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Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent
TONIGHT, the Zim Hip Hop awards will be celebrating 10 years through a ceremony taking place at the Harare International Conference Centre.

Reflecting on the 10-years, event organiser Aldrian “Beefy” Harrison this week said it has been a journey of blood, sweat and tears, all for the culture as he wanted to keep the awards alive.

The awards which seek to honour hip hop artistes in the country, have come full circle for Beefy who has held on since 2011 and the journey according to him, has not been a bed of roses. It has been hard and riddled with debt as he has been working on a small budget ever since the award’s inception.

“Finance is one of the major problems we faced. We were always criticised for not putting together a perfect show, but not because we didn’t have the know-how, but we hosted the awards on a very small budget, for an event which costs thousands.

“A lot of losses and debt was acquired throughout the years which was a major setback,” said Beefy.
There were many times that Beefy thought it was best for him to shelve the awards.

“I’ve always thought of giving up, but I was raised in a family where failure is not an option so no matter how difficult the journey was, I’d lift myself up and keep knocking on more doors until things fell into place,” said Beefy.
Perseverance and learning from his mistakes have brought him thus far.

“Things have become better and more structured because I finally learnt a lot from past mistakes. I had to fix the foundation of the awards and then fix the mistakes that I had been making,” said Beefy.

This year, the awards are being sponsored by The Pogues Irish Whiskey, a first for the awards, showing that Beefy and his team have done something right.

What is there to fix? Well, according to Beefy, the moment artistes and promoters take the genre as a business everything else will fall in place.

“In every business or organisation there’s structure. In hip hop, we don’t take the genre as a business. For you to attract corporates or any lucrative investment, you need a structure. Artistes need advisors, strategies, business profiles, bank accounts, management, branding, annual budget and a depth of understanding of the music business.

“These things improve an artiste, it’s not always about money. Money comes provided you have the above stated to mention a few things,” said Beefy.

He said if artistes and music promoters alike take music as a business, corporates will, without doubt, want to work with them.

“A lot of times, we blame the corporate world for not buying in, but I’ve realised it’s not the corporate world with the problem, it’s us as a genre. As artistes or promoters, we must understand where these corporate see value.

“We must understand requirements and we must understand basic business principles which we need to apply in music.”

Talent according to Beefy is not enough as there needs to be a change in mindset in artistes. He said their know-it-all attitude is still a problem for most and that is leading to their downfall.

“Artistes don’t really understand music as a business. I feel that’s where the major issue is. Most artistes think talent is enough, but it’s just the beginning of everything. They expect everything to change once they have a hit song.

“Also, there’s a lot of negativity in the genre which is the enemy of progress. Most artistes have too much pride to admit they need help or they need direction. It’s rubbing on to the younger generation,” said Beefy.

But the ray of hope for Beefy is that over the years, a lot of talent has been uncovered.

“In such a journey, there are many ups and downs, but the ups were the fact that the awards constantly discovered and nurtured new talent. They provided a platform for artistes from around Zimbabwe to get a chance to showcase their talent and the awards also brought artistes from different parts of the country together,” he said.

These were the awards that introduced Zimbabwe to Cal Vin, now late, after he performed on their stage in 2014 and went on to win three awards the next year.

Turning to tonight’s awards ceremony, Beefy said it is worth celebrating as they are revelling the growth of the culture.

“As we continue with this journey, we as The Pogues Zim Hip Hop Awards continue to support the artistes and are willing to assist in every way possible. We’re not just an award’s show, but we’re the biggest hip hop promoters and investors as we’ve groomed many artistes over the years and will continue to do so,” said Beefy.

Tonight, several Zimbabwean hip hop stars will be honoured in various categories. Media personality Mbo Mahocs and choreographer Joe Cole will be the hosts at the event where R Peels who has eight nods and Asaph with seven will be battling for supremacy. Crooger and Holy Ten have five nominations each.

Competing for Best Male are R Peels, Asaph, Crooger, Ti Gonzi, Holy Ten and Jungle Loco, while the Best Female category is pitting Preshy, Kikky BadA$$, Natasha Muz, Sibo, Tashamiswa and Hanna.

Gunning for Song of the year are Asaph feat Msiz’kay’s – As’pheli Moya, Holy Ten’s – Ndaremerwa, R.Peels – Eke, Crisswiss and the dot – Bad Vibes and Crooger – Ginde.

The awards will be streamed live on the Zim Hip Hop Awards Facebook page for people to watch under the new normal. Only nominees and a select few guests will be allowed to attend the ceremony.
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