The Stranger picked Pungwe as one of the “Top 5 Albums of 2012,” saying that:

“A Toast to Frame & Ro” (featuring Ishmael Butler) is found on the brilliant Chimurenga Renaissance Pungwe mixtape. It blends deep, traditional Zimbabwean sounds with that deep and moody hip-hop that has defined the Northwest’s post–Sir Mix-A-Lot sound since its inception in the mid-’90s. Maraire’s raps are at once angry, thoughtful, political, American, African, post-postcolonial, postcolonial, and anticolonial. As for Ish, Shabazz Palace’s rapper, he delivers some of his most startlingly personal lines. “A Toast to Frame & Ro” is black Africa as Blade Runner.