AMERICAN rapper Rick Ross had to play curtain raiser to local artistes as chaos and disorder ruled the roost at the much publicised event organised by Roar Entertainment on Friday night.
For a show tipped to be the most organised and backed by millionaires, Roar Entertainment's event was added onto the list of the poorly planned events of the year.
Organisers threw the initial plan and programme into the trash bin and made local artistes perform way after midnight, after Ross's one hour set which was compressed with a catalogue of hits from a decade ago to recent ones.
Initially, the main stage performances were supposed to start at 7pm with King Her, Holy Ten, Madeherbelieve, Takura, Rimo, Nasty C, Nutty O respectively then Rick Ross at 11pm.
However, fans who came out in their numbers were treated to music from DJs and no local artiste graced the stage till Rick Ross did at midnight.
Ross performed at a stage crammed with big spenders Sir Wicknell, Scott Sakupwanya, Mike Chimombe, Emmerson Mnangagwa Jr and many others. At the end of his act, Ross was handed President Emmerson Mnangagwa's scarf in an act symbolising endorsement of the 80-year-old leader's reign.
Nigerian star Burna Boy refused to wear the scarf when he performed in Harare recently. In an interview Burna Boy revealed that money was dangled for him to wear it, but he refused.
The acts which followed after Rick Ross were very brief and hurried, shortchanging the fans who had paid US$35 and more to get in.
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Despite being absent from the initial list, Enzo Ishall performed briefly some of his songs produced under Scarfmore Records, before Nasty C's eclectic performance. DJ Maphorisa brought the house down with his Amapiano hits before local acts came in hurriedly because of time.
Takura and Holy Ten came in and performed briefly with a Live band. When Nutty O was called on stage and his band was warming up, people were expecting to witness another great performance after what he had done at the ReDifined concert at the same venue.
Unfortunately and in a dramatic turn of events, the band went for close to five minutes playing instruments to some of his songs, but the dancehall star never set foot on stage.
Without any communication even from the Master of Ceremony MC CUT who had hyped the crowd in anticipation for Nutty O, fans were left shocked as the band unplugged their instruments and that marked the end of the show.
Sources close to the organisers who spoke to Standard Style said the chaos was caused by some local artistes, who refused to perform before they were paid.
Nutty O's manager Diana Nherera, said Nutty O’s team was denied access into the venue for the longest time.
“We did our sound check in the afternoon, but then we had no access tags into the venue for the most part of the night,” she said.
“We were supposed to have performed at 10:15pm, but only managed to get into the venue at 9pm. We didn't get access tags in time as requested.
“We were scheduled to perform way past midnight after Ross had done his part and the artiste was there when he was called. He was in the holding room, but by that time people were leaving and we decided we couldn't do it, it was a bad day in office.”
Bouncers who manned the gates also made rich pickings as they let crowds in for a lower fee, which they kept for themselves.
Efforts to get a comment from Roar Entertainment spokesperson Ms Shally were not fruitful as her mobile phone was not reachable and messages sent on her WhatsApp were not responded to till the time of going to print.
