Month: June 2012

It is now clear that there is no stopping Matasia Star’s Jackiwa. No stopping at all. The budding singer released her latest track titled ‘Mbona Mpenzi‘.

You guessed right. The new track is all about lost love. Yes, even Jackiwa knows about this stuff. Since her last viral track, ‘life history’,

video

which was done some months back and already has over 67, 000 views on YouTube, she has been releasing a series a extremely comic songs and video to accompany them. This latest track is absolutely no exception.

Here, have a look.

So, how did a band that is barely known in Kenya make it to the Queen’s Jubilee celebration?

Slum Drummers is made up former street children. They still scour rubbish sites but this time, to look for anything that they can turn into a musical instrument. They collect old pipes, plastic containers and scrap metal, which they rework into musical instruments.

For the Queen’s concert, the band was discovered by Take That lead singer and X-Factor judge, Gary Barlow, who was tasked with looking for artistes to perform for the concert and record the official Jubilee track, Sing. The 13 members of the band were just one of 210 performers who appeared on the song. Barlow had discovered the band on YouTube and traveled to Kenya to watch them practice before recording the commemorative record.

At the concert the band performed alongside pop star, Kylie Minogue, rapper, Will.I.Am, renown pianist, Lang Lang, former Beatle, Paul McCartney, fellow Kenyan, Ayub Ogada among others. Michael, one of the band’s percussionists recently fell blind through diabetes but he continues to perform with the troupe.

The band, which is led by Henry Kang’ethe, is an initiative by GRT, an Italian. The band had previously performed at the Alliance Francaise in March this year. They have also traveled to Italy and Brazil for various cultural shows.

You can catch them on 21st of June, 2012, at the Alliance Francaise Gardens to perform at the World Music Day event.

This is a sensitive topic that hopefully, will finally be dropped once and for all and let the good music keep on coming.

During an exclusive interview with Jimmy Gait, we had to ask the sexual related question, simply with the aim of closing down the allegations on this talented artist, and it is clear that he is also as tired of the talk as most people probably are.

For the last time, jimmy sets it clear, right her at the Ghafla! offices. Check out the video.

DJ Josh seems to be coming in out of the musical cold.

And he’s not coming back to the gospel artist fold empty handed, he’s come with a brand new track titled “Jesus for President” and it features Chuchu.

For those of you not in the know, Chuchu was the gifted vocalist on Jimmy Gait’s hit “Ole Ole”. Yup, the lass with the rich vocal range. However, unfortunately, her vocal range doesn’t get explored in this track.

Actually, the chorus is the only weak point this track has. In terms of ilyrical content and subject matter, DJ Josh has taken a bold approach in talking about matters political. He is asking Kenyans to be careful about their choice of political representatives.

Something along the lines of Kenyans electing leaders, not politicians.

Check out the track below:

{youtube}1ginsjvkzFw{/youtube}

NAKURU based Calif Records Artist Rapper TN and Saiz 2 are unhappy after their new single ‘Pesa kwa Madem’ was banned by the area’s Radio Amani 88.3 FM.

According to the artistes, the radio station received numerous requests on Wednesday from fans to play the song but the radio presenters said “The content is too strong and had to be censored as it can’t play on a community radio”
However, the two artistes argued that the content in their single bears similar content to other popular singles like Mama Ntilie by Ray C and French Boy and Gentleman by P unit ft Sauti Sol.

“So why not Pesa Kwa Madem? its content appreciates women. The song is played by all other urban radio stations,” They said. “We know our Nakuru fans are angry due to the presenter’s remarks but you can request the song from any other radio station.”
said the contents is uncensored and it can’t play in a community Radio. The two artist were arguing that, if at all they play some other songs which has similar content like “Mama ntilie by Ray C and Gentleman by P-unit ft Sauti Sol” why not ‘Pesa Kwa Madem ’ which its content appreciates women. The song is played by all others urban radio stations.
“We know our Nakuru fans are angry due to the presenter’s remarks but you can request the song from any other radio station including 1FM, Citizen (Mambo Mseto), Hero fm, Sauti ya mwananchi….etc. You can also download it just using your Mobile phone at www.califmobile.mobi ”
Said Saiz 2 when we contacted him.

Click here to download the track ‘Pesa Kwa Madem’

DJ Mo and Alemba seem to be having a blast in the USA with their pre-Talanta Awards tour which saw them this past weekend feature at the official gala in the US capital, Washington DC.

Here are a couple of the pictures you may enjoy from the ceremony which was attended by Kenya’s Ambassador to the UN, H.E Ambassador J. Ojiambo

Do not sit back and act like you were not the least bit surprised about how Jimmy Gait managed to get the CEO of Safaricom to sing in his ‘Furi Furi Dance’ remix song. Julie Gichuru and Jeff Koinange… that is imaginably possible. We just had to get the story behind it.

Apparently, Julie Gichuru was actually excited to hear that she can actually feature in the hit track, considering that she sings too. She does. For real!

video

Jeff Koinange on the other hand is a very good pal of Jimmy Gait’s, and obviously took very little convincing on his part, plus, come on… you know how much our beloved Jeff loves the camera. Right?

The real task was getting Bob Collymore on board. This is the point where Jimmy’s cunning and quite funny nature is exposed. You should also know that Jeff Koinange played a part in this scheme that resulted to the most interesting yet disturbing (in the most polite way possible) music video.

Get the scheme from the Ghafla! Interview below. Mwahaha!!! (He starts explaining it from 03:50).

On a certain beautiful day we were humbled to host one of the most influential gospel artistes in Kenya, Jimmy Gait and Holy Dave. We managed to get an interview out of them and through this, many interesting topics were covered.

For instance, most upcoming artistes think that they need lots of money to actually make it in the music industry. Jimmy gait does not agree with that at all. He confesses that he has used very little money to reach where he is right now and to acquire all that he has.

It is very simple really. Check out the video and find out how he did it. You can also view the previous part of the interview here.

This is by far the most consistent gospel artist I have ever heard and seen. Not only the most consistent, but also one of the realest gospel artist, if you know what I mean. He songs are the type to actually be played in Church… #realtalk.

Paul Mwai takes very very little time to relax as it may seem with the amount of music he puts out and the time in between them. Just some few weeks ago he released his collaborative track with female gospel singer Carson, titled Holy One.

Just yesterday, the humbled singer released his latest (or is it?) track titled Mizigo. As the name probably sells out, Mizigo is about the heavy burdens that we all have and how we should share them with The Almighty, as the lyrics say, “Mizigo yangu yote baba takupatia wewe, Mungu mwenye uwezo wote Utanisaidia…”

There is no stopping for this great artist and quite frankly, with the turn that the music industry is taking, I hope he doesn’t stop any time soon.

Ever since he moved over to the gospel side of music, we haven’t really heard much of him (sincerely speaking), but now he is back. Announcing his come-back to the secular music at a press conference last week (check out the coverage), the young rapper couldn’t be happier.

He clearly stated that his decisions for his personal life are exactly that, PERSONAL, and with that, I can only express my joy due to his return. Let’s just face it, he does way better music in in secular than gospel. Just saying, no offence to anyone.

Anyway, later after the press breifing, DNA gave out his first shout-out as a secular artist once again. Want to know who this special person/people are, check out this video. What more can we say or do?

The BIGGEST news of this past weekend was the release of DNA’s brand new single ‘Maswali Ya Polisi’ and the fact that the musician has officially left gospel music and is going back to seculer hits.

‘I’ll be performing some songs from my old catalogue together with some of my newer music, said a confident DNA, as he went on, ‘I’ll be working with GrandPa records who know a lot about artiste management and growing brands.’

He was asked what the ‘new’ DNA has to offer but maintained that this wasn’t a new him but someone who he was destined to be. DNA asserted that he would be experimenting with different types of music. He also revealed that while a lot of the music he had been working on in his two year hiatus would never see the light of day, he was excited about some new prospects in his career.

Click here to check out DNA’s new track ‘Maswali Ya Polisi’

The artiste seeked to distance himself from speculation about his relationship with God and his family but saught to state that there is nothing wrong and this was a decision he came to make and was firmly convinced it was the right direction.

Check out the video below to find out more about what happened at the press briefing…

Last week, everyone was berating DNA for quiting the gospel industry.

This was after the artist bravely came out and declared that he would no longer be doing the type of music anymore. What shocked me was the acidic reception he received from some quarters that have branded him a sell out and a wayward sheep.
I was taken aback by the response to his move given the fact that Kenyan don’t even listen to religious stations. Christian and indeed Islamic radio stations are performing so poorly in the market that the noise being made by certain religious quarters just becomes akin to the noise made by empty debes.
Why attack DNA for being straightforward? If it’s the fear that Christianity has lost a soul, shed that fear. DNA declared that he is still saved, only his music has changed. He’ll be making more club oriented music.
And if Kenya’s Christians really cared about who is doing gospel and who isn’t, would the gospel radio stations be performing as abysmally as they currently are? Kenya as a country claims to be 70% Christian yet the radio stations combined have a 2% market share.
What gives? And if this is a close to accurate depiction of the picture, why is every christian concerned with rebuking DNA, attacking Jimmy Gait, rubbishing Holy Dave and the rest of the artists doing their thing to keep the gospel relevant? Roooobbish! Stick to the script and to each his own!

We recently had a great opportunity to sit down and have a one-on-one with two of the biggest gospel artistes in Kenya, got them comfortable and ready to spill the beans on all that has not been let out yet.

We might just have hit a sensitive spot during the interview and the response was more or less political and rather interesting. Have a look at the double interview below and get to know a whole lot more about these two awesome artistes.

This is but just the first part of the interview, the rest following ASAP!

Gospel artiste Juliani is on this  month’s cover of Salut! magazine, a publication done in French that keeps students and teachers of the language in touch with what’s happening in Kenya and the francophone world.

The rapper who is involved in various social activism projects is currently doing the Mtaa Tour, a campaign that allows fans to buy his Pulpit Kwa Street album at a discounted rate and stand a chance to win merchandise and a VIP spot in a hood concert. Juliani also recently performed at the Sawa Sawa Festival and periodically does the Kama Si Sisi University Tour.

Salut! magazine is an initiative by current and former students of the Alliance Francaise and besides the magazine, do plays and theatrical performances.

You won’t believe this.

According to the Kenya Advertising Research Foundation’s latest survey, 55% of the top 20 radio stations are vernacular. Kenyans enjoy this stuff. Here they are by name:

Inooro FM
Ramogi FM
Kameme FM
Musyi FM
Coro FM
West FM
Chamgei FM
Kass FM
Muuga FM
Egesa FM and
Mulembe FM

That’s 11 out of the top 20. Kenyans are tribal by nature. There is nothing that gets a Kenyan’s emotional juices flowing than hearing or seeing something from their cultural home. It’s powerful. The tribal radio stations have harnessed these strong feelings in the most positive way possible. They are evidence that positive tribalism exists, and can be harnessed for the greater good.

Just look at how excited Luos get when Ramogi nite(hosted by Ramogi FM) finally comes around. Or how excited my fellow Luhyas get when it’s Mulembe nite. Tribalism is here to stay. Kenyans should embrace positive tribalism, and the dominance of vernacular radio stations is undeniable evidence towards this point.

One FM are attempting to make at least one of your dreams come true… that is of course if you are a diehard fan of this sultry Kenyan songstress and particularly more so if you listen to the station.

One of Nairobi’s leading urban youth radio stations, 97.1 FM is offering you the chance to win a date with the ‘Sishiki Simu’ star Marya of the Ogopa stable, and all you have to do is answer a few simple questions and email drive@1fm.co.ke the answer.

The questions are:

1. What is Marya’s favourite hang out spot (along Ngong Road)

2. What is Marya’s favourite band? (Hint: It’s South African)

3. What’s the most interesting thing about Marya to you?

Check out the video…

From an artist with such beautiful voice, must come an equally beautiful song. Fortunately, Bella did not disappoint on this one at all. For an upcoming artiste, this is more than impressive.

Bella has collaborated with rapper/singer Vinie Chwani in this track titled ‘Roll yo body’ which qualifies to be a club banger, and the lyrics actually belong to the club.

With a kind of a dancehall tune blended with RnB, this track has that sexy yet conserved feeling that puts you in the dancing mood and at the same time, think of that one person that matters to you.

This are definitely artistes to watch out for and I wouldn’t mind at all if I heard this song in club. It fits the part.

He has done numerous tracks but I think we are all more familiar with the YouTube hit track ‘Emergency pills’ that has over 7500 views and still counting.

Man Wazimu is no stranger to the Kenyan music industry and is also not planning on leaving any time soon. He is here to stay. One thing that we didn’t know about this reggae artist is that he is also a radio presenter at Ghetto FM which is found on the frequency 99.9 FM. Ghetto FM basically tackles issues mostly concerning the youth and ways to improve their lives.

Man Wazimu hosts the show ‘Bomba’ which airs on the weekdays from 1PM till 4PM. Catch him live everyday on the radio station but meanwhile, have a listen to ’emergency pills’ and honestly tell us what you think. Honestly!

KARF’s new radio numbers for the first quarter of 2012 have proven one thing to us: the urban youth don’t matter when it comes to radio. The best performing youth radio station is Kiss FM, being the only one in the top five.

Ghetto Radio and Easy FM are the only other youth stations in the top 10. Three more youth stations made the top 20. 1 FM made it to the mid-teens numbers and Ghetto FM and Capital FM closed out the top 20. It’s surprising that vernacular stations are doing much better in Nairobi. Inooro, Kameme and Coro FM are all in the top 10. Ramogi and Musyi FM add to the top 20.

Many complain about the offering on radio and the kind of music played. But when such numbers come out, the older skewing stations do more of what they’re doing and the youngster-targeting ones try to go for the older guys or do nothing to better the shows to draw an audience that is ‘obviously’ not not listening to radio, anyway.

Royal Media Services, which is the group with the most, and best performing stations, only has one youth-oriented station, Hot 96, which didn’t even make the top 30.

He real names and stage names are Otieno Aloka. It doesn’t get more real than this. Straight from, and with, his African culture, there is no mistake that he will end up at the heroes corner in Kenyan traditional music just like the likes of Jack Nyadundo and his brother.

This are the type of songs that will never lose flavour nor originality as they are simply part of us. Otieno Aloka song ‘Kanunga Eteko’ which was released late last year has now accumulated up to 39, 291 hits on YouTube and is extremely popular.

From the lyrics (which I personally can’t understand but just love the layout) to the traditional instruments that play in the background, and best of all, the dancers that get your eyes glued to the screens, you have to agree that these type of songs are simply legendary.

Check out the song right here and tell us what you think about this type of music.

I am still shocked at this discovery. Again, I expected this slot to be filled by the likes of Kiss 100, Ghetto Radio or Classic 105. Inooro FM takes this one hands down.

According to the KARF Q1 Survey 2012, there are three types of listener; light listeners (listen to the radio for about 5hrs/week), medium listeners (10hrs/week) and heavy listeners (10hrs/week).

Inooro FM takes most of the heavy listeners, 36% to be precise. Classic FM comes in second on the heavy listeners, taking 33% of them, with Radio Citizen taking 3^Rd place with 31% of the listeners. This is more shocking considering that this particular survey of listernership only targets the Greater Nairobi (i.e with Thika), and not the whole of Kenya as the rest of the surveys we have covered lately.

Venacular radio presenting taking over? This should be interesting.

As artists continue to do what they do best, create music, they should also think about going about it the legal way and actually get all that they should receive from their music.

Octopizzo is one of the artistes who has just discovered that, despite his awesome success in both music and side businesses.

Last week, Octopizzo registered to the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) after years of going solo and earlier, underground. As it is observed by artistes campaigning for their fellow artistes who are currently running for MCSK seats, such as Nonini and Frasha, it is now the time to own the music industry from every aspect possible.

Watch this space.

Michael Joesph and current Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore may be perturbed by Kenya’s peculiar calling habits but that’s not the only thing that’s unique about Kenyans. It seems people love listening to radio at specific clustered timings while at other moments there are very few people who are on the airwaves.

Having a look at a chart of weekday radio listenership from a recent radio survey would evidently isolate Monday mornings as well as Tuesday and Friday afternoons as the moments at which most Kenyans are listening to their radios.
On most Monday mornings, most of Kenya’s listeners are tuned in to Classic FM, Radio Citizen, Inoora FM, Kiss 100 FM and Kameme FM in that order. In case you were wondering just whether the whole world is tuned into Maina and Keng’angi in the Morning, then your theory just got confirmed.
On Tuesday and on Friday afternoons, Radio Citizen, Ghetto Radio, Classic 105 and Kiss FM are the most popular in that order. The interesting thing about these results is that the stations that identify themselves more as youth-oriented or urban barely make it to the top of the list, in a country close to seventy percent of the population is believed to be the youth.
Could it mean then that the younger generation are no longer listening to local content or that they’ve e sacrificed their radios for the sake of trendier gadgets such as ipods or walkmans or chosen to tune into international streams on the internet?
Overall, the average weekday listenership popularity baton is held by Classic 105, Radio Citizen, Kiss FM , Milele FM and Inooro FM. Ghetto Radio is also noted for its increasing popularity.

Some of the Kenyan artists are finally doing what they should have started doing a very long time ago. Securing a seat in the MCSK board. Only a war experienced soldier can lead an army into battle with high chances of victory.

It is with this in mind that Frasha joined the race to the administration seats in the MCSK alongside Mongolo, the comedian turned politician. For too long the Kenyan artistes have complained about the tactics and relevance of the MCSK on their music, and now they are finally taking a stand by trying to ensure that one of their own is actually in MCSK.

Some of the artistes, through twitter are even testifying about the horrible experiences that they have had with MCSK. Holy Dave for instance today twitted through the hashtag, #MCSK,

While some retweeting motivating tweets like,

It is indeed time we had someone who actually does music, calling shots on music related laws.

Looking at the KARF radio report of Q1 2012, it is clear that Christian radio is lagging way behind the other music categories in terms of listenership. The largest Christian radio station by market share is Bibilia Husema, which is all the way at number 32 overall, with 0.5% of the Kenyan radio market. Here is a complete list of all the Christian radio stations, and their respective share:

Bibilia Husema – 0.5%
Jesus is Lord – 0.4%
Imani FM – 0.4%
Hope FM – 0.3%
Baraka FM – 0.2%
Hosana – 0.1%
Radio Waumini – 0.1%
Sifa FM – 0.1%
Family – 0.1%
Light of Life – 0.03%
Rehema – 0.01%
Amani FM – 0.006%
Neema FM – 0.000%

———————————

Total Market Share – 2.246%

This is ironic, considering that Kenya is referred to as a Christian country. But the numbers don’t lie: We do NOT want to listen to the word of God. Why is there this anomaly, you may ask?

My belief has long been that Kenya is a country full of what I like to call “PR Christians.” People who call themselves Christians to save face in the public eye, but when it comes to practising, it’s a tall order. The same Kenyans will shout to the heavens about how the latest songs have immoral lyrics, how radio stations have immoral presenters, and how we should all turn to the gospel, whose message can be found in the Christian stations. But it’s time to face facts. When we look at the research figures, they clearly tell us that in private we don’t have much care for the radio evangelists’ message. We are heavily engaged listening to those same immoralities we like to ridicule so much in public.

What is your take on this revelation? Should Kenyans be encouraged to tune to the Lord, or are we just too interested in what the secular stations have to offer?

To be completely honest, I expected radio stations like Kiss 100 and Classic 101 to make at-least top five of the most played radio stations in Kenya but ALAS! They all appear from the the tenth position onwards.

One radio station however has dominated most of the areas in Nairobi. It is actually easier to mention the areas that is doesn’t come number one and these are, Central (Inooro FM), Lower Eastern (Musyi FM) and Nyanza (Ramogi FM… obviously).

Radio Citizen has proved to be the top favorite radio station for most Kenyans according to the KARF Q1 Survey of the year 2012.

Radio citizen aims the common mwananchi who are the biggest radio listeners unlike those that have the extensive luxuries of TVs and all. This is probably the biggest reason of its dominance on the rest of the Kenyan radio stations.

It is amazing to discover that Radio Citizen has the biggest percentage of citizens’ reach, which is 49.7757 %. It is also the station that takes the biggest percentage of time spent listening to the radio by the Kenyan citizens, which is 16.5066%, beating the rest of the 116 radio stations that are currently functioning in Kenya.

We all hate the beefs that wind up on the surface of the Kenyan music industry, especially those that surface so suddenly. Take this for instance, I bet no one saw this coming.

Kapella, a rapper from one of the fastest rising hiphop groups, Coolagang, apparently took a shot at redefined Bamzigi. You guys probably remember one of the first tracks that came from Coolagang, or rather, Kapella. The track was titled ‘Kenya at War’ and he performed it a couple of times at ‘Wapi’, the monthly event that brings together budding artistes on one stage to battle for supremacy.

In between rhymes of this hardcore beat track, Kapella lands lines like “I buried Bamzigi and his riff rough”, with aggressive flow and presence.

No further information about this hass been leaked to us yet, but meanwhile, here is the song. Have a listen.

Some consider him Kenya’s best rapper at the moment. He recently performed at the annual Sawa Sawa Festival. Every track he releases takes him closer to the King Wa Rap title. His Chocoloate City tours company specializes in giving tours around his hood, Kibera. He also has a clothing line and no one represents Namba Nane better than he does.

The rapper is taking it a notch higher. During an interview with Str8 Up, he revealed plans to bring a condom brand into the market. His unique selling proposition is that each pack will have four condoms instead of the traditional three.

Internationally, famous artistes have used their popularity to launch non-music products. Other than scents from the likes of P. Diddy, Beyonce, J-Lo, etc, 50 Cent has a vitamin water company. Besides his clothing line, Jay-Z owns a huge stake in the New York Mets, Kanye West recently launched a fashion house.

The Kibera native is currently riding high with the hit track, Bila Mic, which he recently remixed.

One of the regions leading record labels, Penya Africa, have just announced the online release of a self titled EP (Extended Play) by the Kenyan award winning group Sauti Sol which is produced by multi-talented South African rapper/ producer Spoek Mathambo.

Celebrated for blending warm resonant pop sounds with traditional Kenyan influences, Sauti Sol’s mélange of energetic rhythms have endorsed the quartet to become one of East Africa’s most celebrated bands.

Click here to read more about the launch of ‘Sauti Sol’ in Amsterdam

For months in between Johannesburg and Nairobi, in studios and through emails and on Skype, Sauti Sol worked tirelessly with Spoek and his team. The end result is the much-anticipated edgy EP, whose diverse sounds and up-beat tempo reflect on the band’s mission to break musical stereotypes and borders.

Sauti Sol Digital Cover

Set for a huge launch later this August in Nairobi, Sauti Sol couldn’t wait any longer to share the EP ‘Sauti Sol’. You can visit the Penya Website for the album and a free download or…

Have a listen to the 6 track EP below…

If a proposal by Kenya’s Finance Minister receives support in Parliament and is translated into law, then it will no longer be a walk in the park for Kenyan artistes as their performances will be subject to taxation.

In a post from a local daily, it was highlighted that Kenyan artistes have also been brought into the tax bracket, with a proposal (by Finance Minister Njeru Githae) to have them pay 16 per cent VAT for their earnings from entertainment services.

Previously, musicians were not taxed for their ventures and enjoyed virtually all of the fee they charged at events they performed at around the country.