“Before my mamma knew that I was so different,there were alot of things that daily she insisted,like doctors or lawyers are the only ones I raise , so there will never be a failure in your days. But I never saw myself doing anything better than the beats I was editing , so every night,every night I stayed up living that life that i made up…”

A couple of weeks ago Jay Rox released his highly anticipated album “Outside the Rox” . Prior to the album, he had released a number of hit singles such us “kumutima” , “mvula” and “ituntulu”. With every new single the hype grew and everyone was eagerly awaiting the album. In January 2015 he dropped the first official single “Auto pilot” , an incredible, smooth low tempo track , that set the bar high for the upcoming album.

“Outside the Rox” is an incredible album .I could go as far as to say its the best Zambian album of the year so far ! Everything from the production to the lyrical content is top notch . You can tell a lot of effort was put into the making of this album. More often than not , most Zambian artists make music that sounds similar to each other due to following trends . This is not the case with Outside the Rox , it is fresh and original , Jay Rox is in his own lane .

“I grew up looking at the FINDECO / now im standing toe-to-toe where you think im finna go / im finna take the music from Zambia to Senegal / take the music to the world till I reach my pinnacle…”

Outside the Rox is a hiphop album fused with some elements of dancehall (as in “Joanna” and ” Steady“) and other influences. The lyrical content is mature, as it deals with some personal issues Jay Rox is going through( in “How mamma raised me “), as opposed to the usual bravado and swag talk that most rappers deliver. He shows he is a good storyteller with some as uplifting verses (in “Not for sello“)and love songs( “Autopilot” ,”Cake“) . This fact gains Jay Rox a wider audience for his music as he has songs people from all walks of life can enjoy.

Stand out tracks

I love all the songs on the album but these are my top 3

Outside the box – “shes a 10 without a calculator/ my number one shorty shes my motivator / she speaks my language like an interpreter/ mami let me tell you/ when im with you, im outside the box” this is an infectious song that will have you dancing the whole night . It features Ghanaian Award winning dancehall artist ‘Stonebwoy’ .

Time of my life – is a motivating song that encourage one to strive to achieve there dreams and remain positive even if nobody is supporting you. “..even though they talking ,they can never do the walking , such a thing is very shocking..”

Not for Sello – is an uplifting song that tells you that whatever difficultly you may be going through ,never compromise your integrity and do something you will not be proud of, because you are not for sello . “… eventually she looked at me and told me it wasn’t meant to be, she told me she was tired of being tortured physically and mentally, she told me she was done ,can’t take me like kantemba cause im not for sello”

“Outside the Rox” is a top class album that will definitely stand the test of time . All the songs are special in there own way . It will be succefull not only on the Zambian market but international !

“…when mamma knew that , knew that, her son could do rap , do rap, she held my hand and bumped every track and told me look forward son never look back …”

Autopilot

Not for sello

Joanna

BY KAPA187

Ruff Kid‘s new music video for his single titled ‘Nalikutemwa‘ featuring Chester.

Shot by MT Productionz and audio produced by Chester.

BY KAPA187

United Party for National Development (UPND) President Hakainde Hichilema has said that the main problem that has caused the current economic challenges is the result of both incompetence and lack of economic planning. In a statement released to the media, the UPND leader said that it was pure laziness, lack of planning and sheer incompetence to always be quick to look for excuses for problems the country is facing.

Below is the full statement

The other day I mentioned that while the current economic challenges such as the falling Kwacha could be attributed in part to global economic trends, the main problem is largely our own creation and the result of both incompetence and lack of economic planning.

We have stated before that it is pure laziness, lack of planning and sheer incompetence to always be quick to look for excuses for problems the country is facing so that we do nothing in offering even what resembles like a strategy or mitigation measures on how the current economic problems can be resolved.

A true leader does not blame the problems on circumstances, but anticipates and finds way to deal with circumstances. That’s why they call it leadership!

True leadership is being able to appreciate that the environment will always be changing and a good manager must respond to the environment internal or external. These are basic things that are taught in business and economic schools, and one doesn’t need to go Harvard University to know this because even our own University of Zambia, Copperbelt University and other local institutions teach these things.

We in the UPND insist that the current economic turmoil is largely self-inflicted. Government has failed to protect and strengthen the economy through such measures as diversification and stimulating the growth of value add industries. Instead they have weakened the Zambian economy and left it vulnerable to outside forces.

We all know that the Zambian currency has been losing value since the PF took over government in 2011, way before the so-called current global economic challenges. In 2011 the currency was trading at 4.95 to a dollar, today approaching 10 Kwacha to a dollar. What we are seeing today is a result of bad economic management.

We warned a long time ago that we needed systematic planning of the projects taking into account the economic fundamentals rather than political, to prevent the current turmoil and the repetition of a situation we have seen before where Zambia has a huge budget deficit.

Honestly, what is global about Zambia’s collapsing economy due to continued PF induced by-elections that have so far gobbled huge amounts of money purely for their greediness to have numbers in parliament?

What is global when we go to the open market and continuously keep borrowing at high interest rates, invest money in non-productive sectors, and later these loans become due and we start paying back in US dollars, hence create a further scarcity in the foreign currency leading to the falling Kwacha?

What is global if the PF cannot prioritize national expenditures and cut down on unnecessary government costs to match the level of reduced economic activity in the country?

What is global about the unnecessary and useless trips by the president and his ministers with large and unnecessary entourage all costing a poor country a fortune?

What is global when a poor country like Zambia decides to spend on a large cabinet with lots of incentives such as allowances, expensive motor vehicles with high maintenance costs, free fuel, etc?

And even as they are wasting money on travels, to date we have never heard any tangible results from any of the many trips in form of being able to attract tangible investment in various sectors that can be doing value addition and create exports so that we earn foreign exchange and create local jobs for our youths.

So what’s global about failing to create a conducive economic environment and confidence in the country and attract foreign direct investment?

What is global if the country, through incompetence and corruption, decides to waste huge amounts of resources in US dollars procuring contaminated crude oil that damages Indeni Refinery and people’s motor vehicles?

What is global when a country decides to cut electricity power supply even to the critical sectors such as the mining industry and the few manufacturing sectors which are the backbone of the Zambian economy in terms of generating foreign exchange that strengthens the Kwacha and avoid job current losses?

What is global when a Head of State at such a critical period decides to be taking golf lessons whilst the national currency is on free fall, local industry crippled by ad-hoc power rationing and real unemployment well above any meaningful statistical data, plus job losses?

If I were in their position, I would be reluctant spending time taking golf lessons but would immediately leave the golf course and probably get a bit of US$1.25billion Eurobond money and invest it in solar energy, even through Public Private Partnerships (PPP).

By now I would be spending sleepless nights finding solutions to the current power cuts through creation of solar energy farms that would generate power to supplement our hydro electric.

Countries such as the United Kingdom and others do not experience as much sunshine as in Zambia, but they are doing solar energy farming which is supplementing other energy sources.

For the CEO of our country to keep giving excuses on everything instead of solutions is pure laziness and incompetence that deserves an instant dismissal by the Zambian employers.

We should understand that there will always be some global economic trends which we can also take advantage of with a focused leadership.

Currently, the oil prices on the world market have fallen sharply, so why not take advantage of this global trend by reducing the fuel price which we all know is the engine of economic production, especially now that most citizens, small businesses, and industries are relying on generators for them to operate to some level?

We have always been consistent on the need to diversify our economy to other sectors such as agriculture, tourism and also on the need to expand the manufacturing sectors and make our goods competitive on the world market in order to salvage the ailing economy through non-traditional exports.

It is time President Lungu gave way for a serious leadership.

Hakainde Hichilema
UPND President