The story of that decline can be told by politicians, rights activists and economists. But it can also be narrated through the lyrics of Zimdancehall music — a distant descendant of reggae — and through the experiences of the singers like Winky D who have made it the dominant sound of the street here.

Zimdancehall artists have long sung of the hardships faced by young people in the townships. Sometimes lurid, sometimes lyrical, their songs describe violence, poverty, electricity blackouts, water shortages, teenage prostitution and rising food prices.

Some have sung at government rallies. One is even a government minister.

But a number of them are now expressing veiled discontent with the Mnangagwa administration, part of a more widespread disillusionment with the post-Mugabe transition.

“You get a feel of what Zimbabwe looks like, with all its contradictions, when you listen to these songs,” said Tanaka Chidora, a literature professor at the University of Zimbabwe and an expert on Zimdancehall.

After white minority rule ended in 1980, Zimbabwe was ruled for 37 years by Mr. Mugabe. Once an icon to many Africans, Mr. Mugabe grew increasingly despotic, persecuting the Ndebele minority, wresting farmland from its white owners, and driving the economy to ruin.