Bobby aspires to be the new kwaito boss
GASEBALWE SERETSE
Staff Writer
Bobby David, who uses his first name as a stage name, has released an album namely Boza ke mang.
There is no doubt that Bobby believes that he is a gift to kwaito fans because from the lyrics of the title song, one can tell he is convinced that he is the new 'boss' in the genre, which is unfortunately not so. The album, has 10 tracks (including an intro and an interlude) namely Boza ke mang, Apola o kgwathe, Ko re tswang teng, Meropa, We are marching, Living large, Apola o kgwathe 2 and Sgubu saka. For one to safely declare that he is a boss in his game, he should be able to have at least a couple of outstanding tracks in his album, which is not the case with Bobby's offering. The songs simply do not have what it takes to be hits although they are just okay. One of the songs that saved the album is We are Marching, featuring Vusi, the gospel artist. Vusi's pleasant voice is likely to draw potential fans for the kwaito. Apola O Kgwathe is an interesting track in which he 'disses' his kwaito contemporaries such as Vee and Skazzo. Living large is another song worth listening to. While it is too early to write off the newcomer, there are a couple of factors that seem to stand against him. Firstly, he chose to present the kwaito form, which is greatly threatened by the rise of house music. Secondly, his voice is not gruff enough to be attention grabbing. It is a well-known fact that kwaito artistes depend on their gruff voices to win fans.
Lastly, perhaps Bobby should have added a dash of house and kwasa to his album to make it more enjoyable. In this era, straight kwaito does not normally work for new entrants in the market.
If I had not listened to the works of Mooketsi 'Mox' Motlhaleemang before, I would have said production was average. Undoubtedly, Motlhaleemang is one of the best upcoming producers around and one can only feel that it is either he did not offer the best of his talent or there were some factors that hampered him from doing so.
Having said so, one can only hope that Bobby David would go back to the drawing board and come back with something catchier next time.
