Month: June 2012

Just a few more days to the launch of the much anticipated video to the realest and most soulful Kenyan neosoul music, ‘Engineer Penja’ from Aziza Muzik and Anto Neosoul. I am not just saying that because it is currently my favorite Kenyan song (apart from Owen’s Mbona), but simply because it is really that good (read related article).

It gets even better when Anto Neosoul himself tells us that he can’t wait for the video to be launched, confirming to us that it will be all that is expected from a work of art product and awesome collaboration.

Good wine takes time to mature. I’m guessing similar concept is applied in this video because it feels like I have been waiting forever for it. Just a few more days… a few more.

Meanwhile, check out the pics to the behind the scenes and have a taste of bliss from the music below.

Matasia Star’s Jackiwa came out early this year with her hit single ‘Life History’ which shot to to fame over Kenya’s social media networks, from a You Tube viewing of just under 1,000 to boast over 60,000 views to date. This is an amazing feat by any Kenyan standards, though the jury may be out on whether or not Kenyans and the world love that song.

Nevertheless, ‘Life History’ goes from strength to strength as the artiste, Jackiwa, has been interviewed by a number of media houses including the Star and the Standard Group’s ‘Pulse’ about her song and her style of music which she christens ‘Probox’. She even has a brand new song called ‘Trust’ out. CLICK HERE

Click here to find out why Jackiwa calls her music ‘Probox’

Now in a first ever move, Ghafla! brings you the lyrics to Jackiwa’s ‘Life History’ so that the next time you see or listen to the video, you can sing along!

Here’s the video to Jackiwa’s ‘Life History’…

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Click here to checkout the lyrics to ‘Life History’

Fresh from the release of her collaborative efforts with Octopizzo on the track ‘Vile Inafaa’, which happens to be doing some massive rotation on both radio and television stations, Muthoni the Drummer Queen has just released a the audio to her BRAND NEW TRACK titled ‘Feelin It’

‘First things first, call up the mortuary, tell them on this track, murder of the century’ is part of the opening lyrics to this tune that features some heavy beats, characteristic of its producer, Musyoka.

The song has a somewhat old school mix feel to it, coupled with the afro-eclectic tune and vocal that is MDQ: with abundance in lyrical flow and rhyme that pieced together makes the track an amazing production.

Have a listen to ‘Feelin It’ right here on Ghafla! first below, and tell us what you think… We give Muthoni two thumbs up and a close to perfect rating.

If you thought your weekend was long, then just ask Calif Record’s Ala C Genge what he went through over this past weekend at what was meant to be an autograph session with his fans in Kitale.

Ala C and Jimwat, together with their manager Tom, were at Kiririni Girls School Multipurpose Hall, which is a shared premises with the local church there, in a talent search which is part of their countrywide tour looking for the undiscovered musical talent Kenya has to offer.

Both the seasoned Kenyan genge artistes were dishing out fliers, posters and giving their autographs to the large crowd that was predominantly made up of the students of the girl’s school. Ala-C granted some photo opportunities to the girls who were more than excited to be with the star and descended on him with kisses and hugs.

All the commotion eventually attracted the attention of local police officers who thought the artiste was the inciter of what seemed to be a riot. Ala-C was then bundled into a police vehicle, but Jimwat intervened going ahead to call the school’s headmistress who came to explain the situation.

This great artist took his sweet time and efforts to create this music that is obviously very dear to him.

After all that struggle and devotion, a someone can actually come across the video on YouTube, and upload it for the second time, but with a different title.

No! I am not catching feelings. i just don’t get how someone can upload an artiste’s song and title it ‘Kenya’s worst song?’. the song’s original title is ‘Searching’ and it is a blend of Reggae and genge.

We honestly need viewers’ opinion on this one, so take a look at it and tell us what you think.

When looking for a guitarist, In Oath’s band leader Chris turned to Facebook.com for help. He found a guy called Greg, who says, “I read a post from Chris on a Facebook group, where he said he was looking for a guitarist, so I sent him a message saying: ‘Can you give me a sample of what you guys do?’

He sent me a video of Eulogy and I was like, ‘Whoa! I like what this sounds like. I like the direction this band has.'”

“I suggested that we meet for a loose practice session. There was a gig coming up at Dass Restaurant in Westlands. They gave me a week to learn my part and we did the gig, then I became an ‘Oather’… I was In Oath.”

Remember the music video by Matasia Star’s Jackiwa that went viral on YouTube (Read the article)? Well, she has unleashed yet another track with its video that is also destined to go viral, especially after this.

Known for her ‘out of the box’ music, which by the way coincidentally comes from the new music genre ‘Probox’ that has caused quite a stir in the music industry for various reasons.

Jackiwa from Matasia Star has dropped a new one titled ‘Trust’ that is aimed at the sexual life of the youth and is somehow supposed to educate us about it.

With no more words to describe this song, check it out and tell us what you think.

The band In Oath is a pretty big deal. They are one of the first heavy metal bands in Kenya. In a recent interview, they were talking about how they started. Chris, the guy who started the band, had this to say:

“We had started playing rock tunes when we came across a video game called Burnout Dominator. That is the first time we heard really good metal music, so we decided: let’s try jam.” But that’s only the good part of the story. It gets deeper:

“We only had acoustic guitars, but we decided to get more members to form a band. Our first drummer, George was a friend of ours from high school. We got two more friends and started playing shows,” Chris said, “our first show was terrible, but that is what all bands go through. You have to start somewhere. We have been doing well since.”

Then comes the story of a break-up:

“It reached a point where the original members decided to part ways because of an incident, but more so because of differences in music.”

Despite this, In Oath pressed on. They already have an album out. Click here to read about that album.

So Abbas has responded to Octopizzo’s diss.

And as the barbs keep being traded like fish at a monger’s parlour, it’s time for us the music lovers to decide whose hotter in an impromptu poll of sorts.
Both Octopizzo and Abbas have done alot for the Kenyan hiphop scene and both are talented lads but who do you think is the iller emcee? Octo has been releasing hit after hit consistently and Abbas has unfortunately been abit too quiet for my liking save for a recent missive sent courtesy of Pulse magazine couriers to Octo. But with that said, he has a slew of hits under his belt that should be able to go head to head against Octo’s.

So have your say but i beseech you to keep the convo progressive and postive. Don’t troll though.

So, you probably know about DJ Mo and Alemba’s ‘secret’ tour to the US that has until now managed to keep more information about it under covers.

We now have possession of their photos down in New York City, taking a tour around and even hanging out with the cops.

They are clearly having a great time. Check out the pics.

In Oath, a heavy metal band, is the first of its kind to release an album in Kenya. Despite the widespread fear and prejudice the genre has suffered, the band has managed to amass fans while staying true to its heavy, aggressive and fast-paced sound.

The band is made up of five young musicians:

– Yung Mwanzia is the lead vocalist

– Christopher Lilako their rhythm guitarist and founder

– Greg rocks the second axe on lead guitar

– Steve Smalls plays bass

– and Larry Kimathi does the drums.

Their newly released EP album is called Eulogy. “About 90 percent of the EP consists mostly of the band’s early work, but we changed it to be more to our taste in the current In Oath line up,” said Chris, “we are going to extreme lengths to make our music better.”

More Divine music comes our way and we are only so glad to receive and embrace this sweet tunes that eventually change our lives.

Overlooking the irony in the name of gospel artist KUSH KUSH, you can’t help but try to sing along to this new song he has done with singer Christine Apondi, even without familiarity of the lyrics. The voices of these two artistes and the simple and humble lyrics of the song make it the ‘replay’ kind.

The song ‘Baraka’ is a blend of gospel and love tune. The two artistes sing about their love for their spouses and how grateful they are to God for making it possible for them to share their mutual love.

You may remember Christine Apondi from Nonini’s song, ‘Colour Kwa Face‘ that was directed at bringing to light the rights of those with albinism.

Have a listen to ‘Baraka’ below.

I don’t think I have to remind you about the video that went viral after we wrote an article about it (read the article). The reasons for the video getting 65, 000 hits on YouTube may vary depending on an individual’s point of view, be it comic or curiosity. Either way, it was a huge hit.

I have to admit that both the music and video are a little bit off, but still, you have to give some credit to this lady (Jackiwa) for representing her area (Matasia) proudly with the song ‘Life history’.

Pulse Magazine went H.A.M on this song, directly attacking the new genre of music that Jackiwa has introduced to the Kenyan music industry, dubbed ‘BROBOX’ (read Probox’s article)… LOL!

Like I said, reasons for the video going viral are comic and at some extent, unexplainable. One thing is for sure though, this is one entertaining video. Check it out below.

As more youth hiphop groups rise, more hard hitting tracks surface in the Kenyan music industry. They are all taking different approach, but who cares. As long as they give us good music, it’s all good.

Since Autopilots stepped into the music scene, they have been dropping a series of tracks as a group and also as individuals. Just two weeks ago, Losh, a member of the hiphop group debuted his single titled ‘Mrembo‘ that was well received in the social media circles.

Two weeks later, the group is already set to release their brand new track, ‘Kadudu’. In their own words, ‘Kadudu’ is a track full of deep and hard hitting lyrics and reflects to the society, as hiphop should. The track was produced by HB’s (Home Boyz Records) Zuze.

Release date is set on the 15^Th of June, 2012 from 7PM and will immediately be available on Ghafla!

Watch this space. Meanwhile, have a look at one of my favorite tracks from them below.

We are not yet sure if he wants to use Jimmy Gait as a means to acquire fame and publicity, or if he actually has this feeling for Jimmy’s latest song, ‘Ole’ which happens to be very very awesome.

Rapper Skippa Mistari who is a new comer and currently has two songs under his name, ‘White Revolution‘ and ‘Mkenya Daima‘ has just aired his first diss on-line.

His facebook profile today read,

We are still yet to hear what Jimmy Gait has to say about this.

He is one of the pioneers of Kenyan hiphop music, making it possible for other artists to actually see a career in music.

He blew up the Kenyan music industry with the hit track ‘Uhiki’ back in the 90s before flying off to the States. Having laid back from music for a while, Hardstone might now be preparing for a huge comeback.

He is currently recording tracks with other artists abroad, very different from what he was doing back here, but still good.

Here, have a taste of his new flavour of music and tell us what you think.

After all the back and forth talking about who jaguar may or may not have dissed, looks like he’s gotten even to the responses.

Jaguar seems to hold the adage that “money talks, bull *defecate* walks” close to heart and while people were busy wondering what he meant and (admitedly even i was) wondering about who had been dissed, he went and bought himself a brand new toy: a Range Rover Sport.
The car is silver metallic and he was spotted driving it earlier today along Uhuru Highway cruising in it and the beautiful car has no license plate as of yet.

Talk about trolling like a boss! This is one sharp individual. Clearly, he has more than just business acumen, he has the Machiavellian je ne sais quoi! Think about it, he drops a diss about how certain artists are broke then a certain magazine publishes about how a gospel artist has taken offence and in the midst of all this hullabaloo, he get’s himself a new toy!
Boom shaka laka! In the words of Kanye, “Who gon’ stop us huh?!”

Sauti Sol are both original and unique in what they do and they never run out of ideas of juicing up their music and performances. The lengths that they actually go to, to ensure their fans’ pleasure is just breath taking.

Early last week, the quartet was at the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge in Austin, Texas, armed with a guitar and awesome vocals to perform a version of their latest song ‘Love or Leave’. Chords were struck, harmonic voices raised and hearts touched as they sang their souls out to the morning joggers and walkers.

Sauti Sol are slowly emerging as the favorite band for most people, worldwide, due to their global tours.

Check out this video recorded at the park performance in Pfulger.