Out of the Spotlight

WE celebrate how the Namibian music industry has grown and developed for the better. We welcome new artists to the scene on a daily basis.

Over the last decade we’ve seen artists establish their brands to such an extent that they have even managed to cross our country’s borders.

The likes of The Dogg, Gazza, Lady May, Gal Level, Big Ben, Tate Buti, Elemotho and of course Ras Sheehama can be considered pioneers of the industry.

We can’t speak of pioneers in the Namibian music industry without mentioning artists like Pablo, Janice of Buti & Janice fame, Snazzy, the Kalaharians, the Weekend Band and Leggheto, to name a few. These artists brought us hits at a time when there was not much local musical content to listen to. Their contribution started the love affair we now enjoy with local music. They established the foundation of the Namibian music industry and provided our people, who in the past only had South African and international music to listen to, to have a local music industry they could take pride in and make their own.

Some of these artists have however disappeared from the music scene without a trace. While some release tracks sporadically before fading back into obscurity. Some have made the leap to theatre, while others have joined the corporate world.

The Weekender caught up with some of these pioneers to see what they have been up to since seemingly disappearing from the spotlight. A number of these artists said that despite people saying they have become musically inactive, they are still on the grind but have been left in the shadows created by big name artists.

Andreas !Aibeb better known as Bakos, who brought us the hit

‘/Obate’ and Damara punch artist Phura both said that they are still doing music and that it only seems as though they’re not because people may have stopped listening to them. Bakos added that as legends they may not have as many fans as before because now there is a larger variety of musicians to listen to.

“After the album with ‘/Obate’, I had four more albums and I will be releasing one in the next month. There is a bigger variety [of artists] which is a very good thing and I am happy because the industry is now full of hype and creativity. The problem is that the media only promote new artists and not the legends,” Bakos said.

Sulaman Goodheart better known as Bones of the Weekend Band maintains the band is still one of the most popular bands in the country, pointing out that in an industry that has moved towards backtracking, they stick to live music.

“We perform at a lot of functions and at Kings Night Club every Saturday night, we are now working on recording our first live album,” Bones said.

Others have gone on to pursue their music careers abroad while some have put down the mic in order to concentrate on their careers and family responsibilities.

We all remember Faizel MC for his hit ‘Best of Both Worlds’. This was one of the first and biggest collaborations, done with The Dogg, that the Namibian music industry had heard. Now based in Europe, Faizel has been pursuing a music career there.

“Namibian music is great but I see the guys representing it are not focused enough to take it out into the world. All they want is fame, to get a Toyota, some girls, a lot of alcohol, to get into clubs for free, and book a few shows around Windhoek to keep them going, nobody and I mean not even one person is trying to go higher and expand. Which is very bad,” he said.

“International music is so far from the Namibian music industry, I have seen musicians work together, help each other up when one is going down, sharing stages at no cost, inviting each other on European tours and around the world just to uplift their country’s music, like Nigeria is doing,” Faizel said.

Artists like Lovey and the Kalaharians seem to have dropped out of local music with little or no prospect of ever getting back into the industry.

“I am not doing music any more. I am studying now and I am a career woman,” Lovey said.

TC, real name Linus Sechogele from the Kalaharians said that although the group’s name is still out there, he does not think they will ever get back together because each group member is now doing his own thing.

“OJ, who is in Kenya, has converted to Islam and I am now born again. I can’t be singing about naked woman and preach in church the next day. If we ever come back, we will come back with cleaner music,” TC said.

Fidel Odel said that he decided to bow out to give other artists a fair chance of making it in the industry and he would rather pass on his expertise to others.

“I am now a music business consultant and producer. It came with the maturity and growth that I decided I do not see myself as an artist anymore. I decided to rather mentor artists to become great. If I did not do that artists like Jossy Joss, Lady May, The Dogg and Killa B would not be who they are today. I made them who they are,” he said.

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