Month: March 2012

A multi talented artist she is. She first stepped into the music industry way back in the 80s and back then, she just did gospel music. She then added Afro Jazz to her music and it was just superb.

As a singer, composer and pianist, Achieng Abura has inspired some of the greatest names in this music industry with music like ‘nyungu imevunjika’ which is one of my personal favorite from her.

After mentoring the TPF contestants, she is now finally back in the studio to grace the music scene once again. Like the rest of her fans, I just can’t wait to hear her strong voice again.

It’s good to have you back Achieng Abura. I would wish you luck, but you really don’t need it.

He is a talented hip hop artiste popularly known for his hit single `bangaiza’ and now as times are getting hard he has decided

to hustle real hard.

The lyrical rapper Rabbit has introduced his latest clothing line, `niko Kwa jam nakam’ T-shirts from his Kaka Clothing Empire.

The T-Shirts are cool, elegant and stylish and it’s only going for Shs 685. You can get the T-Shirts at his store at the One Exhibition Suit 12, opposite Club Heartz Moi Avenue.

It’s seems rapper Rabbit is borrowing a leaf from his counterparts in the USA who have ventured into businesses while they are still rapping.

Kenyan sensational band, Just a band will be performing alongside top rated African artistes in a show dubbed

`all Africa show case’ on 15^th and 16^th March this year in the US.

They will be performing alongside artistes M.I (Nigeria), Spokes Mathambo (South Africa), Bez and Neato C (Nigeria), Baloji  (Congo), Seun Kuti and Africa’s celebrated award winning star 2Face Idibia from Nigeria.

This comes as the band is expected to performe in one of the world’s greatest music convention, ` the south by south’ to be held in Austin Texas, USA this week.

Watch the advert video down here>>>>>

Renowned model Diana Nekoye Sifuna was questioned by police over the death of her boyfriend

Charlie Grieves-Cook, who died after jumping off from her third floor apartment in Langata.

Diana, a former Ford supermodel finalist and M-NET Face of Africa was summoned by police for questioning as the incidence happened in her house.

Charlie Grieve-Cook was a commercial advertising photographer at EyeQue productions based in Nairobi.

The deceased dropped dead as he tried to escape from gunmen who had raided the house in search of him. He landed on his head and died on arrival at the Nairobi West hospital.

Police preliminary investigations show’s that the gunmen were after Charlie as they did not steal anything and that the deceased knew them as he immediately ran into hiding.

This will go down in history as the biggest concert ever in Kenya and you will be telling your kids some years from now that you heard it first at Ghafla!Kenya. I know you are probably wondering, “Jamaican concert in Kenya…?”.

Well, I’ve chosen to call it that because not one, but almost seven popular Jamaican artistes will be performing here in Nairobi then in other African countries like Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa then all the way back to Jamaica.

All this is courtesy of Cecile and her charity campaign inspired by our beautiful but troubled country, ‘Make a Change campaign’. Read more about it here.

The peak of the concert will be Cecile’s song ‘Make a Change’ which is a collaboration of all the above named artistes, but composed by Cecile. The concert will be featured in live satellite broadcast and will be sold in markets worldwide. Proceedings will go to charity.

The date of the concert is not yet clear but most likely this month or the next (April). We are really looking forward to this and I know you all are too.

I’ve always loved Cecile, from her songs all the way to her attitude… (especially her lyrics that always defend the man). That’s a good woman right there. DEFINITELY not from Nyeri.

Well, Cecile is currently working on a huge campaign set to be launched in Kenya very soon. The campaign dubbed ‘Make a Change’ which was the inspiration of Cecile’s ‘Make a Change’ track is a music and multimedia campaign that is designed to inspire, motivate and assist Africans and people of African descent all over the world to participate in solving issues of various fields.

Strategy of passing the message of this campaign to Africans all over, is through music, seeing as it is the ideal medium to mobilize action. This then requires a massive concert in Africa to reach the Africans as opposed to all the Africa assisting concerts held abroad, while the concerned party(us) is right hear in the dust.

It is with this in mind that Cecile came up with the passionate song ‘Make a Change’ which will be launched here in Kenya in March. The song has in collaboration some of the best Jamaican artistes  namely; Mavado, Alaine, Christopher Martin, Sherieta Lewis, Gentleman and LUSH. As if Cecile is not enough, all these other awesome artistes had to jump in and now, it’s even hotter. Imagine all of them on one stage… right here in Kenya… to die for!!!

With Cecile’s inspiring lyrics like “Look at me, look at you, look at us, what we can do, make a change…”, this will be one of the hottest songs this year. All the proceedings from the concert will go to a variety of charity projects among them education, health care, famine relief and clean water, youth economic development and opportunities for African youths.

The song will be released in digital form only, i.e it will be available for downloading from mobile phones. This is to ensure that everyone, from any financial means can get the song and be able to contribute to the campaign. After being released in Africa, it will then be pushed all over the world.

The ‘Make A Change’ campaign will feature a novel technology using specially branded updatable USB keys which will be preloaded with the ‘Make A Change’ single, videos, remixes, photos, interviews, and the live ‘Make a Change Concert’. With this exclusive technology, every time users plug the USB key into a computer connected to the Internet, they immediately receive new and updated content related to the campaign and its activities. For example, stories about how their contributions have made a difference in the lives of everyday Africans, Remixes, Music Videos, Messages from celebrities etc etc
The USB, as well as the Make A Change website and social media platforms, will feature links to all the charitable partners’ and sponsors’ websites, merchandise as well as offer advertising space to this unique market.

When it arrives, please make sure you make your contributions in every way possible. Attend the concerts, buy the merchandise, download the songs, everything. We will.

How long will it take the county of Nyeri to brush off this ‘husband beater’ tag, we wonder…

Kenyans on social networks have taken this to the next level, featuring promotions and trending topics all aligned with the now infamous Nyeri woman.

In one of the most latest publicity attempts, check out the advert that Code Entertainment came up with below…

You might know him from Bamzigi’s ‘bachette da refix’ track. Kora is a great and talented producer who has worked with various artistes.

Crayon did a feature on this music creator and takes us through a day of his life. The point is, music is not just rapping,dancing and/or singing. There is more to it than just “doing” music for the fun of it, and Kora puts it clearly.

If there is any artiste out there who at one point has felt like giving up on music, or has never been sure of what he/she is really doing, you better check this out.

One of the most celebrated American RnB singer Joe Thomas of the hit song `I want to know’ will be coming to Kenya

this month. He will be performing on 31^st March at the first Capital FM Lounge unplugged concert.

His latest album `The good, the bad, the sexy’ went to the number 2 spot at the Billboard RnB Charts in the US.

The tickets are retailing at Shs 3, 000.

The Capital FM Programmes controller, Somonia said that they have lined up several other international artistes who will be performing in Kenya.

The Jay Z and Kanye West track, ‘otis’ was off the hook. From the beats, to the back to back flow, just awesome. Seems as though everybody loved it.

Kenrazy loved it too. So much that he had to do his own version of otis.

Shot and recorded at Rapdamu’s studio, this is Kenrazy’s ‘otis’.

Little is known about him but K-Tisa is not deterred by this as he has dropped a new hot track `manzi msupa (tia bidii)’ featuring the melodious TPF 2

finalist Wendy Kimani.

K-Tisa has worked before with the late K-Rupt, DNA and Jabali Africa and lately with Prof and Mejja in the song `Kenya yetu’. 

This new song will definitely propel K-Tisa to greater heights as he has shown that he’s got talent.

Wendy has been silent for a while but in this song she has proved that she has the voice and also the vocals. She needs to be consistent when it come’s to her music as she is very talented.

The song and video was done at Ogopa deejays. Checkout the video down here>>>>>>

With his very unique style of production, Wawesh musically delivers his daughter’s music perfectly.  This is the true definition of Hip hop. ‘Oh My’ takes us back to the 90s when Hip Hop was still maturing. What a blessing it is to go back to the past while still in the present.

Yome, based in Mombasa is Wawesh’s 15 year old daughter and is deeply in love with hiphop. Making hits at that tender age, you can tell that this is what she was born to do. She has also done a couple of tracks with the Mombasa group, Wazushi. Just like her, their music is also unique in every way. Some of the best songs they have done include, ‘via’, ‘Mombasa raha’ and ‘Vuka mwaka’. Get the lyrics here.

Yome will definitely be a voice to reckon with, and everyone will witness her rise… for this is Hip Hop.

Watch the ‘Oh My’ video below.

Let’s face it, we have A LOT of artistes in this beautiful country. So you know that for you to be heard, you have to really step up your game. Some artistes have numerous tracks that non, apart from their family members and friends, have heard. That’s where we come in. But for us to do our part, you as a serious artiste should first do yours.

Most of you(artistes) don’t do much of pushing for your songs. You assume that they’ll automatically reach your fans… WRONG. A minor push goes a great deal. Social media enables you to do this. Especialy Facebook and Twitter. Share a link of your songs to your fans and friends and in turn, if they support and love it, they will share it with more people. Most established artistes use this tactic and has prooved to be helpful in getting their music out there.
Another important tool is Youtube, soundcloud or any other online media player. Even if your song doesn’t yet have a video, it is recomended by us that you upload it. This makes it easier and much faster for us and every other fan to have access to your music.
Accessibility to your music is very important, so don’t make it hard for us to reach it or you (in other cases).
Most important, do good music. Don’t just sing because you have a voice. We all do, but you haven’t heard me singing, have you?
With that said, do your thing!

Reggae is one of the greatest genres of music, if not the greatest. Infact, like Hip Hop, Reggae is more of a lifestyle. Celebrated all over the world, reggae music has definitely played its part in changing the world. Teaching unity and love, it has a huge fan base all over the globe.

Kenya has a large number of reggae fans and suporters. Just like Asia, majority of the Kenyan citizens are reggae die hard fans. It is however very sad and unfortunate that our own reggae artistes are not well recognised and appreciated as are the Jamaican artistes here in Kenya.
Incase you are not aware, we have plenty of reggae artistes, among them are Bafu Chafu, Levisil, Shamir, Fireson, Ousmane and some of the Ukoo Flani members just to mention a few. These artistes have done lots of songs that unfortunately do not receive much airplay. The lucky ones are those that are already established in the music industry like Nazizi and Wyre. Other artistes simply avoid this genre due to poor marketing and reception.
Kenyan reggae artistes suffer neglet in concerts and other events, main reason being distruction of peace and great usage of drugs (especialy marijuana). I guess we, the fans are part of the problem… a huge part infact.
So, as the politicians usualy say, change starts from yourself, as a fan. Let’s try and make reggae music a part of our daily lives.
Bless… yes!

Artistes all over the world always end up being involved in controversies. Kenyan artistes are no exeption. For instance, Avril and her infamous photos, artiste beefs, Abbas and Baby G relationship, Prezzo’s famous love life, the list is endless.

However, most of these controversies usually end up giving the involved artistes more publicity than their songs do. Come to think about it, it actually seems beneficial to them. This raises the question, does controversies damage or build an artiste?
Fact, if damaging, controversies only make celebrities stronger. Take for example Bamzigi’s case of drug abuse and rehabilitation. After all that drama, look at him now. Ain’t he much better and complitely transformed, both personaly and music wise. Remember Kaz’s photos? She is now even more successful than she was back then.
In conclusion, the irony in this is that most controversies tend to publicise the involved parties rather than damage them. I am not inciting anyone to do something crazy… it is what it is. #justsaying
This explains why artistes love these controversies. Go figure.

Long has the debate been about which music is better between Bongo flavour and Kenyan music in terms of quality and relevance of lyrics. I hope you won’t be suprised when I tell you that a good number of Kenyans prefer Bongo flavour over Kenyan music.

Some of the reasons that these Bongo flavour fans give just fuel the debate. Some of the reasons being, Bongo artistes have stronger and deeper lyrics to their songs as compared to Kenyan artistes’ songs. That Kenyans are more keen on party songs rather than rapping/singing about day-to-day life experiences. Good music composition is, as they claim, another advantage that the Bongo artistes have over us, with a wider diversity of rhythm and flow.
Whether this is true or not, one thing is for sure. Tanzanian artistes have a better oportunity of producing their music than our talented artistes. For instance, I know that music production in Tanzanian studios is much cheaper than in our studios. This provides better oportunity for their artistes to utilize their talents more than Kenyan artistes.
Fact, most Tanzanians can’t stand Kenyan music. Dissapointing, I know. But in order to have a bigger fan base, we need to appeal to most listeners, and where better to start than East Africa.
This criticism is however not our(Ghafla!) views, but from research. They probably haven’t heard much of Sauti Sol and Just a Band for starters.
The debate goes on…

These two genres both have a wide fan base in Kenya. Hip hop fans are more on the wild side and love playing with words in a crafty way. Afro Fusion fans are more relaxed and love playing with the music instruments. This works out great for both sides.

However, when it comes to live performance, I think Afro Fusion takes the cup. Have you ever been to a live perfromance of an Afro Fusion artiste, like say, Suzzana Awiyo or Erick Wainaina? If so, I think you will agree with me on this. To hear the drum set, trumpets,trombones, saxofones and keyboards live… just pure bliss.
On the other hand, have you ever been to a Hip hop freestyle battle? With multiple woofer speakers all around the venue and a perfect lyricist like Kitu Sewer is rapping on the mic?… Just awesome. To hear rhyming words come out of someone’s mouth so fast and well constructed, is very entertaining. Makes you fall inlove with Hip Hop all over again.
As you can clearly see, I personally cannot come up with a decision over which genre is better. Honestly, I just wonder what it would be like if they were fused. Maybe this could be an idea for the artistes that are reading this article. Just think about it.

It is evident that house and reggae music have a lot of influence on the youths. This spreads out even to the musicians and rappers. They are now taking up the ‘electronic’ and ‘dancehall’ genres of music. By the way, this is not a complaint. I am actually happy with this.

You see, for artistes to make money in this music industry, they have to comply with the fans’ demands. Right now, club and hype songs are at the top of the demand list (that is dancehall and electronic/house music).
As I have always said, Wyre is the King of Kenyan dancehall music and he has prooved it with his latest track, ‘dancehall party’ and I can also see many more dancehall artistes coming up.
various Kenyan artistes are on the other hand adapting to house music. Even Afro Soul singer, Anto Neosoul has done an electronic beat track titled ‘jikaze’.
I’m loving this. Bring more life to the night.

He is from a humble background but he managed to rise and become one of the most decorated gospel artiste in Kenya. He already has six albums including the Kisima nominated 2006 Album Milanza na roho.

Ben Githae is a father of two daughters but still he has managed his private and music life very well such that he is a role model to many musicians.
His album Mabataro gained him significant attention. Driven by the hugely popularity and much demand for his hit single `maya ni mabataro’ (Kikuyu for `these are my request’) getting him serious crossover attention.
Ben is a pioneer in music industry as his been in this game since 1996 to date. His latest song with Rufftone `maririkane’is a big tune and it’s dedicated to single parents.

The `still a liar’ singer Wahu got a rear shock when her pet dog bit her. She found out that a dog is not a man’s best friend last Saturday.

The Diva was rushed to hospital but the Doctor confirmed that it was nothing serious.
The incident happened when the dog thought that all was not well and ran after her and bit her on her leg.
Wahu, never play with dogs again.

If there’s one thing that Kenyan entertainment spots are learning, and learning well at that, is the importance of social media.

Numerous clubs and restaurants have presence on Facebook, which remains the most focal source of social media correspondence for Kenyans. But Twitter is quickly catching up, and numerous establishments have realised that this may be yet the most valuable tool in boosting their ‘rep’.

With electronic brands, television stations and fast foods…among others, quickly grasping this ‘new found’ knowledge, the list of spots joining twitter continues to grow. Urban Bites, a popular crisps manufacturer recently joined the Kenyan market and has had a ferocious yet visible presence on the social site.

Brew Bisto and Carnivore are the most predominant Kenyan entertainment venues that have milked the advantages of being on Twitter, and now Mercury Lounge happens to be the newest entrant.

Mercury Lounge just revealed they have opened a new Twitter account and we are interested to see just how this will work out for them. They recently opened a branch at the Junction Mall in Dagoretti, in addition to the one it already has at ABC Place in Westlands.

Though not yet extensively set up, their Twitter handle is @TheLastDrop1

Hip Hop may be an arguably established genre on the global scene, but a local footprint is yet to imprint itself in the Kenyan music industry, though our very own artistes are keen on establishing themselves, and doing a pretty good job while at it.

Thats why when we hear there is even more great talent coming up in our streets, we get very excited. Introducing Bid David; he may be a ‘little’ guy, but his lyrics are ‘big’.

David started off his musical journey at age 14 when he joined the school choir back in Form 2 at St. Christopher’s Secondary School in Nairobi.

 ”I realised that I had this gift of music because I could sing RnB, so i decided why not join and see what i could do”, he said excitedly.

He began to love it and then turned his attention to playing instruments. ”Instruments were a way for me to escape from books… I wanted to play in church because I saw it was fun, so again i told myself let me see where this takes me”. 

David had not really considered music as a career and instead wanted to do Business Administration at the University, but one exam later and he changed his mind..

”As soon as I got those results i was like am not meant to do this, so what do i do?

It’s at this point that he set his mind on music…and more particularly, the idea of being a rapper.

After successfully finishing his ‘O’ levels, David moved on and attended Rusinga school for his ‘A’ level studies where his passion for music took a very positive and huge turn. He met up with 3 aspiring producers, who were Luther Njoroge, Adrian Waka and Hatibu Hassan.

”These guys brought out my musical ability and i started writing my music, getting beats from them and rapping to them”. 
The road was and never was easy for him. He got constant criticism for his flow but took it to be good and evolved it.

“When you’re starting out in these things, it’s never just easy, you have to adapt and evolve, so my rhyming became better after the criticism because it pushed me further to work harder”.

David is yet to make a mark on the Kenyan music scene, but he is not waiting for success to come, he wants to find it.

He plays the piano and drums, though not at professional level but as a hobby. BORN TO SUCCEED, BRED FOR GREATNESS, INSPIRED TO ACHIEVE… that’s his motto..

Checkout his debut single, a cover for ‘Racks’ below…

We recently broke to you the news that Kenyan producer Mjanja Wawesh was in the running to win $4,000 thanks to a competition set up by American super entertainer Beyonce. Well another Kenyan is now in the very same race, so let’s do what we can to support our local talent.

Robert Keingati, stage name Sosevia, is another Kenyan producer who has also thrown his hat in the race to stand a chance of winning this enormous amount. He joins other producer Mjanja Wawesh in the cut throat competition that is open to fans across the globe.

If you would like to listen to his submission and vote for him, CLICK HERE

Read about Mjanja’s competition entry here >>

Robert ‘Sosevia’ Keingati was born in 1982 in Kenya, though he left for Sweden when he was barely nine months old because his father was a diplomat. He finally settled back in Nairobi in 2002 where he has now established Esoteric Entertainment, which has recorded music for Kenyan big wigs such as Nonini, Madtraxx and Wyre, to mention but afew.

Sosevia’s ambition is to establish an international portfolio of music placements and build his Estoteric Entertainment into an industry giant.

Checkout his YouTube video below that urges people to vote for him in large numbers…

 

Do you have a passion for performing arts plus creating performances? If you do and

you’re between the ages of 16 to 26 years then this is your lucky chance.

Umoja Kenya is looking for dancers, musicians and acrobats. The auditions is scheduled  from 6^th to 7^th March at Sarakasi Dome Ngara Road.

For more info you can click here.

It has dominated the Youtube charts through out the past two months.

We have even exhausted topics on every aspect of the song and the video to an extent that there is nothing else to comment about.

Wahu, this is a great comeback. ‘Still a liar’ is a hit, no doubt, and that’s where it will stay.

You may continue enjoying it right here at Ghafla!Kenya and also get the lyrics.

The biggest event in Kenya is just around the corner. It would be really sad for you if you missed it, so I took it upon me to remind you to get the tickets RIGHT HERE and learn the lyrics to some of the songs that will be performed there.

Anto Neosoul will be one of the performers at the event and we just happen to have his lyrics. Do you want to be the REALEST fan at Blankets and Wine? Then you should be able to sing along to their songs as they perform. Make the rest seem like wannabees.

Get the lyrics here:

Anto Neosoul’s ‘Chips funga‘, ‘Qwerty Love‘ and ‘Jikaze‘. Enjoy these wonderful songs.

Don’t you just love listening to some of the conversations that go on at Classic 105. They hit every kind of trending topics, especially the controversial ones. My personal favorite show on the radio station is ‘Busted’ by Ciku Muiruri. As Mbusii from Ghetto radio would say, “show ni ha-ta-ta”.

Anyway, just last week when I randomly turned on my radio, I was lucky enough to find this ‘busting’ moment just when it was about to start. I had to stop whatever I was doing, for the laughter that followed almost led to my final rest.

This China guys love our women, and unfortunately, they love them back. So was the case with this Kikuyu lady who was caught red-handed accepting an indirect marriage proposal… (did I mention that she is already married?).

Just listen to this and watch out. You never know when Ciku strikes.

If you are not a fan of Ghetto radio, you probably don’t have any idea who this is… was.

Well, ‘JOSPHAT APEWE TUSKER KUBWA’ was a Ghetto Radio fanatic. The ultimate fan. Always on the phone with Mbusii and Bonoko Deh, either submitting requests or just airing his opinions.

Whenever he was heard, just like Mbusii, he put a smile on every listener’s face. A fan of Tusker he was, yet at the same time, a Rastafarian. It is the irony and humor that came with his character that made us all love him so dearly.

The story behind his death is not yet clear, but JOSPHAT APEWE TUSKER KUBWA, may you rest in eternal peace. We Ghetto Radio fans will never forget you. One Love.