By Sindiso Dube
THE organiser of the aborted Bulawayo Hip-hop Summit last week says there were many things that happened during the run up to the event, which also included his arrest on the eve of the inaugural showcase.
The Bulawayo Hip-hop Summit, which among other things was meant to monetise the genre, is organised by South Africa-based DJ MC Tytoh and was supposed to be held at Art Gallery koBulawayo.
“The summit was postponed due to a breakdown in communication between the public relations team and one of our sponsoring partners in charge of the venue and logistics,” MC Tytoh told Standard Style.
“The situation was made worse by my unexpected arrest together with two other Harare-based stakeholders. We spent a night in the holding cells at Entumbane police station and we were charged with breach of the curfew.
“We were released less than an hour before the scheduled time of the summit prompting the team on the ground to call off the event. “The arrest had nothing directly linked to the decision to move the event to a date yet to be announced.”
Commenting on the issue of venue booking, MC Tytoh said he thought all was in order before he came to Zimbabwe.
“I was convinced the issue of the venue was sorted before I came here. When I made an effort to personally go and have a conversation with the director of the gallery the day before the event, he was said to be in a meeting, from morning till close of business,” he said.
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MC Tytoh said the summit would be held at a later date.
“The summit is still on as mentioned in the press statement. The summit is postponed not cancelled and the most likely date is May 16 to give us time to reassure our stakeholders and move everything in order without any pressure,” he said.
“There’s a bright future for Bulawayo’s hip-hop and the excitement, interest and support from artistes is overwhelming. For a moment, I felt like this was the end, but then from talking to the people in the industry I have renewed energy even more than before. I can promise you the best event and I have decided to do something special for the city, which will be unveiled at the summit.
“To everyone, who was supposed to be part of the summit, thank you for understanding and recommitting? To those, I haven’t managed to directly communicate with I will reach out soon, I have had a lot to deal with and working round the clock to keep the engine running we have great momentum.”
