Billiiti's review

The case of ‘child musician’ and
Dyson Billiati’s ‘Timange Chimodzi’
Reviewed by Emmanuel Luciano
The story of the teenager musician Dyson Billiati’s rise to stardom has been written again and again. That his music is no different to that of the majority of the country’s most revered of musicians is common knowledge.
Dyson’s music career is an interesting one; it resurrected in some quarters the debate that Millela Nkhoma, a teenager who at one time played with Alleluya Band, precipitated: ‘What qualifies one to be called a musician.’ Is there a prescribed age which everyone must reach before they are called musicians? Is it the maturity with which one handles their work of art?
When some ‘concerned citizens’ chided Millela Nkhoma for ‘jeopardising her studies’ with her music exploits one thing that came out clearly from that furore was that there are different views on what should be the rightful time for one to enter into music.
But in art somebody’s age doesn’t mean anything. Being young does not necessarily mean you cannot tackle larger than life issues. In art you can be a grown up in spite of your age. Dyson would not have made a name for himself had he waited until he reached adulthood for him to launch his music career. Perhaps the drive he has for music would have wilted by the time he reached adulthood.
The teenager’s debut album Dziko was testimony that he sees the world through the eyes of somebody who has been on earth for so many years. And his latest album Timange Chimodzi demonstrates more maturity.
In David Banda he censures non government organisations that were in the forefront trying to prevent Madonna from adopting baby David: Mukanakhala inu mukadasangalala ndi donation/…David wakweza mbendela ya Malawi/…musiyeni mwana watola chikwama. Dyson is not too young not to notice the apparent political impasse present in the country. In the title-track Timange Chimodzi he calls upon the UDF, DPP, MCP and Aford to work together for the good of the nation. Departing from his usual pluck-pluck kind of reggae, in Njala Yavuta he aims his wrath at traditional chiefs, who were selling fertiliser coupons denying the deserving poor a chance.
The only problem ‘child artists’ have is demonstrated when it comes to issues of believability. In this case one might ask: what authority does this child have to talk about love like in Babie Come Back, when he knows nothing about love? But the voice of reason in songs does not necessarily reflect the life of the musician himself; therefore, the artist has mandate to comment on any topic. The artist has potential to become a bigtime one but he needs somebody guide him so that his talent is properly nurtured his talent to avoid him becoming another case of promising talent never exploited. There is nothing like a child musician as such he needs to improve on his lyrics. You wouldn’t want to listen to the hush- hush kind of songs all day.
The album is available for sale at O.G. Issa