Dancehall stars from Souljah Love to Seh Calaz have flirted with and even flaunted with controversy but little with the gusto of Qounfuzed. On his 2011 hit and breakthrough debut, Chimbovarega (feat Freeman), the Harare based Dancehall chanter was willing to put anybody who came in his way in his verbal crosshairs including some of the country’s top Dancehall chanters. Since then Qounfuzed has fallen prey to the beautiful Zimbabwean girls because of his style and his love songs, this has put him on a different new level in the music industry.
Qounfuzed was born McDonald Sheldon in Harare on the 5th of June 1993 at Warren Park Maternity Clinic. He attended his primary and secondary schools at Warren Park 3 and Blakiston respectively. Growing in a family where everyone loved music, Qounfuzed is the first in his family to take up music as a career. He grew up listening to UB40, Michael Jackson, Maskiri and Elephant Man. Qounfuzed tried a couple of other genres but Dancehall was his destination and at that time there were so many opportunities in the genre since it was also rising.
Having started music at a tender age in 2008, Qounfuzed released some tracks which did not make an impact on the Dancehall scene until 2011 when he collaborated with the Dancehall doctor Freeman on his hit track Chimbovarega which was fairly received by the Dancehall fans. His first album entitled King of Style was his stepping stone to be one of the best vocalist in the Dancehall industry. King of Style had tracks like Baby It’s Raining which had a stellar video which featured the raunchy dancer Beverly Bev Sibanda.
Qounfuzed (with Bev)
Qounfuzed who is also known as the king of style, is also notorious for producing the best videos in the industry. Videos like Mwana, Tichiri Tese Here, Chibhubhubhu, Inini and Kure are some of his works that led to many people winning his heart. The king of style is also a music video director, he directed the whole of Werras Riddim Medley and he is the one who directed most of his music videos.
The combination of Qounfuzed’s unique nasal delivery, crossover appeal and uniqueness to appeal and willingness to attack and offend anything in his way without prejudice, quickly established the young Dancehall chanter as a seemingly unstoppable phenomenon, a fact proven when some of his tracks spent almost a month on the Power FM daily and Top 40 chart shows.
Qounfuzed’s versatility has seen him collaborating with artists from across all genres in Zimbabwe. He has collaborated with artists from Hip Hop to Afro-Jazz and they include: Stunner, Maskiri, Noble Styles and Pah Chihera. His track with Pah (Kana wazofunga) sent waves on radio as it occupied the number one spot for a long time. Also, his track with Noble Styles (Kusvika rinyure) seems to be one of his best offering as it occupied the number one spot on the Power FM daily and top 40 chart shows.
Qounfuzed has not only won the hearts of his Zimbabwean fans, he has also performed in Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa. One of Qounfuzed’s major performances came on the Mr. Vegas’s show in 2011 when he came to Zimbabwe and performed at the HICC. Qounfuzed missed the Dancehall Awards and made a stellar performance at the Mafikizolo show in 2014 with his then hit song Kana Wazofunga which featured Pah Chihera.
Qounfuzed with Pah at the Mafikizolo Show
In the midst of critical and career success and also the controversy stirred up in some of his lyrics, Qounfuzed was once besieged by the law after punching fellow Dancehall star Seh Calaz at the 2013 showdown in Harare. Qounfuzed punched Seh Calaz after he leaked nude photos of one of his ex-girlfriends but Calaz later dropped the charges after he explained there was a misunderstanding. However Seh Calaz was not satisfied with his move of dropping the charges and went back to Qounfuzed for revenge with his Bhanditi clique. They went with golf clubs and baseball sticks and also ended up cutting part of Qounfuzed’s dreadlocks. After Seh Calazand his crew had cut off his dreadlocks, Qounfuzed went on to sing Mativenga, a song which is based on a notorious ghetto boy who was ill mannered. The song was based on Qounfuzed’s real life experiences.
Somewhere in Mozambique
With all this happening in the same year, the King of style formed his own label called Tisu Tega Tiriko and introduced his apparel from this label and many people in Harare has been rocking the Tisu Tega Tiriko t-shirts.
2014 saw Qounfuzed being nominated in the Zim Dancehall Awards for the best video on his track entitled Inini. The same year also saw the king of style teaming up with the controversial dancehall chanter Platinum Prince to form the notorious clique known as Ndururani. Their antagonistic lyrics saw the duo slaying many dancehall chanters through diss tracks and clashes which have even turned out to be violent with some artists. The king of style’s lyrical prowess behind the mic has seen him ride almost every riddim which come out in the Zimdancehall fraternity.
With all the hard work which Qounfuzed has put in in building his brand, only a one problem seemed to be an obstacle in his career. Ever since the introduction of the Dancehall slots on some Zimbabwean radio stations, Qounfuzed was never (and is still not being) played fairly as other artists. In an interview with Ninja Reezyin mid-2015 he talked about 5 Reasons Why He Don’t Get Airplay on some radio stations.
All this did not stop Qounfuzed from doing great things in the industry but gave him the agility to do more great work than those who were getting airplay. Qounfuzed released a single track entitled Kusvika Rinyureoff his joint album Kufunga Kushanda with the Hip Hop star Noble Styles. Kusvika Rinyure spent almost a month on the Power FM top 40 and Daily chart shows, making him one of the best Dancehall vocalist in Zimbabwe. The love song which has lyrics which are more noticeably restrained has been a national anthem among many music followers of different genres. Since some have said that the sky is the limit, the future is bright for the young dancehall artist who managed to make a name for himself in an industry which has been dominated by the ghettos of Mbare and Chitungwiza.
Qounfuzed toured the United Kingdom for the Winter Explosion in early February 2016. In 2017 he toured Cyprus and in 2018 he toured South Africa. In the same year, Qounfuzed released the video for Handichambokufunga which featured Ti Gonzi.
In 2019 the Dancehall chanter’s music video for ‘Life Yangu‘ was play-listed on Trace TV Africa. He went to release a single titled Gomo in the same year.
Qounfuzed started the year 2020 on a high note with the release of his video titled ‘Sasa‘ which did well on YouTube.
The ‘Life Yangu’ hit-maker had a fling with socialite and controversial fitness trainer Moana on Instagram and he later dedicated the song ‘Video Call‘ to her indirectly.
The COVID-19 imposed lockdown saw many music artists doing live videos for their fans and Qounfuzed was one of them. He started the #LockDownFreestyles competition for upcoming artists with the winner getting an opportunity to have free music video shoots.
Qounfuzed also released ‘9ine‘, a hit single which has seen him host Instagram live videos with girls (some naked) dancing to the song. The single later became one of the most played songs in the 2020.
September 2020 also saw the 9ine hitmaker joining forces with Holy Ten and dropping yet another hit song that became a national national anthem. The song titled Georgina topped music charts on different radio stations for several months.
Keeping the same momentum Qounfuzed roped in Urban Grooves star Cindy Munyavi on a track that was long overdue between the two. The two artists released a song titled Mhosva and it did well on digital music distribution websites like YouTube and Audiomack.
Having been on top of his game for the year 2020 and the first half of 2021 Qounfuzed collaborated with Dancehall chanter Bazooker on a track titled Kamunamato Kemubhawa and hinted on dropping a six track EP.
Ronald Magweta is a digital media strategist and founder of The ZimTainment. Contact him on rmagweta@thezimtainment.co.zw or follow @ninja_reezy on all social media platforms.
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