Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
At the beginning of July in 2016, Vusa “Blaqs” Hlatshwayo had a decision to make.
After, scratching around for opportunities in Bulawayo’s music scene, a barren desert at the worst of times, he knew that he had to somehow find his way to Harare.
Times were tough. Blaqs had quit his job as a graphic designer at Ingwe Studios and financially, he was down to his last few pennies. The walls, it seemed, were closing in on him but he knew he had to make it to Harare somehow.
A friend sent a screenshot to him, telling him of a job offer in Harare. Someone was looking for a skilled hand to edit a movie and the friend thought that Blaqs was just the man for the job. Never mind the fact that he had never edited a movie in his life.
“As I built my career, I had this conviction that this hobby of mine would turn into a career,” Blaqs told Sunday Life in an interview.
“I don’t know why, but I just felt that way. In Bulawayo, after I quit my job and tried to do this full-time, it was hard to convince high-profile musicians the likes of Jeys and Sandra Ndebele to buy into the vision. I tried but I just felt like people were not believing in me and that was kind of frustrating because I believed I had so much to give,” he said.
Sandra Ndebele
Blaqs knew he had to make his way to Harare, but there was a slight problem. He was broke, and the man at the end of the screenshot was a person that he had never met before. He was struggling to raise just his bus fare and should things go wrong, he could find himself homeless, in the cold of winter, alone in a strange place with just a few dollars in his pocket.
“For me to raise the bus fare, remember at the time finances were bad, it was really hard. I remember my aim was to raise US$50 but I only managed to raise $US20. Actually, I did not arrive in Harare with $US20 because that is the amount that I left Bulawayo with. When I arrived, I was left with $US3 after buying some food and airtime,” said Blaqs.
Perhaps it was the audacity of hope and conviction in his own beliefs that grabbed Blaqs and steered him towards the capital, even with only US$20 to his name. Taking a risk, he packed his bags and left. Waiting on the other end of that uncertain journey was a man that wanted him to edit a movie although he had never done it before. That man was Moses Matanga.
“So, I took a chance and texted the guy and told him I could work with him. The guy, Moses Matanga who is now the head of NRTV, quickly responded. At the time I didn’t know who he was and I just wanted to just do one project in Harare, leave my voice there and see what happens. The guy responded and I felt a bit of hope that this could work out. I asked him about some of the equipment that they had used and I could not believe some of the answers I was getting because deep down I knew that this was the biggest opportunity I could ever get. The guy was talking about the equipment they had used to shoot the movie and this was something I had always dreamed about at least seeing. I wanted to see the camera, not even to hold it,” said Blaqs.
To Blaqs’ dismay, after an exhausting eight-hour journey, he learnt that Matanga had left for Mutare that very morning. His battery was now at 12 percent and he had a single dollar in his pocket. In desperation, he reached out to another contact that had spoken of the numerous opportunities available in Harare. He was invited to Eastlea, where the contact stayed. If all went well, perhaps a hot bath and a warm bed awaited him there.
At 6pm, Matanga called, informing him that he was now in Harare. Blaqs made his way to Copa Cabana where they were supposed to meet but once there, he was dismayed to find out that Matanga was now in Dzivarasekwa. With the dollar left in his pocket, Blaqs made his way to Dzivarasekwa but more heartbreak awaited him there. His airtime was now depleted and he had no way of getting in touch with Matanga. Like a hungry hyena scavenging around for a meal at the end of a long day, he roamed around the shops in the high-density suburb, in the forlorn hope that Matanga would call. The call eventually came, instructing Blaqs to approach a silver Benz. The rest of his life was about to begin.
“It took me about 27 days to edit the movie and in those 27 days, I was indoors every day. It was a place of creative freedom and made me see things in a bigger way. I figured out how to edit the movie in one day. So, my head was filled with so many possibilities. So, I knew I had to make a decision because I could be a part of something really big. So, Matanga asked where he could find some of the stuff that I had done and I showed him some of the music videos that I had for Cal_vin and Mzoe7 and he quickly picked up that although I had talent, the equipment that I was using wasn’t really good. Until that time, I had been shy to ask what equipment he had been using. A month later, I asked him and he showed me the equipment,” he said.
Mzoe7
Having spent the last few years in search of opportunity, Blaqs had built quite a big contact list. One of the people on his contact list was ExQ.
“This guy was friends with Alexio Kawara and Alexio had been to the house five or six times while I was editing that movie. So, Alexio had seen that Moses had some good equipment and wanted to shoot one of his music videos with it. I wanted to be a part of that production but as a newcomer, I didn’t want to place myself in the forefront because they had plans already so only after they had done shooting did Moses ask me to put together the video. I started working on it while everyone was watching and the guy was really impressed and he told me I should get more opportunities.
“Knowing that ExQ responds slowly to messages and sometimes doesn’t respond at all, I made sure that the message I sent counts. I sent him pictures of the equipment and told him that this is the best equipment we have in this country and possibly in Africa, it’s time to work. He came later that day and played to me about six songs and I picked Bachura, especially because I wanted to see Ammara Brown. She was all over the news and she had just done Mukoko. I knew that if I did a song with ExQ featuring Ammara my name would be out there,” he said.
According to Blaqs, even Ammara was doubtful of working with this dark-skinned lad from Bulawayo with no known catalogue in A-list Zimbabwean showbiz. Blaqs would soon prove his mettle even to her.
“Again, that same Bulawayo feeling came back because she kept on not wanting to be a part of the project and we were frustrated together with ExQ and at some point, we decided to drive to her house and sat her down and told her we really had to do this. That was when I had to prove myself because on that day Ammara put me on an audition block. She was asking me to prove myself and I knew this was a storyteller so I had to pull up my game. The first sweet taste of success came on the day when we were shooting mostly Ammara’s parts. After two or three takes she says, ‘by the way, from now on, you’re doing all my music videos,’” he said.
After working so hard on Bachura, Blaqs learnt that ExQ and his friend, Jah Prayzah had decided to release videos on the same day. He was distraught. After the pain, the sweat, and the tears, his skills were now being pitted against an expensively assembled team that had shot the visuals for Zimbabwe’s most popular musician.
“Because ExQ felt that this was one of the best videos, he wanted the best way of releasing it. At the time I didn’t know that ExQ had taken the video and showed it to Jah who was really impressed. At the same time, Jah had just done the video for Mudhara Vachauya on the same day. I was so nervous and even angry at XQ because I thought after we worked so hard, how could he put us against this guy who put thousands of dollars into a video he had shot in South Africa with some ‘white guys’ with a big production studio? But XQ calmed me down and long stories short, the videos were released and the views and comments were just so uplifting. People were loving my work and in no time my phone started ringing and ‘Who is it? It’s Trevor Dongo. Who’s it? Its Fungisai. Who’s it? Its Mudiwa.’ I couldn’t believe it. That’s the time I realised that I am now full-time in this thing.”
Jah Prayzah
It was at this time that Jah Prayzah and ExQ were assembling Military Touch, a movement that altered the Zimbabwean music scene. The rest, as they say, was now history for Zimbabwe’s most famous video director.
“A week after the video was released, XQ sat me down and said we are working on something with Jah called Military Touch Movement. He said he and Jah had agreed that I would handle all the visuals coming from there,” he said.