JAY ROX SAYS ZONE FAM DISBANDED BECAUSE IT STOPED MAKING BUSINESS SENSE AND ZAMBIANS DIDN’T APPRECIATE THEM ENOUGH
While featuring on Kenny T 1 ON 1 podcast, TOP Zambian artist Jay Rox, former 1/4 of influential rap musical group ZONE FAM, revealed why they decided to go separate ways despite its success.
Jay Rox told Kenny T that their separation was less of break up but more of a conversation about the group making sense when they looked at what they had invested in it and if it was more feasible pursuing individual careers.
The artist explained to Kenny T that what stopped making sense was that despite the masses at the time seeing them as a successful group, they had invested a lot into collaborating with Patoranking and Ice Prince on SLOW MO but the song didn’t succeed like they expected.
“At the time when we dropped the song with Patoranking, we had like big features with other big artists in Africa. And we’re thinking, are we going to continue investing? And now, when you look at the return on investment, it’s just like, is this making business sense?” added Jay Rox.
Jay Rox also cited less appreciation of their craft home as the other reason. He said that the same song that helped them win Best Group at Channel O music awards in South Africa beating WIZKID’s E.M.E, MiCasa and others lost a Zambian Music Awards(ZMA) and this further catalyzed their separation.
“So imagine, Kontolola wins the biggest song. Kontolola was a good song, and then it comes down here, and it loses down here. So those moments for us were just like, what exactly are we doing? And if for us, the structure is we’re trying to send Zambian music out there, but our own people, you know?” lamented the artist.
He further stated how influential ZONE FAM was, pioneering sounds, changing Zambian music mindsets, and creating highly relatable premium music, but the return on investment for all that wasn’t making business sense.
Roxa revealed that this period was also a tough time for him as he lost his pillar, his mother, and since the business side of ZONE FAM wasn’t making sense, he couldn’t go back to his IT work hence had to go solo and try to make music work because he had a wife and other responsibilities.
He told Kenny T, “So the decision had to be made just from my end as a person, the same way each and every member of the group decided to make their decision.”
He continued, “So I think for now, I’m going to pursue my own thing and try and make it work, then when it makes sense, we’ll get back in the room and see how we can bring it back.”
The group was in sync with the idea of pursuing individual music careers, and so Jay Rox, Tim, Yung Verba, and Dope G(Sam Sakala) went their separate ways.
