Oh, Yo Maps, I see no rest for you

Music star Yo Maps with wife Kidist 

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The Pilgrim, Janaury 6, 2023*

There is no rest for the wicked, the Americans like to say. Please don't remind me that the phrase comes from the Bible.

The above dictum is currently true in Zambia’s booming music industry, where two of the country’s most important crooners are embroiled in cutthroat competition. I mean Yo Maps (real name, Elton Mulenga) and Chile One (real name, Chileshe Wenga).

We’ve watched with stupefying wonder as the two recording artistes have jostled for countrywide fame, treating us to endless hit songs like spoiled kids, and polarizing audiences with their lifestyles in the process.

I’ve keenly observed the two singers because what they are doing is a study in greatness.

But my fascination doesn’t just end with the celebrity of these gentlemen. More than how they rose to stardom, I’m anxious to know if the leader of the two, Yo Maps, can sustain his streak and stay at the very slippery top until Kingdom come.

If you know anything about music, you’ll agree that such a feat may not be easily accomplished in this world or the next.

For many of us, Yo Maps means something more than just a name because his music has been a soundtrack to our lives through difficult times like unemployment (think “Pick It Up”) or during exhilarating highs like graduation or wedding ceremonies (think “Aweah”).

When he broke out in 2018, his soothing voice suddenly and absolutely dominated the music scene in a way never known before in recent times.

His rise was so meteoric that in an article dated 18^th December 2018, Kabwe-based Zambia Daily Mail reporter, Chambo Ng’uni, observed: “Before he released the hit song “Finally,” Yo Maps was not widely known outside Kabwe. In fact, when you thought of a Kabwe-based musician, it [was] DRIMZ (Lota Mandevu) who came to mind. But things have changed, and drastically so, for the 24-year-old singer….”

Yo Maps ended Chef’s career

Around the time of Yo Maps’ manifestation in 2018, the prevailing genre was hip-hop, and fittingly so, to mark the culmination of decades of relentless hard work by rappers like Macky 2 and his former nemesis Slap Dee.

Clearly emulating America’s The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac, the Zambian rappers created their own version of an East Coast vs West Coast rivalry as they pitted Copperbelt against Lusaka in their lyrics. They actually promoted today’s well-known stereotypes about the two provinces, with Macky 2 branding the Copperbelt as the home of street-smart, tough people. Slap Dee was the stark opposite, who presented himself as smooth, on behalf of Lusaka residents.

If anything, the most famous artiste in Zambia in 2018 was Macky 2’s younger brother Chef 187, whose rap lyrics captured the minds of young people like a plague. Chef had cemented his fame with his Amnesia and Bon Appétit albums. He actually did ALBUMS. I was studying at the University of Zambia when Bon Appétit was unleashed, and students were all over the place discussing the artiste behind it. Like a joke, some Zambians were buying the album for K10,000, much to the consternation of the public. Unbelievable.

Chef created a hype that was hard for any artiste, especially mere crooners, to penetrate. Rap music had instead gone mainstream.

But such was Yo Maps’ greatness that when he released his single “Finally” (featuring Macky 2), he overnight became the centre of Zambian music and, for all practical purposes, terminated Chef’s career and buried the phenomenon of Zambian hip-hop.

Yo Maps took over the airwaves in bars, cars, and houses, and proved once again that singing (as opposed to rapping) was still fashionable.

As the saying goes, when it rains it pours. “Finally” started Yo Maps on a commercially successful career with loving fans who vicariously enjoy his life when he flaunts his house and other properties on social media, including the sumptuous meals that he eats when he goes abroad to perform. Fame has catapulted him not only from obscurity, but also grinding poverty, often the reality of many Zambians.

Enter Chile One

As Yo Maps rules, Chile One, as an equally competitive singer, has crashed into the limelight (remember the hit song “Fweba Ku Chaume”)—as if to prove that for every action in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction.

As if in a mad craze to outdo each other, the two artistes have since been producing songs back-to-back from Yo Maps’ “Location” to Chile One’s “Why Me”; and then from Yo Maps’ “Mr Romantic” to Chile One’s “Make Me Understand”; and again from Yo Maps’ “Aweah” to Chile One’s “I Love You.” I see this as an exceptional work ethic and each artistes’ body of work has been rewarded with millions of Youtube views that were previously unheard-of in the Zambian music industry.

As 2023 unfolds, there is an anxious Zambian public that awaits to see if Yo Maps will stay on top as Chile One’s undeniable flair for music reaches out for his jugular. The notorious public already thinks that Yo Maps is arrogant, just because he married an attractive woman and is clearly enjoying life.

No rest for the wicked

But nothing is really spectacular about Chile One, merely because such is life that there is a contender for every champion, a Messi for Ronaldo, an Elon Musk for Jeff Bezos, a Steve Jobs for Bill Gates, a Macky 2 for Slap Dee, and yet again a Chile One for Yo Maps.

The secret may be to know your rival and beat them at their game. In this case, it might mean working harder than anybody else, which might mean no rest for the wicked for Yo Maps.

*This column is published every Friday in Zambia's leading newspaper, the Zambia Daily Mail