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San B rides the crestwave
By
Jack McBrams - 10-01-2003 |
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At the 2002 MBC Entertainers of the Year awards last weekend, the packed Njamba Room at Le Meridien Mount Soche Hotel went aflame immediately Information Minister Kaliyoma Phumisa mentioned San B’s name in his speech.
The minister was citing some of the local musicians that MBC has promoted over the years. He mentioned names like Chrissy Kamthunzi, Ben Michael, Emma Masauko and Lucius Banda.
But when he came to the name San B, the hall went into a deafening roar. Why? You would ask.
San B’s hit Pelemende has become such a massive hit that it is played everywhere — from households to radio stations to bottlestores to Television Malawi.
The hit song is synonymous with partying. Or at least, when you hear the song playing, what you want to do is party or dance or nod while tapping your foot to the beat.
Simply put, San B is that kind of character whose compositions give one that sort of feeling that ‘wanna make ya shake ya thang’. But he has fought hard and low for the success.
And today Pelemende, drawn from his latest collection Three 71, has become such a hit that the worst one can do is appreciate the artist’s creativity and uniqueness.
And what with the song, only released at the end of the year, being voted third best song in 2002 MBC Entertainers of the Year awards?
But did he envisage this kind of success?
“Honestly, I did not expect this,” he says. “I do not know [why] because when I compose my songs I do not know why people love the songs. I just compose and sing. It is for the people to say why they love the songs.”
However, the artist, who has a reputation of commenting on controversial and delicate subjects, disclosed that success may have come because he took his time to record Three 71.
“When I recorded my first two albums Nkhutukumve and Swit Poem, I took less time in the studio. But when I recorded Three 71, it took a little more than two months to complete everything which made me realise that for us musicians to improve, what we need is to spend more time in the studio,” he says.
The husky-voiced star of previous party anthems Amake Junior and Chiphadzuwa, remarks that recording an album in one week, as is usually the case, stifles and even kills creativity.
San B notes that the sound production is much better in Three 71 although he used the same producer Chuma Soko in all his three albums.
He, however, observes that this may be attributed to the fact that the studio where they recorded Three 71 is much better than where he recorded his previous albums.
But despite all this new glamour and glory, success has not come easy for him.
Five years ago radio stations turned him away when he recorded his first two singles Tears Of An Orphan and Athandizeni. The DJs told him that Malawians were not for his “strange” music style. They told him he was just wasting his time.
“But I persisted with this music because I wanted to create something different. I was adamant because I wanted to take this kind of music to a stage where it could be loved and appreciated,” he says.
San B reveals that he has given the genre a name, labelling it honjo to mean something that is uniquely creative.
“I have fused different African music genres into one which is unique and different. Honjo means different from the rest. You can go anyway in the world but you will not find another artist who plays music the way I play my music.
“That is what creativity stands for. People should be able to see the difference in your music and not compare it with other people’s because your lyrics and singing style are different,” says the artist who claims he feels uncomfortable being referred to as a ragga artist.
He says: “I don’t feel good when people say that I sing ragga because I don’t sing ragga. There are people out there who sing ragga better than I do because it is their music, their culture.”
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