learning how to play drums.
GM.: When can we look
forward to your album and
how are people responding to
your music?
Rontingz: No albums out yet.
I’m actually doing things
differently. The music industry
is not about making albums
only, but doing things
differently, and if I am the first
one to do things differently , so
be it. I am not going to be
doing an album every year. Last
year was just a sample of how
people would respond to hiphop. The reception, with people
who have heard my music, or
know me, has been well. T hey
say that I’m bringing hip-hop
back, because it had lost it with
people talking about “swag”
which we don’t have in
Zimbabwe. People talk about
stuff like Cadillacs, and things
that they don’t own. I’m
bringing hip-hop on the real tip;
in realistic manner. The
response has been massive. I
received 300 likes within the
first week of setting up my
Facebook page and I was like
wow!.It has been tremendous
because everyone is like, “who
is Rontingz?” Now it’s about
me approaching the media for
them to know me, because they
only know my name. People
may get to hear part of my
songs but you know, when the
radio DJ starts talking in the
middle of the song and
mentions who it is, and then
another song comes up, and
maybe someone else doesn’t
really get to know who it is. So
I’m actually going to be going
on a spree of distributing my
music for free, just to grow my
demography but otherwise
people love my music.
GM.: From your thoughts
what can be done to
improve our local music
industry?
Rontingz: Locally, we have
lots of talent; we have enough
the talent. I think that where
we actually get it wrong is
promotion and production.
Production-wise, a person
can’t go into the studio and
say that they are actually done
with a song in a week. That’s
why with Audius, he takes his
time. Everything that I have
learnt, I have learnt it from the
“Boss”; I call him the “boss’
because he is well
experienced, has been all over
the world, Australia, the
United States, so he has
taught me that it’s not about
rushing. It is about mastering
your track, like mastering
your bars. You find a producer
just wants to get paid there
and there, so they might not
master the music. A producer
can ask an artist what beat
they want and someone says
“Dirty South”; the producer
types in and clicks it on Fruity
Loops, tells the artist to get
into the booth. So someone
will be doing something in a
mediocre studio set-up . So
when you are doing that and
you want to push that outside,
there tends to be a negative
perception of Zimbabwean
music. People out there might
say that ‘your’ music is crap,
although you have great
punch lines, but your
productions, what’s up with
your producers? What I’m
saying is that take your time.
Groove Magazine Zimbabwe
Because with producers like
Timbaland didn’t work with
Justin Timberlake on one album.
You have to find one specific
person you want to work with,
not twenty people where you
can’t produce decent beats
because you have many people
you are concentrating on.
GM.: So what do you think
should be done to improve the
industry?
Rontingz: First of all musical
seminars. More festivals, more
interaction between the
producers themselves, instead of
saying that “I’m the best!”, why
not try and unite with each other
and learn from each other.
Knowledge is the key! You
cannot know everything, I don’t
know everything. Everyday I am
constantly learning something
new; so as a producer I can go to
someone like Simba Tagz and ask
him about something and he
shows me. So then I will have a
similar idea and then think, why
don’t I use that and maybe he
might come to my studio and
appreciate how I played around
with what he taught me. And
then I show him a few tricks, not
giving away all my secrets, but
sharing ideas. As producers,
there is need of a production
body that actually sets what type
of music is going to be popular.
Instead of just sending low grade
stuff to radio and people end up
not listening to radio because of
the stuff that is played. But that
body is essential for producers, it
should be set up by producers
themselves and they rate each
other so that there is
competition. They need to be
rated so that each producer ups
their game.
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