BY ADMIRE JAMU-MLAMBO Sungura musician Bothwell Butawu (41), who surprised the nation with his instant hit album Dedemera released in 2000 has bemoaned the lack of discipline and drug abuse as the major drawback to his rise to musical stardom.
Butawu, who fronts The Hitmakers Band, an outfit he formed in 2000 in Dzivaresekwa was a good musician destined to scale greater heights.
“I started music in 1997 when I was only 16 years old. I joined Somandla Ndebele’s band as a dancer. He taught me how to be a backing vocalist. At that time I was composing my songs, but I didn’t know how to sing them. The training he empowered me with is the one I then used to launch my musical career,” he said.
“I then went on to form Hitmakers Band in 2000. Popularity got into my head after the release of Dedemera in 2000. I then began to lack discipline and got involved in drug abuse where I used to drink beer a lot and smoke marijuana. I broke up with the wife I married in 2001. We have a daughter.”
Somanda “Mafia” Ndebele the frontman of Denda Brothers, who is credited for grooming and assisting Butawu to launch his musical career said: “Yes, I groomed Bothwell [Butawu] in a better way as I always see it. I used to feature him on my on videos, three of them to be precise.
“On the issue of drug abuse and indisclipine, I just overhead of it on several occasions. Truly speaking, I never met him in that state. Maybe he was avoiding me. I still remember I spent some months, if not years without even meeting him. I later met him again and he spoke about recording his album and I wished him well. Maybe he had gone out of Dzivaresekwa for that period he was missing from my sight or else we were just using parallel roads,” Ndebele said.
The Vasikana Vemazuva Ano hitmaker besides having a good working relation with Ndebele, has also assisted the popular R&K African Sounds in its early formation.
“I was also part of R&K African Sounds when it was formed. We arranged the album Dama Rakanaka together with Rangarirai Sagombeto. I was merely assisting him. The album went on to be a very big success,” Butawu told The Standard Style.
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Besides being in music, Butawu now spends most of his time working on a job that is totally different from music.
“Since 1997, I had always been a barberman. I am the owner, I enjoy it very much. The shop shaped me to be who I am today. The money I used for the recording of my first album Dedemera came from my barbershop proceeds,” The Dzivarasekwa-based musician said.
To date Butawu has six albums under his belt namely; Dedemera (2000), Kuzama Raki (2002), Ose Machena (2011), Red Robot (2014), Experiment (2018), Tarira Nguva 2021, and a single Offline (2022).
The current Hitmakers Band comprises of Butawu (lead vocals), Try Silus (backing vocals) Beaton Mkweche (rhythm), Achvon Makanda (lead), Mika Mafara Boroma and Shepherd Chinyani (bass), while drums are played by Shepherd Chinyani Jnr or Pieman Chinyani.
