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Robert  Mukondiwa
Winky’s D just got bigger!

And the biggest D that any artiste wants to grow after all is the big DISCOGRAPHY!

From a tiny discography when he began humbly, that discography years later has had new additions the latest of which is most notably the hit song ‘‘Paperbag’’, which has taken that discography to a brand new trajectory and different direction.

Zimbabwe’s biggest versatile artiste has continued to experiment with several themes, sounds, lyrical opinions, personas and attitudes and has hardly, if ever put a foot wrong.

From cultivating a wallet as green as the illegal herbs in his garden to being the metrosexual man with the jacket and pair of jeans, Winky D has lived every life through his lyrics and sounds and has ding-donged between being a show-off to a humble man.

From being a prayerful spirit to being a traditional spirit. Winky has seen it all. And definitely been it all.

Perhaps the biggest lesson from Winky is how important it is to ‘‘floss’’ in the alter ego life while being well grounded, hard-working and humble in real life, ensuring that his career has not faltered and died like the careers of some of his contemporaries.

Take ‘‘Paperbag’’ for example; Winky D plays the god of free-spending, high rolling, egotistical lyricism and a bevy of girls that make those in the playboy mansion look like cheap replicas of chicks made in the far east at best or inflatable dolls as worst.

And yet with a steady life Winky D has not lived the life of a hot-roller type womaniser, only flirting with that idea in his art; something that has probably kept him in his clean image as an artiste serious with his art and not willing to be a real life player with scandal.

OK, maybe he isn’t as clean as he would like us to believe. After all the truth be told Winky D has such a secretive life that even the best Mossad, CIA and SVR (former KGB) agents can spend a year living with him and still not crack his secrets.

The only thing Winky may be busted for is if you demand a sample of water he has drunk and entered his system. That would definitely have ‘‘exotic’’ weeds mingling in there. But even that is something few would like to take a bet on.

Yet that is the image that many of the young upcoming artistes should try and emulate. A clean image is something that has had Winky D grow while many others would not see it as fashionable to be a squeaky clean chap.

In Zimbabwe’s music, arts, entertainment and sports industry, at least amongst the young crop, if there was a search for a clean enough person to be nailed to a cross and redeem the mess that is the life of others like Soul Jah Love and Denver Mukamba, Winky D would be that person.

In a world so keen to have role models, perhaps there should be a drive to ensure that people like Winky D, who have no scandals with their artistes, co-singers, backing vocalists and manageress types would be celebrated and emulated,

Gone are the days that bad ‘‘manners’’ were said to go hand in glove with being an artiste especially in music circles.

‘‘Paperbag’’ may not be as spectacular or profound as his other creations, and yet sometimes what makes songs continue to drop as hits, is the cleanliness of the lips between which those hits are spat. That is why Winky’s discography keeps growing and getting healthy responses and life.

Sometimes as media we take a shot at the nut-heads, the hare-brained; the naughty and only bemoan bad behaviour. Sometimes we should take to the pen to celebrate the good.

Now Winky has paper-bags of good hits thanks to a level head. Winky D take a bow!