Help the artists out!

  I recently read about a local musician who apparently, does not own a car and has an outdated cellphone. I found this sad because this person's music has been on high rotation on most local radio stations and a lot of people dance to his music. One answer for this man's situation; PIRACY.

With the recent announcement of the 2012 South African Music Awards nominees, the nation was excited  to learn that Afro-pop musician got seven nominations. Do we remember when this girl's album was pirated and it had American  singer, Aaliyah's face on it?

Why should we say our artists are poor if we do not support their art? It is about time we moved to the same rhythm as a nation and took a stand against piracy. It does not benefit the ministry of Arts and Culture or the artists theselves. Let us not even brag about downloads. What is a man to do with R5 for every song downloaded? Let us support local music in the same way that we support local sport.

Music for africa

Lomwe and Zeus

It is great to have African musicians collaborate on albums and singles. Lomwe and Zeus are rappers from Malawi and Botswana, respectively, they were housemates on the 2011 edition of Big Brother Africa Amplified. We often saw them get into rap battles on the show and it never crossed our minds that these two would actually work together one day. Their first performance was at the Lake of stars music festival in Malawi last December. The rappers are to release their album, Double Wowza later this year and the title single was released two weeks ago.

What these two rappers have done is what more African artists should be doing; it is time Africa united. Let us support our fellow Africans, buy local music and play more African tunes on local radio stations. We need to stop the fights and corruption; use the energy to create more music. Dance to one beat, Africa.

SAMA nominees 2012

Waiting with bated breath

Yesterday, the 18th annual SAMA nominees were announced by SAMA CEO, Randall Abrahams. The nominees were announced in the morning and followed by a celebration at famous club, Hush. Randall was appointed CEO after last year's flop of an event and we wait to see how differently he is going to do the job given to him.

Hip-Hop Pantsula was nominated in the category of 'Best street urban album' for his album, MotswAfrika. We wait to see if the man who has the whole nation singing 'bosso ke mang?' will take this one home. Other nominees include Loyiso Bala, Kabomo, new-comers Micasa, Sipho Mahlangu, Bhekumuzi Luthuli and Brickz. The lady that was nominated in almost every category , with seven nominations, is Zahara. Having been compared to Britain's Adele, we cannot wait to see if Zahara takes all the awards home like Adele did at the Grammy's last month.

The awards will be held in Sun City on the 29th and 30th of April, with the main event taking place on the 30th and being aired the very same evening on SABC 1 at 20:30. Good luck to all those that were nominated and watch out for Zahara!

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=sama%20nominees%202012&source=web&cd=9&ved=0CFgQFjI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypress.co.za%2FEntertainment%2FNews%2FZahara-scoops-seven-Sama-nominees-20120308&ei=AtNZT7jOGIPR0QX4ufzuDQ&usg=AFQjCNFULgbfw3iBiwXIL5Lwg8snL-eIFQ

The lady with the most nominations, Zahara