Gunpowder is a rather precarious name for a music artist trying to forge himself into the music industry, but Eric Segokgo insists that it’s the name for him.
“Gunpowder is harmless, until it’s tampered with,” the dancehall deejay, whose six-track recording, titled Polytricians, will be launched at the end of July, added unapologetically, “So am I, and if I am tampered with I explode.”
Polytricians is Gunpowder’s third recording effort after the two albums that he recorded as part of So High, an Afro pop group that he founded in 2000, whose themes were of ‘love songs le matshelo a batho mo lapeng,’ as Segokgo puts it. At that time, he had partnered with Carol Mosime, who was the singer, while Magosi Keeme, aka Dreadnut, did poetry.
On his solo album, Gunpowder sheds the softer Afro pop sound for reggae dancehall sound and has two guest singers.
A male vocalist named Bonny Fisher features on the title track, Polytricians, which Gunpowder says he composed looking at the plight of Zimbabwean illegal immigrants.
Fisher’s reggae styled singing also appears on Me No Worry, while Onkarabile Mokone, sweetly sings the chorus on the song, First Tyme, which celebrates new love.
While sticking to the themes of love, life and just enough braggadocio any self-respecting ragga artist ought to deliver, he also deliberately added that he is the best dancehall DJ during the interview.
Gunpowder says that Polytricians was a labour of love, “So High was about making money,” he confesses, “but this is just me finally putting myself out there. I wasn’t thinking of mass appeal when I recorded this album,” he says, “but I am grateful to express myself openly, and happy with the end result. I am so proud of this album.”
And after spending three years compiling Polytricians, he says he is happy to retail the album at P35.
