He is arguably the first Zimbabwean rapper Don Dada who has gone Platinum in South Africa where he is based, with his single track Viva Mandela. The single was released in July 2017 to celebrate Nelson 'Madiba' Mandela's life and by October it had already gone gold. The Platinum certification by RISA comes after the song moved close to 700 000 paid digital downloads. Currently working on a single track with Sammy Sosa and at the same promising a massive project at the tail end, Menelik is one artist to reckon with.

RasMoe Gibbons, Superproducer rapz, Don Dada and Sipho Zak Masigo hold up Don Dada's Risa Gold Award plaque

Perhaps more airplay will do for him, here in his home country. Zimbabweans haven't yet heard
Born Menelik Nesta Gibbons in Harare Zimbabwe where he spent the first 5 years of his life before immigrating to South Africa 20 years ago rapper Don Dada has never been what you would call average.

Don Dada, who sports in meter-long dreadlocks was born in Zimbabwe, Harare, to a family of avid Bob Marley fans and even today, 37 years after Marley’s death, Don Dada’s father is still a reggae and Rastafarian fanatic.

DON DADA

 Don Dada is in fact quite the opposite with a style that is best described as flamboyant, he possess a lyrical armoury that far surpasses the expected humdrum. Don Dada is probably pound for pound, note for note, word for word, the best new/young MC ever to come out the southernmost point of Africa, a testimony of his dedication to perfection and the hard work that underpins producing his good music – Don Dada has a different take on that and explains that living his dream and passion means that hours in the studio is never work! He attributes his character to growing up wearing dreadlocks [from birth] in an era were all schools subscribed to a code of conduct that focused on an almost bald cut for boys. Don Dada’s strong character which comes out in his rap style stems from being the person that creates the difference for other to benefit from his footprint - again he pushes this aside with the explanation that his names defined his destiny Menelik: King of Ethiopia and Nesta: Bob Marley.

With a catalogue that spans 5 years , 3 Mix tapes ,multiple written articles, television appearances and radio interviews Don Dada has worked with some of the the best Africa has to offer (Bent man (Liberian MC), Crazy Lu, M.X.O, Da Les, Maggz, Ernie B saint Claire, Bongani Fassie to name some known artists) but his most notable and recent success has to be his collaboration with Maggz on "Ku Kwamla" a song that has gotten much attention locally after DJ C-Live featured it on his Power Nights Of Hip Hop show and currently working on a single with Sammy Sosa.

Aside from his own artistic aspirations Don Dada has explored other aspects of the music industry as well, as co-founder of Destruction entertainment a South African based Hip Hop Label that has produced 7 mix tapes with 3 going to hard copy and 4 still unreleased, Don Dada and Sergio Britarev have recorded , mixed, mastered, produced videos and marketed projects for Crazy Lu and Bent man,putting hard copy's into several stores across Johannesburg independently.all this while still recording his own projects.

With Don Dada  the release of his highly anticipated first street Album (think Section 80 or Kush & orange Juice), Don Dada seems set to turn the game on its head ,with heavy weight production by the likes of Bongani Fassie (S.A) ,Eric Hall (U.S.A), ruff (S.A) and J-Flames (U.K) Don Dada has fittingly entitled the project Avant-Garde (a term used to describe a pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo, primarily in the cultural realm. The notion of the existence of the Avant-Garde is considered by some to be a hallmark of modernism, as distinct from postmodernism. Many artists have aligned themselves with the Avant-Garde movement and still continue to do so) claiming his rightful position as Africa's hip hop Van Guard.
Source: [Reverbnation]

Watch the official video for the song that has made waves in South Africa.

Well first of all, it is the immediate attention that the song attracted from the moment the album was launched that inspired Winky D to release this video. Yes, the Gafa himself announced on his Facebook page last week that the decision to release the video was inspired by the fans. 

“African wisdom teaches us that wood that has already been touched by fire is not hard to set alight. The song Ngirozi was touched by the fans’ blessings of fire the same day that we performed it for the first time in the HICC [Harare International Conference Centre],” he said.

“Our decision to favour it with this video is premised on the support that you, the fans, who are the stakeholders and stockholders of my music, have given it.”
Winky D applauded the fans for their continued support for his work.

“I am forever indebted to the love you continue to show towards the works,” he said. 

Winky D at HICC

The innovative nature of the song — which blends dancehall and traditional white-garment apostolic choral beats — has made it an instant hit, although it was released just soon after that Tocky Vibez joint with Vabati VaJehovha again.

Several followers of the Gafa on Instagram have since showered him with praises over the relatively immediate release of the much-loved song unlike in the past when the video of the song, Disappear, came out long after the song and after some fans had almost lost hope.

However the interesting and a point that is really exciting for us is Now. Now that it has been dropped, just like Disappear video it seems ‘fans’ are not really impressed. The music video was directed by Enqore and produced by Nafuna TV. The video also features actress Gonyeti, and a lot of drone shots!

A lot of reaction to the video online has mostly been negative, with the most common sentiment being it’s complicated, actually one online user went as far as labelling the music video a ‘Powerpoint’ presentation.

Well this is what I have felt over this Visual set. This Zimbabwe dancehall superstar Winky D has obviously disappointed me. But it won’t be the first time he has done harm to his big songs, remember the video to Disappear?

For a song that involves angels, one would have expected a little more effort than the weak delivery by the Gaffa. I love Winky D’s music, just when news that the Ngirozi Video was going to drop, I just like most of music fanatics around the nation were in ecstasy and when it finally did, we quickly went to YouTube.

And just like Akiliz by Ammara brown whoever made that video ruined all the then high expectations that most dear fans had and a good part of my heart too. Scary observation is again on Gonyeti the comedian, I love Gonyeti and have nothing against her but she's just misplaced in that video, and why is she doing the male voice when another male dude is right next to her?

The video lacks a lot compared to the high expectations in the people: Poor script, poor cinematography, poor casting, poor location, lacked creativity, no new style, there was hardly any effort at all to match his stardom at the moment.

Creative Loop has gone further to say basically, it is something one can do with a smartphone and a 5 minute YouTube editing tutorial.

Well, this video settles the debate of who is the King Winky D or Jah Prayzah, for the Gombwe it’s a clear indication that he has accepted his fate and has relegated himself to be a local artist with no appetite to penetrate the continent.

However we should not overlook the better parts in the video for example the fact the video is of high quality, and the effects all over are a lovable concept. The video is a surely a quality production - especially with the modern video shooting skills exhibited by the editor with the use of those drones. It only becomes a headache in conveying the message across. It really lacks in the storytelling, like telling the story without being too obvious. 

Again what we need to understand is that, before rubbishing every Video Production Team we come across, in this case Winky D's team (whom we all know are 5-star rated), consider that every job is limited by BUDGET.

Something I’m sure most of us even myself as a Zimbabwe music fanatic I am well-acquainted with. The temptation to do stellar work is always there (most artists suffer from this a lot), but one must be mindful to always equate their input and quality of output with what they are being paid for it. On a 3-tier pricing structure, it could be Winky D opted for Basic Level. But well, the viewer does not care about this. They demand excellence and to most disappointed individuals, if not all this is a ZBC level of production to be frank.

To download the Video CLICK HERE:

Anyway Lets Support the Gombwe

Feel free to comment and tell me what you think?