Oskid ‘kicked out’ of ZiFM

Standard People
Controversial music producer Prince “Oskid” Tapfuma and his label Oskid Productions have parted ways with AB Communications subsidiary Six Finger Records amid alleged contractual breaches and unprofessionalism on the former’s part, it has emerged.

By Kennedy Nyavaya

Controversial music producer Prince “Oskid” Tapfuma and his label Oskid Productions have parted ways with AB Communications subsidiary Six Finger Records amid alleged contractual breaches and unprofessionalism on the former’s part, it has emerged.

The two parties entered into a partnership in 2016, which saw the award-winning producer set base at AB’s ZiFM Stereo studios in Newlands.

“Oskid and his team were sent packing from the studio recently and this is because there was a misunderstanding, hazvina kupera zvakanaka [it did not end well],” said the source close to the developments.

“The guys had become very unprofessional and as we speak there are artistes complaining about their conduct that includes delaying people’s projects and generally inconveniencing artistes.”

This is not the first time the once red hot Oskid has been accused of mischief. In 2016 this paper ran a story where he was being accused of “double bookings, not turning up for scheduled sessions and treating some big names as sacred cows at the expense of other paying artistes”.

While his mobile lines went unanswered, Oskid Productions representative Shepherd Tsandukwa dismissed as false the alleged circumstances leading to the separation saying that they took the new route to grow their brand.

“There is nothing true about this [alleged unprofessionalism], but yes he [Oskid] did split with ZiFM. The move from the station is going to make us more open to work with everyone because some people had concluded that we were part of ZiFM and that made it hard to grow,” said Tsandukwa, adding that they were now open to “work with many people”.

“We have now grown bigger and better and we have a lot of projects in the pipeline like the Oskid Talent Search, (but) we respect ZiFM for where they have taken us so far and we will continue working with them.”

However, in a conflicting statement, AB Communications boss Susan Makore told Standard Style that they had to offload the Oskid team due to differences in their vision of the future.

“Due to different interests, we have decided not to renew the agreement that we had and that is the situation,” said Makore without divulging the “interests”.

“I cannot disclose the projects that we want to pursue now, but we just thought that our direction into the future was different from theirs, so we just felt that it was time to part ways.”

Meanwhile, it is uncertain how the nomadic Oskid, who has hopped from Kenako Music, Million Dynasty and now AB Communications, among other stables that succeeded the move from Gweru — where his career begun — will fare under a new establishment yet to be revealed.

However, his move to the capital city has so far been marked by massive achievements that include production of some award-winning hit songs for artistes like Winky D, Jah Prayzah, Killer T and Fungisai, among others.

Personally, he has won numerous awards including Best Producer at the Zimdancehall Awards, Zimbabwe Music Awards for Producer of the Year, and Best Producer at the Star FM People’s Choice Awards.