A Zimbabwean Hip-Hop journalist Tendai Garandi who is based in the United States of America, is hosting a talk show with influential people across the sports, business, entertainment and health sectors in a move aimed at unifying Africans living in diaspora and those back home.
The show which has been dub-named The Tendai Garandi Show has an endless list of guests who will characterise the show and this includes rapper/businessman French Montana from Morocco, businessman Lawson Mashiri from Zimbabwe, software developer Ntiendo Etuk, and novelist Farai Chideya and last but not least the humanitarian Samuel Gebru from Ethiopia.
Right: Tendai Garandi.
Garandi who doubles as the Executive Producer of Garandi Media Group told Zimbo Jam in a telephone interview that the prime purpose of hosting such an event is to bring into the lime light general issues affecting the African continent.
“Our primary objectives is to talk to those individuals and organisations doing projects to change Africa in various ways whether its sports, business, entertainment, health or alleviating poverty.”
“Our show is about people, issues, development and ideas changing Africa,” said Garandi.
Garandi who twice interviewed American Hip-Hop mogul Jay Z said, “The show itself has got lots of humor to it than just a boring educational show, we talk about current music, fashion and culture,” he said.
He challenged organisations failure to create employment opportunities for many Africans citing, “Well, Africa is economically prosperous, a number of organisations are giving aid but they are not creating jobs to help Africans sustain themselves, these are areas that need to be looked into, don’t forget that there is higher number of Africans that are under the age of 24 and in need of jobs, not sympathy.”
Commenting on the criteria he used in choosing his guests Garandi cited that the audience through YouTube would come up with a list of people they wanted, “What we did on our YouTube account is we ask our audience who they want to see on the show, this is an effort to bring something that people actually want to see so I encourage folks to check out our YouTube and comment, let your point of view be heard.”
Talking about his experiences with Jay Z, Garandi said, “Well, The first time I interviewed him was February 2008 at Jay-Z/Lebron James 2nd annual Two Kings Dinner during All-star Weekend in New Orleans , basically I asked him what hip hop culture means to him being the CEO of Translation Advertising, and he went on to say it was a move to talk to corporate America and have them to understand our ( hip hop) voice and the second time was at Time Square New York , when he was shooting for his Empire State of Mind video October 2009, I end up putting a DVD out with all the behind the scenes footage I took, something that I consider classic because nothing was planned.”
Garandi who has been in the US for the past 9 years highlighted that many media organizations were keen to come on board for the show, “Currently they is quite a number of deals on the table from networks willing to get our show aboard these are; TV One, Africa Channel, Sky, M-Net but we just want the right place for the right audience, I solely created this show to inspire, educate and motivate, We don’t show music videos or semi-nude women so like I said its a unique show created for a unique audiences those who want to learn and see what others are doing in changing lives.”
Garandi who attended Dallas Art Institute in New York works with Dr Marc Lamont Hill a Professor at Columbia University. He went to Mutoko High School and his hometown is Chitungwiza.
From Zimbo Jam by Anozivashe Shumba
The show which has been dub-named The Tendai Garandi Show has an endless list of guests who will characterise the show and this includes rapper/businessman French Montana from Morocco, businessman Lawson Mashiri from Zimbabwe, software developer Ntiendo Etuk, and novelist Farai Chideya and last but not least the humanitarian Samuel Gebru from Ethiopia.Right: Tendai Garandi.
Garandi who doubles as the Executive Producer of Garandi Media Group told Zimbo Jam in a telephone interview that the prime purpose of hosting such an event is to bring into the lime light general issues affecting the African continent.
“Our primary objectives is to talk to those individuals and organisations doing projects to change Africa in various ways whether its sports, business, entertainment, health or alleviating poverty.”
“Our show is about people, issues, development and ideas changing Africa,” said Garandi.
Garandi who twice interviewed American Hip-Hop mogul Jay Z said, “The show itself has got lots of humor to it than just a boring educational show, we talk about current music, fashion and culture,” he said.
He challenged organisations failure to create employment opportunities for many Africans citing, “Well, Africa is economically prosperous, a number of organisations are giving aid but they are not creating jobs to help Africans sustain themselves, these are areas that need to be looked into, don’t forget that there is higher number of Africans that are under the age of 24 and in need of jobs, not sympathy.”
Commenting on the criteria he used in choosing his guests Garandi cited that the audience through YouTube would come up with a list of people they wanted, “What we did on our YouTube account is we ask our audience who they want to see on the show, this is an effort to bring something that people actually want to see so I encourage folks to check out our YouTube and comment, let your point of view be heard.”
Talking about his experiences with Jay Z, Garandi said, “Well, The first time I interviewed him was February 2008 at Jay-Z/Lebron James 2nd annual Two Kings Dinner during All-star Weekend in New Orleans , basically I asked him what hip hop culture means to him being the CEO of Translation Advertising, and he went on to say it was a move to talk to corporate America and have them to understand our ( hip hop) voice and the second time was at Time Square New York , when he was shooting for his Empire State of Mind video October 2009, I end up putting a DVD out with all the behind the scenes footage I took, something that I consider classic because nothing was planned.”
Garandi who has been in the US for the past 9 years highlighted that many media organizations were keen to come on board for the show, “Currently they is quite a number of deals on the table from networks willing to get our show aboard these are; TV One, Africa Channel, Sky, M-Net but we just want the right place for the right audience, I solely created this show to inspire, educate and motivate, We don’t show music videos or semi-nude women so like I said its a unique show created for a unique audiences those who want to learn and see what others are doing in changing lives.”
Garandi who attended Dallas Art Institute in New York works with Dr Marc Lamont Hill a Professor at Columbia University. He went to Mutoko High School and his hometown is Chitungwiza.
From Zimbo Jam by Anozivashe Shumba
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