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Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent
THERE have been many musicians from Zimbabwe who have secured collaborations with gurus in the industry, but for some, these collabos have not brought the fame that they intended.

Jah Prayzah for one, has done it all with collabos with locals, Mzansi’s Mafikizolo, Tanzania’s Diamond Platinumz, Nigeria’s Davido and even Jamaica’s Jah Cure. No doubt, the songs that were birthed from these partnerships have been popular especially Watora Mari where he featured Platnumz. So fruitful was this partnership and that of Mafikizolo that the artistes went on to feature Jah Prayzah on their albums.

But these are the only collaborations that seem to have borne fruit for Jah Prayzah as the others were rather about him trying to make a name for himself by riding on the fame of others, particularly with Davido and Jah Cure. But, did this work out for him?

Well, for Davido, he has a ready market in Zimbabwe as seen by his recent show in Harare where thousands thronged the Harare International Conference Centre to watch him perform. But for Jah Prayzah, it is important to note that this seemed to have ended at the level of a business transaction as Davido has never considered returning the favour to Jah Prayzah by inviting him to share the stage with him in Nigeria to expose him to a West African market.

Jah Prayzah is however, not alone in this as Sandra Ndebele is also among those affected by such partnerships. She has a track with Jah Prayzah called Love YeMushona NemuNdebele and it seems that Sandy is the one who made the most noise about the track more than Jah when it was released in 2015.

Up to today, there is not much hype about that track especially considering that Jah Prayzah, who was in Bulawayo recently, did not bother to invite Sandy to perform the track live with her.

Another collaborative effort is between Sandy and South African kwaito kingpin Professor on the infectious Kwaito song Lizwile. While the track makes for good listening, this is a good example of the lopsidedness of these joint ventures. Instead of Sandra breaking into a new market in South Africa with this song, she has remained in Bulawayo as it seems that the song has not gained her the popularity that she intended.

Professor on the other hand, is not making noise about the song and has left its promotion to Sandra. The same can be said of Cassper Nyovest and That Luveve Boy, Cal_Vin’s 2015 blockbuster collaboration for the Zikhuphani Remix. Apart from Cassper hearing the original version and saying that he wants to feature on the track, he, after the recording, did not do anything to promote the remix — unlike what he does for his tracks like Kusazobalit which he is currently pushing.

Many had hoped that Cassper, during his debut performance in Bulawayo, would perform the remix with Cal Vin, but alas, that did not happen. He however, did perform with him at the Kalawa Homecoming Party though he only chanted the chorus.

It’s all good and fine that an artiste can say they have a song with one of the biggest artistes in Africa, but how has that helped their career in the long run. It should not end in the studio as there should actually be a contract that is signed between the two spelling out what the collaboration should do, its marketing and promotion among other issues.

If done well, these collaborations — especially those which will have been paid for — could actually catapult up-and-coming artiste’s careers, giving them the breakthrough they will be so desperately in need of.

One artiste who is based in South Africa gave an insight on how collaborations should work.

“Promotion of the song is entirely up to the up-and-coming artiste or the one who sought the collaboration. This means everything that’s needed to get the song out there including the music video of the song is done by the up-and-coming artiste.

“Now, there has to be an agreement on how the other artiste can introduce the song to their market,” said the artiste.

“This can be through radio interviews where they mention the song or during concerts where they can bring in the up-and-coming artiste and perform the track together. That’s all subject to the agreements signed and some monies exchanged,” said the artiste who preferred anonymity.

He however, said the payment of the bigger artiste differed as some artistes do not want to be paid as they appreciate talent more than anything.

“With Cassper, there’s nothing that he does without the exchange of money these days, but before he could do things for free. As for AKA, it’s all about whether the song is good and if he thinks it will blow up.

“If those things add up, he can do the collabo for free. But at the end of the day, promotion of the song is the prerogative of the up-and-coming artiste,” said the musician.

With these revelations, it means local artistes may want to seriously think before rushing to do collaborations as they can find themselves with an egg on their faces after realising their hopes and expectations of penetrating international markets — or those of established artistes — were too high.