behind it , who is on it and what can your fans expect this time around ?
Freeman : With a Freeman album , one is always guaranteed to be served with groovy afro-dancehall vibes and on this one , I made sure that this body of work was well oiled and packed up .
As one nurtured by urban Zimbabwe , we can pick up these elements in the lingo used in most of my songs which have deliberate intention to entice
13