One of the greatest powers of being an artiste is the ability to use music as a tool that can cut across generations and communicate a message that entertains and also stimulates deep thought.
The month of June celebrates manhood and the issues that affect and impact on the mental health of men.
Many musicians are now becoming aware of the important role of music as a powerful tool in the communication of messages that relate to the mental health of men and the creation of an ideal man with respect and dignity.
Pride “Majoer Prodi” Mhlanga has been continuing in his quest to tell the real and authentic African stories as he has recently released his E.P titled “Semi-Deus”.
“The Semi Deus E.P is a continuous story line from wena Wensundu and “Semi Deus” means Demigod and this album was titled by the audience from the songs to the album name. In giving the name to the album I feel that the audience believed i deserved a demi status in the arts because of the radicalisation that I have continually taken as an artist and creative”. Mhlanga said.
Majoer Prodi also added that, “the name Semi Deus inherently digs deeper into a spiritual resonance that drives my every day and I was triggered to enhance a spiritual spark on the audience and a fusion of the emotion. Art and Emotion are central and this EP triggers the essence of deeper spirituality through using music as the guide to meditation. One central feature of aesthetic experiences is their ability to arouse emotions in perceivers. The “Semi Deus” EP give the listener an experience of joy, pleasure shivers down the spine, awe in sight of grandiose artworks, or sometimes even negative emotions of fear, anger which also in a great many cases impact mostly on us men”.
The songs in EP are a fusion of Amapiano a hybrid of deep house, jazz and lounge music characterised by synths and wide percussive basslines. It is of note that Amapiano is the card of trends currently and there is no better way to carry the story across through different generations than this universal vehicle of generations.
In the EP, one of the songs is titled “Xikwembu” which is a prayer for greater prosperity through our struggle asking God for his guidance and help.
The song explains the common will of suffering and as we commemorate men’s health month, it triggers the emotion of suffering that many men face. It explains the centrality of spiritual intervention from the greater beings and this deeper intervention can give a sense of hope which can reduce the precedence of depression and cases of suicide which affect men highly.
The songs in the EP also addresses the plight of the un-employed graduates who remain ravaged by a repressive system that has turned them to educated fools. Mhlanga explains that;
“Amagraduate is basically the plight of the graduates specifically in Africa as we serve an academic system that molds a working initiative yet our economic situations do not allow us to be. It also addresses how much our young women have given in to immorality for survival and how much young men have turned to substance abuse for peace of mind. I see a generation losing hope on the relevance of education as it deems them idle leading to more depression”.
The song “Ngeyii” is a positive vibrant dance remedy that celebrates the positive things and also negative that we adapt and adjust to in high density suburban areas as the youth. Majoer Prodi highlights how the song has a driven inspiration of how personally he looks at life and the life style of one renown entertainer/local celebrity Prophet Passion Java.
The issues of love are also addressed in the EP and how they impact on men and their mental health.
“Men in love tend to feel extra happy, which is also due to what's going on in the brain. When a man falls in love, high levels of dopamine a chemical associated with the brain's reward center is released so he will feel a natural high and sense of euphoria. “Tshona Malanga” is a song of love of how much one misses their lover , might it be a person, something materialistic or even a pet and its symbolic to what we admire. “Ndapota” is a song that ells the story of a jealous lover. It has an inspiration of the 1992 hitsong Murambida and it is a reflection of a man who jealously guards their loved one,” Mhlanga said.
Music has to speak the message of love and explain its centrality in the everyday realities of being a man. People lacking love feel more depressed as men too need love and attention equally as women. This triggers a range of core beliefs such as worthlessness, or a negative outlook on life leading to suicide and hence love has to be guarded jealously. Overtime, we become less motivated to complete tasks, set goals or prioritise our self-care.
Woza Friday and Circles are songs in the EP that directly address the issues of mental health. These are zero stress songs that reflect the common ground of hustling “youngens” from the ghetto who enjoy the small coins their earn over a weekend as a stress reliever.
These are also songs of hope that have a reflective idea of mental health problems from not being successful in our journey to better our lives. Emasculation premises on the man as the provider and the carer of the family and an incapacitated man becomes someone who is ultimately de-emasculated and feels like a nothing.
Semideus EP had three producers on it namely Siya P, Seewelltone and Clxstos .They each had individual projects they worked on each of them without cross pollinating , then the other four projects were hibernating from one producer to another amongst the three of them to create a rare element of AmaPiano with a twist of the Prodi effect.
Majoer also outlined his quest for growth into the business sector with a launch of his apparel and also an art exhibition so as to effectively reach a wider audience and address the core issues that orient to the mental health of men and impacts of youth.
“Soon i will be launching an apparel called “Domani” an Italian word meaning tomorrow and am working on having an art exhibition soon. The art exhibition will be something unique and different so as to tell a different story and reach out to different generations and increase my visibility from an art and business perspective,” Mhlanga said.
Through the Amapiano sound many artists have turned away from the classical tradition, embracing new media and aesthetic ideals, and art historians have also shifted their focus from the analysis of art's formal beauty to interpretation of its cultural meaning which the genre infuses.
It is about embracing the potency of the message with the music engraved in the entertainment factor which equals the edutainment effect of music and art.
n Raymond Millagre Langa is a musician, orator, writer and the founder of Indebo Edutainment Trust Follow Millagre Ray Langa on Facebook #Millagre Ray L, e-mail millagrepapaito@gmail.com. You can reach out to Indebo Edutainment Trust on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter indebotrust@gmail.com