- Soko is not celebrated at home
- made history by bagging a Grammy
THIS year Zimbabwe entertainment industry celebrated the victory of songstress Sha Sha at the BET Viewers’ Choice Award.
Lest we forget another son who raised the country’s flag in 2014- Brian Soko.
Not trying to dim Sha Sha’s light but Soko’s story has not been told!
When God leads nothing is impossible and such is the story of Soko who carved history by becoming the first Zimbabwean to win a gong at the prestigious Grammy award held in Los Angeles in 2014.
Soko won a Grammy for co-producing American diva Beyonce’s hit song Drunk in Love.
Zimbabwe has produced many big musicians like Thomas Mapfumo, Oliver Mtukudzi and Stella Chiweshe, but Soko has proved against all odds that the sky is the limit.
He has set the pace and trend for local music.
Although little is known about what Soko was up to during his stay in the country, impeccable sources told Zim Morning Post lifestyle that he always had a passion for music.
What is confirmed about Soko is that he was born and bred in Zimbabwe where his father works as a banker.
He later took the great trek to South Africa where his parents sought greener pastures.
“They moved to South Africa where his parents and older brother Prince stayed briefly,” revealed a source who claimed to be privy to Soko’s history.
After a short stay in South Africa, Soko went under his brother Prince’s tutelage after the family’s relocation to the United States.
This is where he nurtured his art of hip hop.
I digress.
No doubt Zimbabweans have listened to hip-hop ever since the days of Run DMC.
The genre was popularised by the late Chiwoniso Maraire who teamed up with Metaphysics (now based in Germany) and Tony Chihota and formed an outfit called a Piece of Ebony.
That was the first hip hop group in the country and since then hip hop grew in leaps and bounds.
Later on we have had the likes of Munya Maraire doing it big in the cut throat American hip hop industry.
And now back to Soko.
Fast forward two decades later after the ground had been set by a Piece of Ebony, Soko has proved that local music can penetrate the world.
After studying sound engineering at a college in Florida, Soko met up with some brothers who shared the same passion.
With their common denominator being purely the love for music,
the four formed an outfit they coined ‘The Order’.
They were like soldiers in a war to conquer the world through music.
‘The Order’ was made up of four brothers in the same struggle and the Grammy victory proved that they are conquerors.
Besides the Grammy award, Soko articulated on his Twitter that they have since produced music for Lil Wayne from Cash Money Records, Drake, Future and Rich Gang.
To date, Soko and his team have won three Billboard music awards – Most Performed Song 2014 R&B/Hip-Hop Award Song for Lil Wayne’s No Worries, Billboard No 1 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Song for Beyoncé’s Drunk In Love and Billboard No 1 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay for Beyoncé’s Drunk In Love.
Soko is also ploughing back the rich experience he has gotten in the United States back home.
Couple of years back, he flew back to South Africa where worked with rapper Casper Nyovest.
He produced Nyovest’s hit song Phumakin.
The National Arts Council of Zimbabwe must surely hold an event to celebrate such a mega success.
This is not Soko and Sha Sha ’s victory, this is victory for the nation and a wakeup call for the government to invest more in the arts.
Had Soko stayed in the country, he wouldn’t have fully explored his creative capabilities.
There as so many Sokos in the high density areas of Mbare, Mufakose, Glen-Norah and so on.
