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Buffalo Souljah and Winky D

Bruce Ndlovu
ZIMBABWEAN dancehall juggernauts Winky D and Buffalo Souljah have combined for a rare collaboration on the song Rugare, a track which has been touted as a potential blockbuster mash-up between two heavyweight chanters.

Last week the two surprised fans with images from a video shoot which they were undertaking south of the Limpopo, with Winky announcing that the pictures were a teaser for a track that would be premiered soon.

True to that promise, the Gafa, as Winky has become known since the release of his last two projects, unleashed the song on Monday afternoon and it immediately caused ripples on social media.

Produced by Nicky, the track sees Winky for the first time in a while flex his lyrical skills over a beat that is not from his favoured partner in hit-making, Oskid.

Although it is an upbeat track, the two chose a subject matter that they felt most Zimbabweans could identify with.

“We’d just been working on a few ideas for a while. We would allow our imaginations to roam free as we looked for the right concept that would suit both of us.

“In the end, we settled for Rugare because we felt that it was something most people could identify with,” said Buffalo Souljah from his South African base.

Buffs, as the chanter is commonly known as, said although the collaboration looked sudden, it was something that had been in the works for a while now.

“We started getting interested in working together about five years ago because fans would comment on both our social media posts. Since then, the interaction has been ongoing, but fans only started seeing us together when we posted a picture earlier this year.

“At that time, we had already started going through beats and concepts for the collaboration.”

News that the two had already shot a video for the song would have come as a relief for the Gafa’s fans, as they have been starved of visuals for songs from the star’s last two albums.

While Winky D has been seemingly camera shy in the last few years, Buffs said that the star was the one who came up with the vision of what the song’s video should look like.

“We used my production team, but it was actually Winky who came up with the concept and was also the co-director of the video,” he said.

The reception of the song will be of interest to fans of both artistes, as while Buffalo Souljah has been lauded around the continent, Winky D has earned adulation at home. The song therefore might give both chanters a chance to exploit each other’s strengths.