Lyrical Pen

The ‘Wadutsa Pompa’ rivalry

The first time I ever remember of rivalry over one particular song is when Annie Matumbi did collaboration with Nelson Katsache to hit back at Peter Mawanga’s track, called Amakhala ku Blantyre.

Apparently, Peter Paine as Mawanga is known in music circles sang that people just to claim to live a city life in Blantyre when they are living undignified lives of penury and homelessness. In turn Matumbi and Nelson sang back by claiming people in Blantyre live a high life where living is not as bad as depicted in Mawanga’s song.   

As the story had it, Peter sought redress from Cosoma which ended up banning the other track as it was adjudged to breach some copyrights tenets.

Now the twin duo of Wiza and Westa whose showbiz ID is W-Twice joined forces with Nepman to do a track called Wadutsa Pompa  which is found in their Afana Chimodzimodzi Mixtape of 2015.

In turn five girls-Fortune who featured Danish, Kwin Bee, Enweezy and Ewe did a Wadutsa Pompa remix which they called Ndadutsa Pompo which is a similar attempt to discredit the earlier works of W-Twice and Nepman as was the case with the Mawanga-Matumbi act.

Just like Matumbi and Kasatche lacked in delivery in terms of creativeness and refinement, the same is way too present in the track by the five ladies.

The original track—both the audio and the video—stands out as it is presented with more finesse and measured jaunt befittingly ensconced in an accompanying ‘Manganje’ beat that sustains its taste. It is very clear that it was planned and this is why it is coherent and organised work while the girls rushed with their ‘corresponding’ track.

The girls’ track bordered on a tasteless beef aimed at showing the side of female folks that feeds into stereotypes that women are fond of shooting their mouths off. Listening to the track you will appreciate that there is too much voluble anger and raucous noise to compete with a piece of art where Nepman was at his usual best as the twins weaved their way through perfectly well.

Without trying to take it away from the girls, they are a talented lot yes but they should have taken their time to ensure that the remix cover was as artistically tight as it was attractively appealing. The reason it has become famous across the ghettos is because of people’s love of ‘conflict’ and ‘chaos’.

Even down the market street when a woman is shouting at a man, people will flock to the spot, as houseflies do to a rotten carcass, just to enjoy the unfolding drama. No way would such a rowdy woman lay claim that she is loved by such curious crowds that pander to scandal and escapism.     

For the sake of entertainment as it is the case elsewhere with vibrant entertainment economies, a remix on a controversial song is serious business. It calls for more innovation as it is taken like a special project.

You might have noticed that I have not touched on the copyright matter because I believe Fortune might have sorted out copyright issues with W-Twice as she also featured in another track in this mix tape called Bulangete which is another cover of one of Malawi’s oldies, meaning she is a buddy to the twins. 

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