Tarus Musik; 2013
Dir. Ani James
Zone Fam’s work ethic is turning out to be very impressive. It isn’t every day that an artist or group releases three singles within two months. This Zambian hip hop group, part of Taurus Musik/Sub-Sahara label and best known on these sides for the banger track Contolola, hit the headline in early June when they released two fresh singles Propeller and Lobola on the same day. Lobola went on to be the more popular of the two track and has been on heavy rotation around the continent and on diaspora audiences as far as the UK. The hype around the track made us all think that they would be dropping the music video to Lobola but no, they’ve pulled a new surprise. They’ve recently released yet another single called Translate which come with a ready music video as well!
Translate is a track all about appreciating the beauty of the female form and all its wonders, especially from the vantage point of a dance floor. Zone Fam are trying to decipher it’s secret language that gets them hooked without even the need to exchange actual words – guys, you know what I’m talking about, right? 😉 The production is quite good on this track – the mid-tempo beats and basslines seem to be in no rush at all, making it just the track girls would love to do some slow-winding to. The lads also drop some good verses (at least the parts I could understand) with a bunch of gems here and there worth writing down and using as pick-up lines: “So let me put my hand on that body, baby/Translate, just in case it is speaking in braille…You’re like the road to success, only a few can handle those curves…“
Well, Zone Fam flew down to Nairobi to shoot the music video directed by Nigerian Ani James of AJE Films.The location of the shoot and some of the costumes worn, however, looks more like what you would see inside a posh house in Morroco’s Marrakech. The theme is on one part an intimate masquerade party combined with a hazy Arabian-style party on the other with singer Yvonne Darcq playing the main attraction. In as much as the format of the video has been used quite a lot before, this one has it’s own special flavour to it, perhaps from how exotic the set looks. Either way, it looks good.
It looks like Zone Fam are the guys to beat when it comes to releasing regular content that can appeal to the entire continent. I hear they have a bunch of more music videos lined up for the last quarter of 2013. What this means (aka let me translate!) is that they could end up having the most tracks on any list compiling the Top 20 Songs out of Africa this year.