Zone Fam - Shaka Zulu On Em

My support for the Zambian hip-hop community has been on the low for a while now simply because I haven't heard anything I've enjoyed for just over two years now.

The last Zambian hip-hop artist I bought an album from was Conscious after I was persuaded ever so gently by my friend Samba to attend his album launch. The material for his album had a couple of clever concepts and I appreciated the fact that he hadn't fallen into the lazy rut of pleading for my attention by trying to impress me with baseless braggadocio.

At Conscious launch I was also introduced to a young rapper known then as "Al the Lyricist" who showed a lot of promise with regards to original style and content. Al has since released two albums, none of which I have had the opportunity to listen to yet. His most recent album came out only a week ago and I'd love to hear what he has has been working on.

Sometime last year, in a conversation with Mhuthandeni Phiri, a fellow hip-hop enthusiast who is also founder and chairman of the Hip-hop Foundation of Zambia, we seemed to agree that the ailing element holding our artists (english and vernacular) back was a dire lack of content. It would seems like they all latched onto the in phrase of the time "swagger" and have now driven themselves into settling hyperbolic scores of beef that are painfully boring in ways that I would have never imagined.

A cardinal point that our hip-hop artistes have forgotten is that entertainment is the value we expect to derive from them. When we slide an album into our players or watch music videos, most of us are looking forward to some sort of feeling that makes considering their artwork in our time worthwhile. This is why we pay hard earned cash to listen to comedians, watch plays, get serenaded by balladeers or adorn our walls with paintings. The rule is no different for the hiphop artist. For example, the reason a high placed director in one of Zambia's blue chip companies is willing to quote TI's "Get Back Up" on her facebook status is by her on admission the positive vibe she gets from listening to it.

I can not to be the first to say this but I feel like I reiteration to the Zambian hip-hop community is necessary here ... the stories of how many girls surround you or how supposedly rich your alter ego could be is tired. It is a lame imitation and we expect so much more.

Enter Zone Fam with "Shaka Zulu on Em ..." This is the first Zambian hip-hop song in the last three years that I've played over and over again like I did with The Organized Family's "Koka-kola" or JK's "Kapilpili". Zone Fam's clever word play flows easily over an infectious beat. What I also enjoy is the sense of African pride I get to partake in as I'm invited to "Shaka Zulu on Em ..." It is entertaining and I am looking forward to listening to more songs from Zone Fam. They've impressed on me that they just might have something to go on, the very basics of rap - rhythm and poetry.

I hope Zone Fam can be that game changer that many of us have longed for. My respects also go out to Slam Dunk Records CEO Holster hoping that he continues to have a positive influence his proteges because we could do with a lot bit more of "getting our fists up" with pride before we end up emblazoning the epitaph of Zambian hip-hop with Common's words - "I used to love H.E.R (hip-hop)".