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Jah Prayzah (right) and Nigeria’s Davido

Yoliswa Dube/Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Reporters
The much-awaited collaboration between Jah Prayzah and Nigeria’s Davido on track, My Lilly finally dropped on YouTube at the weekend, but not many of the Military Touch Movement (MTM) frontman’s fans are chuffed by it.

A significant number of Jah Prayzah’s fans were quick to post their views on social media platforms after watching the track’s music video, many accusing the Mdhara Vachauya hit-maker of losing his touch and sounding boring as he has tweaked his sound. Though they enjoyed the video, the general feeling is that their artiste no more sounds “Zimbabwean” as the elements such as the mbira instrument that have become his trademark have been removed and replaced by the sound of other people’s music.

“Jah Prayzah’s trying to enter a small continental market that’s already flooded. If I were his producer, I would insist he maintained the Tsviriyo flavour and push it internationally.

“Otherwise, he’s losing his mature audience for social media trending,” wrote Stewart Nyamayaro.

But, his fans may have been too quick to judge because in his recent international collaborations with Tanzania’s Diamond Platnumz, SA’s Mafikizolo and now Davido, Jah Prayzah’s strategy has been rather apparent.

He is a man on a mission to woo new fans locally, but more importantly internationally, by changing his sound. This new kind of fan is one who ordinarily would not listen to Jah Prayzah’s upbeat tempos, but appreciate more mellow tunes from him.

Besides offering a mellow sound, his collaborations have also offered a more hip feel if Mdhara Vachauya and Sendekera are to be compared. While Mdhara Vachauya was a hit, it still failed to woo one who would not ordinarily listen to Jah Prayzah, yet Sendekera, which featured Mafikizolo, gained him more followers.

Jah Prayzah who has won 32 awards said since he had made it in Zimbabwe, he now had his eyes set on popularising his music outside the country’s borders. This, he said he hoped to achieve by collaborating with established artistes, hence his series of collaborations with African artistes as well as America’s Jason Derulo whom he worked with recently.

“My main motive this year is to take our Zimbabwean music to another level. We’ll not stop until we make it,” he said.

Responding to those who said his sound had changed, Jah Prayzah who has tweaked his contemporary sound to suit the Afro-pop sound that dominates Africa said he would not be ditching the instrument which shot him to stardom adding that he was working on a new album which would have his usual beat. The album that will feature the international collaborations will be released later this year.

“I believe my mbira is the one which brought these awards and that’s why it’ll always be special to me. What I’m just trying to do is take our music to another level so people, please continue supporting me on this journey.”

ZiFM Stereo radio personality, Themba Mkanda questioned if artistes should restrict themselves from exploring other genres.

“In the music industry, lines get blurred genres get blended and often times, artistes get blamed. After mixed feelings over the song My Lilly, should an artist restrict himself from exploring other genres in order to suit the regional and international market?” he asked.

Responding to Mkanda on Facebook, one user said Zimbabweans needed to stop being rigid and warm up to Jah Prayzah’s new sound adding that he was on the right track.

“That song is dope and Jah Prayzah is going to make money from it. Most of the artists whom we regard as good in Zimbabwe are poor because they make music for Zimbos only and that doesn’t put food on the table.”