Month: August 2012

This right here, is international standard singing voice. I mean, this girl could collaborate with the likes of Alicia Keys and Brandy and still stand out. Yes, really. She is that good.

What’s better about this song is that it had a very good production house behind it, that managed to do wonders with her voice. The artiste is known as Fina Vonroe and yes, she is Kenyan. Her beautiful song, ‘Never let me go’ was produced by Madtraxx’s recording studio, Red Republik.

Fina Vonroe is from the band, ‘Florence and The Machine’. I honestly don’t know much about the band but judging by the sound of this song, it must be pretty cool.

Have a listen below.

Jimmy has lately been very cautious of his movements ever since a life threatening incident that he went through. What is it with guys against gospel artistes, huh? We get that they make more money, but that is just because they know how to play their cards right. Now everyone wants to feast from them.

So, apparently, Jimmy was ambushed in daylight by his former manager and some police officers who were not interested in talking at all. All they wanted was the manager’s money that Jimmy Gait had allegedly failed to pay. Comedian Churchil happened to be there and intervene before things got ugly.

This must have really shaken up this gospel artiste because he immediately got himself an impressive security detail of three buffed up guys.

“I’d like to see them try get their money now, hahaha,” these must be the words in Jimmy’s mind right now.

This contest is bringing out talent that would have been otherwise forever unknown, as extremely good rappers suffice onto the stage to battle it out for the Sh. 200, 000 prize money.

It is now around that time when the finalists are free-styling their way to the top with nothing but a mic in hand. We have seen lyrical masters and wannabe rappers as well, who have been ‘rapped’ out of the stage with shame.

Check out this rap battle below and see how far these rappers have come.

A lot of Kenyan rock bands are hard rock or metal bands. Very few decide to go punk, emo, soft or the other more popular sun-genres. And even the ones that do, have a tinge of that hardness.

Crystal Axis is one of the few–if not only–punk band in Kenya. Last week, the band released a track, Devil Sold His Soul, which has received airplay on Kenya’s only rock station, Xfm. The song has also been played on radio stations in Norway and South Africa where it has been received well.

I’ve seen the band perform before and I was glad to have finally seen a local punk band. Crystal Axis kind of reminds me of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers for some reason.

Devil Sold His Soul is the first single of Crystal Axis’ upcoming EP, State of Unease. Performing on the track are the bands members, Ahmed Bulhan (vocals, bass), Abuga Aroni (drums, percussions), Neel Vaghela (guitar, vocals) and Djae Aroni (guitar). Check it out below.
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Avril and Juliani graced this year’s International Youth Day Concert which was held at the Bomb Blast Memorial Ground. The concert was all about promoting peace and educating the youth about the importance of keeping peace.

The concert happened last Sunday and a good number of people attended the event. Just incase you missed the concert, take a look at what went down in the video below.

From Calif Records comes lessons of all sorts. You can learn about rags to riches, story invention and most of all, the art of story telling. And so it is that we now see yet another rapper from Calif Records with a captivating story.

He is known as Caltoz Jinamizi and he has just released his latest track titled ‘Njoroge’. The track is all about a guy named Njoroge who had the urge to take what did not belong to him. I’m not sure if this is a real story but it is worth checking out.

Have a listen to the track below.

From Calif Records comes lessons of all sorts. You can learn about rags to riches, story invention and most of all, the art of story telling. And so it is that we now see yet another rapper from Calif Records with a captivating story.

He is known as Caltoz Jinamizi and he has just released his latest track titled ‘Njoroge’. The track is all about a guy named Njoroge who had the urge to take what did not belong to him. I’m not sure if this is a real story but it is worth checking out.

Have a listen to the track below.

A lot of Kenyans are not happy with the performance of the Kenyan Olympic team at this year’s Olympics. Moreso, with the officials after it was revealed that they did not only not do enough for the athletes, they might also have frustrated them.

Genge pioneer and now 1FM One Breakfast presenter is not happy about the performance either, but he has a lot of beef with the overall treatment of athletes. Check out his rant below.

“Our Kenyan Athletes make us proud to be Kenyans sindio? When our flag is raised high when they win Gold we all identify as Kenyans….Apart from 2012 olympics that have just ended I think we really don’t celebrate/honor our sports men and women enough….

Hatakama haikua the most impressive olympics we have seen atleast we won 2 gold medals and one of them was a world record by Rudisha. Kemboi flew back home sabu ya ma controversy.

But look at Jamaica Usain bolt the guy is literally worshiped and not to mention the endorsements that atapata ju ya being the fastest man in the world.

Look at Kiprotich of our neighbouring Uganda who won the only gold for that country in the Marathon…kwanza that name is ironical.Which Ugandan is named Kiprotich?

He was recieved at the airport as a national Hero:
1. Akapelekwa straight state house kupiga breakfast na Museveni by the way alipikiwa na posh airport full security the works
2. Aka Promotiwa from a prison warden to a Assistant Superintendent of Prisons.
3. Sijamaliza bado akadungwa 80,000$ that’s 7.6Mic and he was virtually unknown to ugandans…

Why don’t we appreciate and honor our very own like other countries.If it was up to you….what are the ways u would celebrate atleast the Kenyan athletes that struck gold?“

A lot of Kenyans are not happy with the performance of the Kenyan Olympic team at this year’s Olympics. Moreso, with the officials after it was revealed that they did not only not do enough for the athletes, they might also have frustrated them.

Genge pioneer and now 1FM One Breakfast presenter is not happy about the performance either, but he has a lot of beef with the overall treatment of athletes. Check out his rant below.

“Our Kenyan Athletes make us proud to be Kenyans sindio? When our flag is raised high when they win Gold we all identify as Kenyans….Apart from 2012 olympics that have just ended I think we really don’t celebrate/honor our sports men and women enough….

Hatakama haikua the most impressive olympics we have seen atleast we won 2 gold medals and one of them was a world record by Rudisha. Kemboi flew back home sabu ya ma controversy.

But look at Jamaica Usain bolt the guy is literally worshiped and not to mention the endorsements that atapata ju ya being the fastest man in the world.

Look at Kiprotich of our neighbouring Uganda who won the only gold for that country in the Marathon…kwanza that name is ironical.Which Ugandan is named Kiprotich?

He was recieved at the airport as a national Hero:
1. Akapelekwa straight state house kupiga breakfast na Museveni by the way alipikiwa na posh airport full security the works
2. Aka Promotiwa from a prison warden to a Assistant Superintendent of Prisons.
3. Sijamaliza bado akadungwa 80,000$ that’s 7.6Mic and he was virtually unknown to ugandans…

Why don’t we appreciate and honor our very own like other countries.If it was up to you….what are the ways u would celebrate atleast the Kenyan athletes that struck gold?“

A lot of Kenyans are not happy with the performance of the Kenyan Olympic team at this year’s Olympics. Moreso, with the officials after it was revealed that they did not only not do enough for the athletes, they might also have frustrated them.

Genge pioneer and now 1FM One Breakfast presenter is not happy about the performance either, but he has a lot of beef with the overall treatment of athletes. Check out his rant below.

“Our Kenyan Athletes make us proud to be Kenyans sindio? When our flag is raised high when they win Gold we all identify as Kenyans….Apart from 2012 olympics that have just ended I think we really don’t celebrate/honor our sports men and women enough….

Hatakama haikua the most impressive olympics we have seen atleast we won 2 gold medals and one of them was a world record by Rudisha. Kemboi flew back home sabu ya ma controversy.

But look at Jamaica Usain bolt the guy is literally worshiped and not to mention the endorsements that atapata ju ya being the fastest man in the world.

Look at Kiprotich of our neighbouring Uganda who won the only gold for that country in the Marathon…kwanza that name is ironical.Which Ugandan is named Kiprotich?

He was recieved at the airport as a national Hero:
1. Akapelekwa straight state house kupiga breakfast na Museveni by the way alipikiwa na posh airport full security the works
2. Aka Promotiwa from a prison warden to a Assistant Superintendent of Prisons.
3. Sijamaliza bado akadungwa 80,000$ that’s 7.6Mic and he was virtually unknown to ugandans…

Why don’t we appreciate and honor our very own like other countries.If it was up to you….what are the ways u would celebrate atleast the Kenyan athletes that struck gold?“

A lot of Kenyans are not happy with the performance of the Kenyan Olympic team at this year’s Olympics. Moreso, with the officials after it was revealed that they did not only not do enough for the athletes, they might also have frustrated them.

Genge pioneer and now 1FM One Breakfast presenter is not happy about the performance either, but he has a lot of beef with the overall treatment of athletes. Check out his rant below.

“Our Kenyan Athletes make us proud to be Kenyans sindio? When our flag is raised high when they win Gold we all identify as Kenyans….Apart from 2012 olympics that have just ended I think we really don’t celebrate/honor our sports men and women enough….

Hatakama haikua the most impressive olympics we have seen atleast we won 2 gold medals and one of them was a world record by Rudisha. Kemboi flew back home sabu ya ma controversy.

But look at Jamaica Usain bolt the guy is literally worshiped and not to mention the endorsements that atapata ju ya being the fastest man in the world.

Look at Kiprotich of our neighbouring Uganda who won the only gold for that country in the Marathon…kwanza that name is ironical.Which Ugandan is named Kiprotich?

He was recieved at the airport as a national Hero:
1. Akapelekwa straight state house kupiga breakfast na Museveni by the way alipikiwa na posh airport full security the works
2. Aka Promotiwa from a prison warden to a Assistant Superintendent of Prisons.
3. Sijamaliza bado akadungwa 80,000$ that’s 7.6Mic and he was virtually unknown to ugandans…

Why don’t we appreciate and honor our very own like other countries.If it was up to you….what are the ways u would celebrate atleast the Kenyan athletes that struck gold?“

1. Mariga, Sonko and Oliech can finally stop riding dirty. Find out why.

2. Check out this five best covers ever done by Kenyan artistes.

3. Prezzo and Barbs on the same track? This is really interesting.

4. We are getting news that the Tarrus/Etana concert was nearly cancelled. Is this really true?

5. These are the four secrets to getting big money as a Kenyan celebrity.

6. Rabbit talked to us about his ex-girlfriend who was a wanted Tanzanian robber. Take a look at the interview.

7. Abbas is finally back in the 254 and here is your chance to welcome him.

8. All the naughty things you did in school, they may just turn against you when you die. Here’s why.

9. Take a look at this awesome rap battle between these two finalists in the Nokia: Don’t Break The Beat contest.

10. Did you know that Rabbit’s ‘nakuchukia’ is actually a true story? Get the 411 on this song’s inspiration.

Have you ever wondered what the secrets to success as a Kenyan artiste are?

Well, they are just four that you need to know but you would do well to learn them by heart. These are the secrets that most of Kenya’s established artists have used to scale to the heights they have gotten to and acquire the wealth that they have stacked sky high.
And just what are these 4 secrets? Well, uncle Chim Tuna is here to share them with you. and just what are the 4 secrets ye ask? Well they are:

Seek endorsement deals
If your image is clean enough to be associated with a product, have your people actively seek an endorsement deal.
But this one is the trickiest because you must have a squeaky clean image. Unblemished in any manner otherwise you may aswell forget it: Kenyans are uber conservative!
The two who best exemplify this are Daddy Owen (Airtel) and Jua Cali (Orange).

International tours
These are a bit of a 50-50 thing given that in the past it has been reported that some artists claim shows abroad but it later emerges that they are merely doing birthday party gigs. Yet if done right, the pay-day is huge!
They two who exemplify this are Jaguar and Nameless.

Become an ambassador
If you brand yourself successfully, you should be able to pursue this avenue as your image and story sell themselves to potential “investors’.
Juliani and Ringtone did this ever so well with Juliani managing to do it so sublimely.

License your works
This one i believe should be the easiest to do. If you can get the music aspect of your career right, you should be able to have your works sell themselves to clients and partners seeking popular tracks.
The two who did this well were Camp Mulla with the instrumentals of “Party Don’ Stop” and Ida Onyango who sold her works to movie producers and licensers.

get these 4 ingredients down to a science and i guarantee that you will soon be laughing all the way to the bank. But when you get there, don’t forget your good old uncle Chim Tuna!

A cover song is the performance of a previously recorded song. Some covers go on to be more famous than the original and artistes have even built careers from covers they did.

Camp Mulla’s Miss Karun went online to ask her followers what songs they would like to see her cover. The first video for a song she covered was released this week. It made me think about other covers by Kenyan artistes I’ve seen online and liked. So, below are the top five covers I’ve listened to so far.

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5. Mbulaa – Tractor Pull (Preston Reed)
He is the only guy who appears solo on the list. He is one of the best acoustic guitarists I have seen. Check out a talent truly waiting to be discovered.

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4. Lyraoko – Make You Feel My Love (Adele)
Lyraoko (the artiste previously known as Lyra Aoko) has a poppy sound in her tracks but she also got a voice on her. The voice that earned her the inaugural Ziki Stars Talent Search win. There are a couple of covers she has done that are available online. This one is my favorite.

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3. Sara Mitaru (with background vocals by Blinky Bill, Diana Nduba, Jim Chuchu and Njoki Ngumi) – Oh Happy Day (Edwin Hawkins)
Sara Mitaru is one of my favorite vocalists. She has done some brilliant tracks with Just-A-Band and Make Way was epic. Check out a brilliant cover she did of the classic song.

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2. Stephanie Wakaba – Crazy For You (Adele)
If you make me like a song I had not paid much attention to before, then you are really good. I was an Adele fan but before I listened to the Sauti Academy student’s cover, it was just another song to me. Can’t wait to see Stephanie Wakaba’s work after graduation.

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1. Miss Karun and Harry Kimani – O’ Holy Night (Adolphe Adam)
It’s hard to realize just how much range the Camp Mulla singer has when you listen to her with her tracks with the group. Weirdly, her two covers both feature guitarists. Earlier this week, she released a track with Kato Change. Late last year, she did one as part of the Just-A-Band compilation for Boxing Day Special. See how mesmerizing she is doing a carol.

Just in March international football star MacDonald Mariga’s Toyota LandCruiser was impounded for having the number plate MARIGA17. Dennis Oliech’s Chrysler famously bears “OLIECH” as its plates, and Mike Sonko’s cars have all beared his name “SONKO” with various suffixes to distinguish them.
After these pioneers got people noticing, everyone wanted a piece of that personalised-plate swag.

Now all attention seeking owners of flashy cars can now display their names on their trophys LEGALLY. Earlier this week Minister for Transport Amos Kimunya announced:

“A person may apply to the Registrar of Motor Vehicles to be issued with personalised number plates upon payment of the fees prescribed in the First schedule,”

The new rules state that

1.Anyone who desires personalised plates for their cars will pay 100,000 to originally get the plates, and 50,000 to replace lost plates.

2.The above rule is applicable for private vehicles, PSVs, cargo vehicles, ambulances, funeral hearses, diplomatic vehicles, tractors and heavy machinery.

3.The personalised plates should consist of a maximum of SEVEN letters, embossed in blue, with a reflective white background for both front and back plates.

4.Forbidden characters: The letters “O” and “I” cannot be used, instead should be replaced with the numbers “1” and “0”. Also anything deemed offensive/abusive in any language, symbols and signs are forbidden.

So look forward to seeing more personalised plates on the streets around your town. Starting with all flashy and gawdy celebrities that come to mind, wanna-be celebrities too, tacky rich kids, egotistical MPs/businessmen and women, nouveau-riche athletes, loud club owners/promoters and the like. People who feel they need to announce their entry and exit into places with their fancy car, despite often having dark tinted windows and speeding at ridiculous speeds. The irony of it all.

A few I suspect I’ll be seeing soon: ANY car from Jaguar, Jua Cali’s brand new Chrysler Crossfire, Ringtone’s Range Rover, whatever Ian Mugoya drives. Am i right?

Let the displays of vanity begin!!! Will you be getting one?

Gospel singer Mbuvi is releasing his album, Created To Praise on the 2nd of September at NPC Valley Road from 3:00 p.m. Mbuvi has featured a wide array of gospel artistes in the album including Emmy Kosgei, Alice Kamande, Kambua, BMF, Kevo Yout and MC Dice among others.

He started singing in the late ’90s as a praise and worship leader in church. He went on to rework the famous Luo gospel song, Taya. He made his first mark in the industry in 2001 when he did Ukilya Moko jointly with Shammah. More than a decade later, he is still going strong in the gospel music industry.

Mbuvi recently released a single, Wewe Mkuu together with a video late last month. The singer is mostly known for his upbeat track, Kwata Kawaya, which gets heavy rotation in clubs despite being a gospel song. Below you can check out a message about his album launch at the end of the video
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This is a guest post by Nali Majani:

Are you a Kenyan with lots to express (opinions, ideas, planning, images) about Vision 2030 but have never had THE platform to do so?
If so, this post is for you: The GoDown Arts Centre, famous for showcasing artistes to and launching them to the local and the international scene, is accepting for concept submissions for a show to run from May to July 2013. The theme is ‘Conceiving a World Class African Metropolis”.

What is a concept submission you may ask? A concept submission is a proposal of how you wish to express “A World Class African Metropolis”. A brief (no more than 3 A4 pages in font size 12) well presented, interesting, captivating portfolio that represents your talent, and expresses “Conceiving a World Class African Metropolis”.

Submissions should be able to appeal to a wide range: a city resident, a policy maker, a scholar etc. Submissions can be in various forms: photographs, narratives, digital presentations, exhibitions, installations.

CATEGORY I – Artists and Creatives:
Performing and Visual Artistes
Architects
Design & Architecture Students
Urban Design & Planning

CATEGORY II – City Interest Groups
Resident Associaations
Businesses
Bloggers
Nairobi Magazines & Publications
City Planners & Policy-Makers
Urban Sociologists and Historians

Themes
1.The Physical City
2.Identity, belonging and social constructions in city
3.Trade and commerce
4.African city naissance

Deadline for submissions is August 31 2012 at 4pm. Submissions should be sent directly to the GoDown Arts Centre.

Info:
Location: Industrial Area, Nairobi
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 9.00 am to 5.00 pm
Tel: 254(0)20 555770/555227
Website: www.thegodownartscentre.com

So get your creative juices flowing, and good luck to you all!

Its official: The winner of the Nokia Asha Don’t Break The Beat competition is going to be one lucky rapper.

It was announced yesterday through one of the judges Eric Musyoka that the winner’s package will include the following:

1. A one year record contract with Decimal Records/Universal Records (this gives a guarantee to record four songs and three videos.)
2. A cameo in one video and a feature on one song from international Kenyan starr STL
3. Management, promotion, marketing, publicity, licensing handling by Decimal Media
4. 250,000 Ksh prize money

The DBTB competition began in July, searching for East Africa’s finest rapper. The search has taken the talent scouts – Nazizi, Joey Muthengi, Frasha (Francis Amisi), DJ Joe Mfalme, Point Blank, Eric Musyoka all over East Africa: Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret, Kampala, Dar-Es-Salaam.

Here’s hoping they find a good rapper who will take this opportunity to really blow up in the industry and not just another one hit wonder(which happens too often in these competitions.)

I think it is safe to say that this were among the first guys, if not the first, to create a video with this much action and special effects. Everyone enjoyed it. The guns, constumes and what not, it was an epic video this one. Habib and Manga proved to be trend setters in this category but sadly could not maintain it.

This song, ‘fever’ was an immediate hit and it received airplay from every media house and back then, there were a lot of media houses in terms of music TV shows.
Habib and Manga even went to the extent of pulling a matrix on us. Yeah, that whole slow motion evasive maneuvers and the works. It was pretty awesome.  I was just thinking about the strides that the Kenyan music industry has taken and this song just sprout to mind. I think it is time we went back to the ‘roots’. Check out this video and see just how far we have come.

When it comes to good and sensible lyrics, Rabbit is among the top of the list and he is not reluctant at all in showing it.

As we housed this fast growing rapper and entrepreneur in our recent interview, we got to find out a lot about him including the fact that all his ex girlfriends have left him with incidents sad enough to be put in songs.

Climax of the interview was his freestyle and shout out which was pretty awesome.

Check it out below.

Well, even after the BBA game is finally over and every contestant has gone back home, it still seems as though not everyone has forgotten about what went down in the BBA house.

Guys are still having fun with the little fights that occurred in the house and are actually creating very interesting art from it. SNL are such fellow. They are the guys behind that awesome music from Pastor Njoroge and Esther Mwende. Yes, that crazy track.

If you thought that that was extremely crazy and funny, yet entertaining, then you ain’t heard nothing yet, till you hear this new track that they have come up with. This time, it’s all about Prezzo and Barbs as they go head to on this song. I must admit, this is really hilarious.

Have a listen.

Sometimes i have the priviledge of recieving an underground artiste’s track and i can honestly say that i see a star in the making.

Well this is one such artist. Mc Mwakenya has released a video entitled “Celebrity Killer” which for an unsigned hype artist is a rather smashing attempt.
The instrumentals were on point and the sound quality is also pretty good; there’s no high pitches and his voice isn’t drowned by the beats.
All in all, this is a track worth the listen. And you would do well to mark the name of the man given that we may just be witnessing the birth of a star.

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This was one of the hardest hitting singles to ever drop back around the years 2004 and 2005. Most of the youth back then went nuts for this track and there is no club that could not play it.

It was actually the then club banger along with other tracks whose artistes have also now pulled a disappearing act. The artiste behind this fabulous song was known as King Georgez and he was pretty popular back then. He still would be, if he had maintained his music production. Unfortunately, he may or may have not been a one hit wonder.

What usually happens that makes these artistes disappear, never to be heard of again? I really would like to know.

No. This isn’t anything to make you fear. Not at all. On the contrary, this should make you hyper and get you ready for the weekend which is, by the way, only a day further.

It’s finally time to party once again and this song makes that clear. You really don’t have to be told twice. KNW People have made it official. You’d think that it would be really hard to create house music in Swahili, but that has been proved wrong by some of the Kenyan artistes. KNW People are such artistes.

Their latest song titled ‘Party Animal’ has been released and it is nothing less of a ‘feel good’ song. That party feeling definitely takes over as soon as the first snare kicks in and there is no doubt that you won’t remember the rest of the night, come morning.

These guys, KNW People, have it going on right here. Check it out below.

Rabbit aka Kaka Sungura seems to always go wrong with his relationships as far as he is concerned. Almost every relationship he has ever had, according to him, have turned out for the worse. Some of these experiences have even inspired some of his music, including ‘Nakuchukia’ and ‘Dodoma’.

‘Dodoma’ is all about a girl whom Rabbit used to date and a couple of months down the line, the girl had to go back home, Tanzania. After some time, Rabbit finds out that the girl is a thief. A top class armed robber who’s crew is wanted in Tanzania. The girl then decides to go back to TZ for a final job before she quites everything to stay with Rabbit. It is during this last robbery that the gang is ambushed and killed.

In our recent interview with Kaka Sungura, he revealed to us that all this was actually true. Everything in the song happened just as it was. Is it just e or does this guy have really bad luck in romance. That was a close shave though.

Check out the interview below.