HARARE – Singer Rockford ‘Roki’ Josphat has denied he bought views for his new hit single, Uchandifunga.
The song was uploaded on YouTube on July 1 and had achieved 425,000 views after four days – but then suddenly the views jumped to 1.2 million within a few hours, leaving everyone perplexed.
It became the fastest video to one million views by a Zimbabwean artist – beating a previous record held by Winky D who pulled one million views in just under a week with Mugarden.
Uchandifunga has added just 200,000 more views in the three days after the shock jump, only fuelling suspicions that its “miracle” 700,000 plus votes came from a bot.
“If I get a million views, they say I’ve stolen. If others do it, they are cheered and told they’re good. Why? Is it because God is theirs only?” Roki told ZTN on Friday, appearing alongside Passion Java, who signed him to his Passion Java Records following a lengthy absence from the music industry.
Java, who raised eyebrows after posting a video of himself walking with President Emmerson Mnangagwa and attracting a million views within a week on Instagram, also maintained that Roki’s views were legitimate.
Said Java: “It’s embarrassing that as a country we’ve not had a video with one million views in one day.
“Everyone knows my favourite artist is uncle Poptain. If I could buy views, it would probably for him. I personally don’t have a video with one million views (on YouTube). Don’t you think if I could do it I would have bought some views for myself?”
For less than US$5,000, you can buy one million views for your video on YouTube if it will make you feel good – but unpopular content will not grow viewers much beyond that.
Meanwhile, former Big Brother Africa star Roki denied claims that he had struggled with drugs as he thanked Java for “making me rediscover my true love (music).”
The father of two added: “He unblocked my heart. I’ve been heartbroken, I felt disliked and I was blaming others.”
