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1. Luna — Ma B & Stewie Le Savage

2. Khumbula — Cashies & Slim Riccx

3. Every man cheats — Kully Tangu

4. Stimela — DJ Otis & Mazet 

5. Vukuyosebenza — Samapiano 

6. Gaya– Mjava & Stormza

7. Ugesi ka Africa — Josh major

8. Marry Me —- TCK

9. Real Geez– Cashiez

10. Bhawa — Teekay G

Topping the charts this week is MaB & Stewie Le Savage with the song Luna. Featured below is Stewie Le Savage, an Afro-tribal artiste who fuses spoken word with contemporary dance music. 

Q. Please tell us about yourself 

A. I was born Stuart Chikuni. Stewie Le Savage is an Afro-Poetic Spoken word artist who uses art to tell stories and advocate for human rights. I started doing art at a very young age but emerged in 2018. Since then, I’ve been releasing music, mainly in the house music genre.

Q. How did you venture into music?

A. I was always a lover of music. In 2015, I worked on a collaboration with a certain producer but due to some issues, the song wasn’t released. In 2018, someone closely related to that producer contacted me for another collaboration which I gladly accepted. We worked on the song and when it was released, the reception was amazing. I’ve had the motivation to always release music after that.

Q. The song Luna, what inspired it and who did you work with?

A. Luna is a collaboration I did with Thabang Kgole (Ma-B), a house producer from South Africa. It was inspired by strong women who fight regardless of the situation. In this case, Luna (the moon) symbolises a single mother to the stars and the father of the children is the sun. It is aimed at appreciating women in significance with the galaxies.

Q. What do you think makes a good song?

A. Music is about storytelling for me so the lyrical content makes a good song. But it has to be accompanied by rhythm and a good melody to keep the listeners engaged.

Q. How long have you been in the music industry?

A. I’ve been in the main face of the music industry for the past five years, but I’ve existed behind the scenes a little longer as a songwriter and blogger.

Q. Which artistes have you worked with?

A. Locally, I’ve worked with K.O.D, Shuza Drums, MellowmuziQ, Vikmoe Music, Fab G, Novuyo Seagirl, Base Wasilewski and Rander the Samaita just to name a few. Outside Zimbabwe, I’ve worked with Ma-B, HyperSoul-X, Cosmo Musiique, Kindai, DJ Feevos, Vincent Ache and Loopman SA.

Q. How many albums/EPs/singles do you have? 

A. I haven’t released any album or an EP. Most of my songs are features, but to my name, I have Voice of the Oppressed featuring Shuza Drums, The Break Up Song, Freedom Train featuring Novuyo Seagirl, The Revelations and Umthombo Wothando featuring Base Wasilewski.

Q. Who inspires you? 

A. I’ve always been inspired by Nina Simone, how she stood against oppression and fought endless battles to free her voice. I also want to one day, have a free voice that’ll break all the silence on human rights violations. Locally I’ve been inspired by Winky D.

Q. Which music do you specialise in?

A. I’d say house music, but I’d love to believe that I’m just generally a dance muso. So anything that can be classified under Dance is my go-to baby.

Q. What do you think artistes from the city should do to be recognised?

A. I think artistes from Bulawayo should just focus on making music, the rest will follow. There’s a quote from my favourite human that says “Focus on what makes you happy and the rest will fall into place”. 

This simply says you should focus on giving out good music and one day, that recognition will come. 

You just need that one song that’ll unlock all doors for you. Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day. Also, diversify your focus. We have the digital space now and it’s giving more mileage so it’s up to us to utilise it wisely.

Q. They say Bulawayo doesn’t have its own sound. What’s your take on that? 

A. Music is a universal language so we don’t need a specific sound to tell our stories. I think we are okay with the sound we are doing. We just need to push for good quality.