Jah Prayzah is not riding on Mafikizolo’s coattails

Last year, Prayzah gained mileage when he teamed up with Tanzania’s Diamond Platnumz on a video called ‘Watora Mari’. This time around, the award-winning musician partnered with the South African act in an attempt to increase his fan base south of the border.

Produced by DJ Maphorisa, ‘Sendekera’ was shot in South Africa and was directed by Nic Roux. It was shot in different locations such as house, club and local suburb. Written by Jah Prayzah and Mafikizolo, the song preceding the video was recorded in South Africa last year.

Soon after its release on Wednesday, the ‘Watora Mari’ hitmaker shared the video on Facebook with his fans. “And it’s finally out masoja (soldiers) enjoy,” he wrote. A few hours later, he wrote again: “In one day I have 103 000 reasons to love you, masoja. Thank you for loving ‘Sendekera’. Thank you to the talented @theo_kgosinkwe and @nhlanhla_nciza for making this happen. This really means a lot to me.”

Some sections of Zimbabwean media attributed the success of the video to Mafikizolo, saying that the ‘Ndihamba Nawe’ hitmakers were the main reason the video fared so well. Zimbabwean journalist Jonathan Mbiriyamveka wrote in an article: “But on the whole this does not say whether or not the video is outstanding,” he said. “Now to put things into perspective, Mafikizolo are popular in Zimbabwe and in fact, the whole of Africa.

“Just a reminder, social media like Hollywood is one big illusion and we are seeing this. If today I pose for a picture alongside Kim Kardashian that means I become an instant sensation. That picture will reach over a million people in just the click of the mouse. More often than not the hits and views will come from Kim Kardashian fans.”

Later in the article, Mbiriyamveka says: “While the video quality is great the track is lukewarm and average, it lacks the WOW factor.”

Amid the mixed feelings towards the video, Zimbabwean comedian Carl Joshua Ncube, who is currently on a tour, defended his fellow countryman. “Those of you hating on the new Jah Prayzah track need to just shut up and wear a school dress like the rest of us,” Ncube said in an apparent reference to Prayzah’s music video ‘Eriza’, which also features a schoolgirl.

Arts activist and a music critic Plot Mhako, who commands a huge following on Facebook, wrote: “’Sendekera’ Jah Prayzah ft Mafikizolo an instant hit! Epic video.” In another Facebook post, Mhako challenges the critics: “So the boring video has 118K views in 24Hrs. Imi kwanai (get real) #sendekera.”

If the likes on YouTube are anything to go by, then Mbiriyamveka’s “WOW factor” analysis could well be erroneous. By time of publishing, the music video had generated 4 469 likes and 168 dislikes – a clear indication that the video was well-received.

There is also the belief that many music videos hit the big time illegitimately by using various underhanded tactics to accumulate a high number of views and likes.

But Vijay Gaur, an Indian digital marketing consultant, had this to say about YouTube likes. “YouTube view counts are collected at subsequent servers and undergo a thorough verification process to filter out spam counts and any other artificial manipulation. This verification process can take several hours or even a day to complete and only then the view counts get updated to give such huge jumps.”

Commenting on whether fake YouTube views and likes actually benefit the channel, Gaur said bogus likes can be exposed after a week. “Some YouTube views deceive people by using growth hackers which make videos to become optimised for high search value terms through buying a certain number of YouTube views on that video,” he said. “After a week, when the views have finished rolling in, it is ranking in the top of that YouTube search permanently, exposing them to new real, human, viewers.”

Considering the above analysis by Gaur, we have about a week to see whether the number of views and likes on the ‘Sendekera’ video are genuine. But should we prematurely assume that the video was manipulated to create a hype? The answer is no. Considering the success of his previous videos, Prayzah deserves due credit. If he were a cheat, then his ‘Watora Mari’ video would not be sitting on 4.8 million views and 21 140 likes. On top of that, ‘Dali Wangu’, featuring Botswana’s Charma Girl, and ‘Hello’ garnered more than 1.5 million views each.

It’s every artist’s wish to escalate their market in other countries, which makes this video a win-win for both Prayzah and Mafikizolo. Prayzah is one of the biggest names in the Zimbabwean music scene and has earned collaborations with big names outside his country. The fact that African artists collaborate on songs and videos is only indicative of an African scene that sees no borders or local markets. Every artist’s plan is to be successful, and now they’re just doing it together.