VACHIKEPE: THE MUSIC PUBLISHER

To me, music is amazing. Music is spiritual and music is refreshing! It has developed from just making sound with the throat to making sounds and melodies with different kinds of instruments. Nowadays music is being created on computers. Different universities offer music business studies.

This reminds me of a day at the National University of Science And Technology (NUST), Zimbabwe in 2012 where I was studying Publishing. One of my lecturers by the name Mrs N. Nyamakura, came to the class and asked what we wanted to do with our degrees as we were about to graduate. My classmates mentioned different things although the theme was the same, “Book publishing”. As for me, I thought deep about the question and when it was my turn, I said, “I want to be a Music publisher.” The class was shocked at hearing my answer and one of them asked how I was going to make money as a music publisher and my answer was, “I am not sure, but being a music publisher will be great.” The lecturer came to my rescue and mentioned that in developed countries music publishing is a very successful industry." Research more about it and I am sure you will get your niche out of it," - these were her last few words to me. I banked this conversation in my heart and I moved on with life.

On a personal level, I love music so much and I have recorded more than 50 songs. I have created my own genre called Christian Musical Poetry, which is a combination of poetry, music, divinity, and spirituality. I sing in Shona, English and sometimes in tongues. In Zimbabwe, my music has not made its way to the radio stations. However, I have received some airplay on television, especially on my song Chidhori Untold. I have many people (family, friends and WhatsApp groups) who love my music so much. They encourage and inspire me to go on and on doing what I love most. Many thanks to my family; Dr Shingi, Overseer Chikepe, Chioneso Elite Chikepe and my nephew, Joel Anotidaishe Chikepe.

With all this love and support and my almost 10 years of experience in the music industry, I am inspired to lookout for good music, outstanding and underrated artists. The aim is to publish their works and spread their good love for art and music to the world at large.

This inspired me to start an ongoing music initiative called The Sailors Music Collection. With the creation of VaChikepe And The Hundred Sailors in 2016 and The Sailors Review in 2020, I realised I could not leave music behind. Hence, I started to look for good music (with the help of other sailors) and worked with a producer usually Standard Beatz and a designer Vincent Nyahasha, both from Zimbabwe. I began creating mixtapes and circulating them both on social media and in The Sailors Music Collection.

This brought joy to my heart, because people were able to hear good music from new, underrated and prominent artists including those who had or were about to give up on music. Later on, after a year or so, I remembered my conversation with Mrs N. Nyamakura and my fellow publishers and I got inspired to think more about how to upgrade the music project? Long story short, I signed a music deal with the Amuse Music Distribution Company in Sweden and The Sailors Music Collection is now a music label.

To kick start the project, I published my own music this year. I have published three songs namely, ZiMunamato, Adam & Eve and Speak Through Us. I am extremely happy with the project because my music is now available in more than 249 countries and in more than 24 online music stores including Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music and Apple Music. This is an extremely big achievement for a person who would only send his music on WhatsApp (to sailors, friends and family) and would only manage to perform in different churches.

The Bible says, “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin,” Zechariah 4:10. Indeed, when God says “Yes,” no one can say, “No.” My next step is to slowly start publishing music from other artists especially MJAYNORTON and MbiraDzeNharira.

Why MJAYNORTON? He reminds me of the identity crisis I went through as an artist when I was trying to discover myself. He made me realise that when God is in control of your life, all things work out for good and that when one passes through hard times, they are being hardened for a better tomorrow that will never be broken. The young man is outstanding, and I believe you will read his story in The Sailors Review one of these days.

Why MbiraDzeNharira? I believe MbiraDzeNharira is the best mbira group from Africa and in the world. They are the custodians of the African culture, and their music is the ancient voice and wisdom from the ancient times. I intensively and extensively studied their music from 2008- 2015. From my seven years’ experience of working as their manager and music scholar, I can say we need to catch and converse with this kind of ancient music whilst it is still hot and available. Below is the calendar of all the projects that have and will be published by The Sailors Music Collection in the Month of August:

1. Microscope: MJAYNORTON (5th of August, 2022)

2. Bhurugwa Rembwa: MbiraDzeNharira (12th of August, 2022)

3. Syllabus: VaChikepe: The Poet (19th of August, 2022)

4. Glorious: VaChikepe: The Poet (26th of August, 2022)

Yes, charity begins at home and the good news is this world is our home away from home.

The ideology behind this initiative is also a continuation of another initiative that I started in 2015, with the concept “If you can read, you can write.” Blessed be Shepherd Zengeya, Neo Batakathi, Martin Zilungile Jex (Mrehwa), Clive Chikuku, Zolisa Gumede and the late Martel Ric Mak (Chief of Katanga, may your soul rest in peace our Brother) They, and many more, contributed their time and work to the initiative.

This time around, we are saying, “If you can write poetry, you can sing." Many thanks Samaita, Tendayi Gahamadze and MJAYNORTON for being both poets and musicians; and the later shall be greater, in God’s grace. Amen.

Yours in ink Publisher T.P Chikepe

tc327@duke.edu

+263 772 488 777 (WhatsApp)

http://linkedin.com/in/takudzwa-chikepe- 805b3057