Atoht inspires Patience Namadingo & Faith Mussa

Like I said before right here Ellias Missi known in showbiz cycles as Atoht Manje is a self-made artiste who started his career by toying around with dancehall before discovering what more agree is closer to a Malawian beat.

He craftily used his crackly voice for dancehall in tracks like Majelasi and Lululu until he did Tizipepese, mistakenly called by his fans as Mabvuto.

My description of this beat then will not change now as I still think it’s a fast paced beat or merely hurried up beat sounding like a fast paced traditional Manganje beat. What is strikingly noticeable is that he is self-taught in the aspect of producing tunes that have come to be liked by music lovers.

It is ChePatuma built in the Sikiri tempo that captivated many including fellow artist Patience Namadingo.

Immediately after seeing how this track performed on the music scene Namadingo came up with his and called it Goliyati which took after Atoht's ChePatuma style.

Recently Faith Mussa has also released Selofoni which others still believe it is pointing at Atoht Manje's influence.

While for Namandingo it is unmistakable that it’s a copied style, honestly for Faith I cannot say with certainty that it indeed is. There are several differing elements that has made me doubt if indeed there was an inspiration from Atoht.

What I like about this whole scenario though is the fact that at least for once the inspiration is coming from within. We have complained before that there is just too much copying from international musicians.

I have always wondered if we have a Malawian genre.

I was once tempted to believe that the 2012 hit by Fikisa called ‘Ademwiche’ which is commonly but wrongly (or rightly?) known to the public as ‘Akamwile’ was going towards charting the way for Malawi.

It has however proven that our quest for a fixed and well established Malawian genre, has been tedious at times and it will not end any time soon.

The other day Lucius Banda told us that we were there with his ‘Zulu Woman’ beat while Edgar and Davis thought a beat like ‘Kale-Kale’ was it; so were the sounds that emerged from the Lhomwe belt of the likes of Alan Namoko and Chimvu River Jazz Band and Michael Mukhito Phiri.

But it is the people that thought this was it, because as you can see, even Namoko had no idea what he was churning out, and this is the reason he thought his backing band was a Jazz set piece.

Robert Fumulani, likewise, had no distinct genre for Malawi and in one of his tracks he did what he thought was a fusion of reggae and Khunju traditional dance and called it Khunju Reggae.

Peter Mawanga and a certain sector of the industry believe he has cracked the elusive code to establish the much sort after Malawian genre with his type of music; but the response has only fascinated the ear of those that can read music.

Ever heard of Honjo? It is a sound that emerged from the folds of Ndirande and this was Sunny B proclaiming the discovery of Malawian beat with what he was panning out.

Up in the north, Body Mind and Soul has what it calls ‘Voodjaz’.
Body, Mind & Soul started like a reggae band, but band leader ‘Street Rat’ claim that after reflecting on the importance of sharing Malawi ancient culture in modern time and after much thought and experimentation they created a new music concept they call ‘Voodjaz’, a subtle mix of traditional rhythms with a jazzy feel.

Now when all is weighed and measured may be the attraction of Atoht beat by the other artists will mean something, of course not the Malawi genre yet but something considering the elements that Faith has put is his Selofoni track.

When fame clouds Lulu’s head

Last week I wrote something about the show organised at Lilongwe Golf Club by Mibawa. What I dwelt on more was how I thought Mibawa owner John Nthakomwa is one investor that the Malawi music industry desires his replication.

One of the performers at the function was one local artist artists I hold in high esteem. Lawrence ‘Lulu’ Khwisa is a complete musician. In fact he is a full package that has been sufficiently value added. He is a guitarist, a drummer, a keyboardist, a vocalist, a dancer and a music producer all rolled in one.

It’s not all the time that one person can be as blessed as Lulu is. One thing in the past that made everyone appreciates Lulu, which I still believe is the case, has been his humility despite his multi-endowment.

However, lately it looks like his talent is going to his head and as his fan I would be failing in my duties if I will let it pass as if it is ‘business as usual’.

At this show at the Golf Club I saw a Lulu that attempted to prove to the contrary the humble image that I have always associated with this multi-talented artist.

It all started when the patrons started demanding for particular tracks from several of his albums but he could hear none of such demands.

“Ndizipitatu mukamavuta. Lero ndiyimba zofuna zanga. Musandiwuze zochita.” (I will leave if you will be pestering me. Today I will sing what I want. Don’t tell me what to do).  This was the response from Lulu when his fans made demands to him. When they kept on demanding for tracks that they wanted he retorted: “Mukupitiriza? Ndizipitatu. Tikatere ndiye timawerukapotu”. (Are you still continuing [demanding songs]? I will leave the stage. This is where I call it quit.)

Make your own judgement but to me who has seen Lulu perform for countless times, I think this was a new phenomenon. It does not augur well for the image of humility that he has cut for himself over the years. 

The danger of such tendency when it creeps in the psyche of our artists is that it eats away the system and takes away their allure. We have examples where artists have become big headed and telling off the very patrons they perform for, only to experience a crumble in line with the saying that ‘Pride comes before a fall.

Before it comes to this, Lulu has people like me who would shout out a warning and plead with him to remain what the industry has known him to be.

When musicians compose, they do it for the fans. When they perform, the fans they compose for show their love for particular songs and while artists prepare what exactly they will perform they also need to be accommodative as Lulu has been over the years.

Because he has always been compromising, his fans have been attuned to behave in a way where they will express their demands and this cannot be changed just one day without warning.

Like in this case, Lulu was supposed to be tactical in sending his message across that he would not be doing what his fans were demanding. The absence of this tact portrayed a bad image of an arrogant Lulu who is getting drunk with fame which is ironically coming from the very fans he wanted to be bossy with.

I hope this is not the new Lulu.