Zimbabwe Hip Hop has always been a genre filled with drama and confrontation. It has been written off by so many, so many times.
In 2020 Zim Hip Hop seemed to however be making a comeback and establishing itself as a force to reckon with in the Zimbabwean music industry. Recently, Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe seemed to have taken a cheap shot at Zim Hip Hop artists even though some considered it a harmless joke. On his Twitter handle @bellagushaz, Chatunga wrote:
"Kana uchida kufa nenzara muZim imba hip hop usina imwe source of income"
Initially, social media users received the post as harmless banter and many were laughing along to it. A few even chimed in saying it was true that Hip Hop was not a lucrative genre in Zimbabwe.
Most Hip Hop artists seemed to have ignored the post but rapper Yoz has come up swinging. The artist posted a screenshot of Chatunga's words with a few choice words for the son of the former president. In his post Yoz wrote:
"Uyu mpfanha uyu haataure patotaura isu. Usade kuziva nhema mupfanha Chatunga... Wakamboswera mustreet here or unotomboziva how much this hustle means to a lot of us underprivileged ghetto youths? Ziva zvekudya mari yedu yatakabirwa nababa vako mupfanha. MAR TAR YA CALL"
We are yet to see what Chatunga's reply will be to the this, although Chatunga's social media posts are few and far between which means he might ignore it. But Chatunga himself is not a stranger to online confrontations.
A while ago the son of the late former president Robert Mugabe had a rather spicy interaction with Temba Mliswa, the legislator for Norton. Chatunga reminded Temba Mliswa that he stole properties from Paul Westwood during his time as a member of the ruling party, Zanu PF.
This confrontation came after Mliswa claimed on Twitter that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration should take back the 15 farms which are reportedly still under the control of the late President's widow, Grace.
After Temba's post, Chatunga strongly replied saying,
“Wakadzosera zvinhu zvaPaul Westwood here iwe (Did you return Paul Westwood properties)?”
Mliswa went on saying that it was a bit unfair for the government to seize Robert Zhuwao’s only farm while allowing Grace to keep possession of 15 of them. This came as the minister of youth, Kirsty Coventry was said to be seizing the land of the former president's nephew:
“Grace Mugabe is still seating on 15 farms but why is the government going after a sick man, Robert Zhuwao who owns one farm. Government policy is one man one farm, so why are they avoiding Grace? What are we scared of instead of just implementing the policy?
