Month: January 2013

Rachel Marete, former Miss Universe Kenya and LA-based TV show presenter, has finally released the video for her first single, Kelele. The song was produced in Los Angeles and the video’s budget was a whopping Kshs. 1 million.

Kelele was directed by talented videographer, Andrew Macharia, who has shot ground-breaking Kenyan videos like Camp Mulla’s Fresh All Day, Kanja and Naomi’s Paradise, Sauti Sol’s Money Lover, K-Letta and Amina’s Paint the Town Red and Bamboo and Sugar’s 25Flow. He has also worked with such big names as Young Jeezy, Frankie J and Akon among others.

The video for Kelele was also produced by Phi-Ny and the production company is RazorWire. The 26-year old beauty queen is no stranger to glamour. Her job as a red carpet host in Hollywood and Sky’s 664 channel has her interviewing some of the biggest stars in the world frequently. Check out the video for Kelele below.
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PS: Rachel Marete is also big on social networks! To connect with her on facebook click here and on Twitter here

Music has been known to inspire the most downtrodden of us and has inspired those of us in our lowest moments. Music is said to quieten the angry beating heart of the beast. I could go on and on about music but i’m no music teacher.

So let’s get down to it. During an on KTN, Kenya’s newest KCPE conqueror was asked who inspires him and he gave his answer without the slightest pause. He didn’t hesitate even for a second when he said that Kris Eeh Baba was who inspired him the most: or rather Kris Eeh Baba’s music did it for him.

And Kris Eeh Baba was elated! The gospel maestro took to Facebook to express how elated he was about what the young KCPE champion had said. Here’s what he said:

“This day I wake up knowing that the no.1 KCPE student says am his favourite artist during his interview yesterday on KTN. Your labour is not in vain fellow saint. Keep on keeping on.
(Oh,in case you see me anywhere today,just know the shirt am rocking is an #ErrohWear.)”

Shortly after it was reported that Kelele Takatifu, one of the biggest Kenyan gospel groups, was left stranded in Nakuru after the promoter ran away with their money, Kelele Takatifu came out to set the record straight.

Let me just start from the top. So, last Friday, Kelele Takatifu along with Kimdanny were set to perform at the Laikipia College in Nakuru. Being the young go gettas they are, they did not disappoint. They delivered a shaking performance for the fans. Shortly after they were done, it is alleged that the promoter, Mr. Flavour, flee with all the money without paying them a cent, leaving them stranded in Nakuru for the rest of the night.

Our sources even added that it was so bad, that the group had to seek help from friends and family back in Nairobi, to ferry them home.

After speaking to one of Kelele Takatifu’s rappers however, all was denied. Apparently, the only problem that they came across after the show was the brief delay in payment. That they were eventually paid and left Nakuru Saturday morning.

This past year has not been an easy one for beautiful and sexy rapper, Stella Mwangi popularly known as STL.

She and her family have been through a lot ever since her father passed away in January 2012 in Norway after a hit and rub by a reckless driver. That however, did not bring strong Stella Mwangi down. She rose against adversity and even managed to do a couple of hit tracks towards the end of the year.

Stella Mwangi surprised many with her new look. She shaved off her hair, well not completely, but most of it. Still managed to look hot as hell. She now comes out, revealing the reason behind it all during an interview with Norwegian’s TV 2.

“My father always told me I am very beautiful and that I do not need to hide behind all the hair. This also symbolises my growth musically,” Stella told TV 2.

A great tribute to her father this is.

KenRazy has written a letter to his fans explaining the “rumors” that he is quitting music. Check out the letter below:

“The reason for writing this letter is to clear off the circulating word that I’m retiring. I’ll take this chance to explain what exactly happened because it’s so sad that a boy in Nakuru almost killed himself by the thought that he will never hear anything else from me and it has demoralized many artists who were trying to come up.

For the two weeks before the official release of my new Hit Song “SH2QA”, I was on locked doors in studio constantly working on “THE BEST LYRICIST II”, my 3rd mixtape which is dropping 13th April 2013. At this time, the full concentration on this 21 track mixtape couldn’t allow for Facebook nor Twitter and I needed to let ya’ll know the countdown to the new SH2QA before it drops.

So I requested my boy Peter [twitter handle @peterkanjz] whom I gave both my passwords to let you know that SH2QA was dropping 13th Jan 2013. His duty was to daily remind everyone about SH2QA for the 14 days that I was not in a position to access the internet due to the marathon recording sessions I had.

One of those days he updated that SH2QA was going to be my last track on both my social sites, him thinking it was just hype for the music something I could have known then I would have acted fast but amazingly the news spread beyond saving the situation. I came to know about it after two days when my stablemate Caltoz Jinamizi called me to tell me that @ghaflakenya had written an article about me quitting music.

On the same day www.djprincekenya.com also qouted the status Peter had put on my social sites introducing the song as my last song. Though my boy Peter appologised and I quote “manze mi nilikuwa nachocha tu hype” , to me it was a dangerous move and tried to fix it by attending radio interviews just to clarify that I’m still here and to stay.

But still to my suprize it’s still rapidly raising pressure among many of my fans that’s why I have decided to let everyone know what exactly happened. I never imagined I could have such a great impact on people’s lives, because of this I vow to be a bit more careful on who I let pass my message to y’all. I can never retire any time soon 1st because I will for a long time work for you Qrazyfanz.

It is evident I’m the only one who gives you tracks to dance to as well as educative messages in them with as usual tight and Qrazy lyrics coz I’d never wana let you down. Then secondly my associates Rapdamu, Sosuun, Caltoz Jinamizi, Timmy, Gyn Ideal, also my team still have a lot of stuff and suprises for you this 2013.

Finally thank ya’ll for the support, love and most of all your constant concern about me. It feels more than great to hear someone ask “Razy alienda?” ama “Razy ametoa ngoma gani sai” . Let me just say I have the best and Qraziest fanz in the world.

Watch out for SH2QA video and a suprize video dropping this February. To those who hate: “hate is only a form of love that hasn’t found a way to express itself logically. And as I said “niling’ang’ana kufika na mi C-TOQI”.“

Last year, i was on record as saying that if Jay A kept his hunger burning, he would be the biggest name out this year and he seems to have taken me up on my word!

The young rapper has been releasing tracks with such gusto that you cannot help but be amazed at the lad’s work rate! While most of the older chaps are content riding fame from yesteryear and alot of upcoming artists are resting on the laurels of their releases from last year, this chap is hard at work!

The video opens with him rapping infront of an Audi talking about how he’s so sick he should be in a minivan; the type with red and blue lights. Clad in a dashiki on his head underneath a fitted, he goes hard and when the scene switches, there is a gunshot hole that appears on it… Nice touch from the lads at Boomba Videos!

The video is directed by Boomba and i like how the video gradually transitions from being black and white to being in glorious technicolour. Jay A delivers punchline after punchline and at some points lets braggadocio to lead into comparing his technique to Lil Wayne’s. And i love the line he spits where he say he isn’t feeling any rapper cause he’s got a bad case of numbness. All in all, this just could be 2013’s man to watch!

Have a look for yourself here:

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Kenya has for the longest time had issues with its event organisers. It’s like some of these guys are just out to screw up every single huge concert we are to have, tarnishing Kenya’s celebrity reception image in turn.

Big Tunes Live have done their level best over the past few years in their quest to bring huge international reggae artistes to Kenya, organising some of the best and most exciting as well as safe concerts. Every single concert they have organised so far have been a success. Take for instance the Tarrus Riley and Etana concert. That was the best reggae concert we have ever attended here in Kenya and my colleagues can attest to that. The recent Jah Cure concert was also under their wing and it was so good that this great Jamaican artiste saw it fit to give Kenya another huge concert, this time bringing along fellow singer, Duane Stephenson to the much anticipated World Cry Peace Concert.

All was set and good, posters out, hype created and tickets sold. Infact, the tickets are still being sold. Big Tunes Live had once again played out their part well and done.

That was just until recently when they discovered that the Nyayo Stadium, the venue that the World Cry concert was to take place, had been double booked. Can you believe this s***?

You’d think that Nyayo Stadium would hire a competent and reliable crew to work as its event organisers. How in the world would you confuse dates of two huge events and set them for the same day? That’s just ridiculous.

So, currently the Nyayo Stadium is unavailable for the concert, thus postponement was inevitable. Even after getting top notch event organisers like Big Tunes Live to organise concerts for us, our greedy, incompetent fellows still manage to screw things up. I mean this guys only had one job. To set an exclusive date for the World Cry Peace Concert.

Did the Nyayo Stadium event organisers possibly think that they could hack two huge events on the same day and just walk away with the money? Like a boss? Epic Fail!

Bamboo and Abbas came out strongly to support TNA and many were left bamboozled by the news. Actually, i was also befuddled. Ringtone was meant to vie for the Dagoretti North parliamentary seat but he chose to step down at the eleventh hour.

Now it seems that their decisions are becoming clearer by the day! Did you catch the piece in Monday Blues by Stevens Muendo about TNA now declaring that it had a budget of 250 million Kenyan shillings to spend on the celebrities who will be performing at it’s rallies? The list actually includes Jaguar by the way.

It is alleged by Stevens that there are two top performers billed to be entertaining the masses at the rallies who will earn 300,000 each for each peformance! The rest will earn performance fees ranging anywhere north of 80,000/- depending on their clout.

5 million was already dished out to an unnamed recording label (When will these chaps learn to name names and cut out the cowardly rubbish about “unnamed”) that has been tasked with coming up with a campaign anthem.

20 million has been set aside for outdoor and TV ad campaigns. The amount of money to be spent is simply mind boggling! But as Chege Miati would say, tafakari hayo!

I was rummaging through a past edition of Pulse and came across a gem that was hidden in alot of unnecessary mambo jumbo about top Kenyan producer Kevin Provoke.

He was being asked about his life and whatnot but the most important fact seemed to slip through the fingers of the interviewer. When asked about his upcoming projects, Provoke announced that he is putting down the finishing touches that will see him launch his own line of headphones.

I was impressed! He is following in the footsteps of one of the world’s most prolific and wealthy producers cum rapper; Dr Dre who has made millions off of the sales of his line of headphones known as Beats by Dre which is a product of Monster headphones. But locally, Provoke will be beating the same path beaten by Avril who has announced the launch of her headset called Gs and Fs after the musical G-clef and F-clef.

Provoke’s own line of headphones will be a line from Skull Candy and i for one like that name. An amalgam of the rugged and timid. Watch this space Kenya!

If you are a die hard Grandpa records fan, please don’t get me wrong when I say, I think DNA has brought the most traction and love to the recording house.

Ever since this guy bounced back to the secular music scene and joined Grandpa Family, he has produced hit and after hit, bringing in more love and attention to the recording studio and the entire Grandpa Family.

First came ‘Maswali ya Polisi’, a song that gave birth to Nairobi’s latest catch phrase. Then came ‘Fimbo’, a collaboration of top Grandpa Family artistes. Both tracks took East Africa by storm and topped charts almost immediately after they were released.

Now, here comes a remix to one of the most popular Grandpa Records recorded track, ‘twajichanganya’.

The track originally done by Kidis, has now been remixed by himself, DNA, Ameleena, and Wyre. After listening to the track, I can almost confirm that this will indeed be the next hit to come from the Grandpa Family.

These guys do it big. These guys go hard.

Check out the video below.

Pendo, one of Ghafla’s artists to watch in 2013, is now engaged to get married.

For those of you who don’t recognize, this is the same lass who was accused of having sex with Willy Paul in the KICC basement at the Kisima Awards. A claim which she vehemently denied.

The upcoming artist is now the wife-to-be of a British man named Mr. E. “Elly” Carlos. Pendo was apparently blushing with all the power of her cheeks as she broke the news to her friends. For the ring, she was bought for an original diamond encrusted ring. As an engagement present, the mysterious Mr. Carlos bought her a Chrysler Crossfire, pictured below:

Congrats from Ghafla! to the newlyweds, or is it newlyengageds?

We alerted you earlier about the multiple mixtapes that K-South rapper, Bamboo will be unleashing to his fans every other week, right?

The project is dubbed ‘Bamboo’s Mixtape Fridays’ and as the title gives away, basically he will be releasing a video mixtape every Friday.

Well, I’m not sure what happened for the past three weeks since we haven’t seen any mixtape out, but all that matters is that Bamboo is now back on the track with his Mixtape Fridays project.

Having already been through four volumes of the Mixtape Fridays, Bamboo is now on the 5th volume and his recording studio, Phoenix Records has just released it.

The 5th Volume to the Mixtape Fridays is titled ‘Come Again’ and is all about the hustle and everyday life.

Check it out and get ready for another one this Friday, with a surprise guest rapper.

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We used to know her as the vibrant and ever excited radio presenter at the Homeboyz Radio station and now, she is getting credit for way more than that and she deserves it all.

Usually, when we hear a radio presenter or a news anchor is about to venture into music, we expect the least since most decide to pursue their long time dreams of becoming actors and singers because they have spent an immense amount of time behind the mic and camera. It takes a lot more than that and Amina, has proved to have it all.

She first blew up as a musician when she featured in teen sensation Jay A’s first hit track, ‘On Me’. The track was on point and so was the video. Amina had just made her first step into the music industry, with intentions to take it over.

Turns out she knew exactly what she was doing as months later she collaborated with yet another huge Kenyan rapper, Octopizzo to give rise to the next hit song just as the year 2012 was coming to an end. ‘Swag’ became the teens anthem and now, hardly a month after releasing her hit song with Octopizzo, Amina has already featured in another one and the sound is just as promising as the last two.

K-Letta has painted the town red with Amina. That’s actually the title of the song, ‘paint the town red’ and the rapper has featured Amina. The vocals on this dendai, My God! Unbelievable. Makes me wonder why she never ventured into music in the first place. It’s like she just put it aside as a hobby. Well, not any more. It is clear that she is destined to create more club bangers, such as this one and seeing that she has that magic touch that makes every song she features a hit, I think we will be seeing her in many more collaborations to come. All that will be heading up your playlist. No doubt.

Here is K-Letta’s ‘paint the town red’ featuring Amina. You’ll love it. I know I did.

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East African Breweries Ltd, through its Pilsner brand last weekend hosted an inter-media 8 Ball Pool tournament pitting journalists from local leading media houses at the Klub House Entertainment Complex.

Dubbed the Pilsner Media Pool Challenge, it was aimed at growing the popularity of the game among journalists following the recent launch of the Pilsner League of Kings Pool Challenge, a national pool tournament that seeks to crown the Kenya’s top pool player to represent the country in the World Pool Championship set for London in June this year.

An invincible David Karanja led Kenya Broadcasting Corporation performance that saw them win the overall prize and Kshs. 50,000 beating Griffins Omwenga’s Nation Media Group 3-0 in the best of five series of games. Mutwiri Mutuota’s Capital FM settled for third after losing out to eventual winners despite a strong showing.

Ghafla! Kenya, Standard Group, Radio Africa Group, Kass Group, Mediamax, Royal Media Services, Homeboyz Radio, Ghetto Radio, CIO and Michezo Afrika were the other participating media houses squaring it out.

Calling it a successful trial prior to the national pool challenge, Pilsner’s Brand Manager Francis Mworia, said the passion and level of skill showed by media was a reflection that the soon to be activated national league was timely. He said, “Research has showed that the youth have talents that need to be nurtured and we are looking to reach at least 10,000 youth with this national consumer promotion.”

The tournament is on a two week registration period. It will be played in five regions Central (covering Kiambu, Nairobi and lower Eastern part of the country), Western (covering Nyanza, Western and Rift Valley provinces), Mountain (covering Central and upper Eastern provinces) and the Coast.

The Armed Forces zone is categorized as a special region that will have major armed forces barracks pitted against each other.

Don’t celebrity couples just give you the desire to fall in love and start your own fairy tale. Baba Ghafla, Mr. Majani would religiously deny this. A ‘forever alone’ story his is.

Anyway, the Longombas are blossoming with so much love that they cannot keep it private anymore. It’s even penetrating through their facebook walls. There’s no holding back the love they feel for each other.

They say a man who occasionally cooks a superb meal for his lady, brings out the most of her unconditional love. Well, Lovi Longomba has mastered this act and it seems he is really good at it. There is no losing when you are always a step ahead.

Ida Longomba this morning let her fans know, through facebook, that her husband Lovi Longomba will be cooking dinner for his family tonight.

She could not hide the excitement as she wrote, “hubby is cooking us dinner. I love this man Lovy Longomba.”

What a way to start a day!

Five weeks to the election, we dig up an old jam from Kayvo K-Force, Hello Mr. President. In the track, he features Ottomatic and Eysha.

According to the rapper, it is “a concious jam addressing political issues in the country and their impact on the citizens, especially the youth, who tend to be often marginalised.”

Hello Mr. President was produced by Pure Black Pro Music Group and Square Masters. The video was shot by Anonymous and 8th Avenue. Check it out below.
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Once again, Kenya has been snubbed by an international artist who was reportedly meant to set foot on and perform in Kenyan soil.

The thing about Kenya is that it just seems jinxed when it comes to attract international stars to perform in Kenya. But now down to the facts: Kanye west is on an African tour (you know Americans aye? Getting intouch with the motherland and whatnot) and he was reportedly going to have a series of performances in East Africa but Kenya was given prominence in all this. Local event organisers had been gloating about having gotten intouch with Kanye’s management but that doesn’t seem to have borne fruit.

Kanye West is now headed for South Africa where he will perform in Johannesburg a.k.a Jo’Burglary where a ticket will go at 6,000 Ksh for regular ticket holders and 12,000/- V.I.P and the concert will be sponsored by Castle Lite.

Sometimes it sucks to be in Kenya… Even Uganda and Tanzania best us when it comes to hosting these international artists… Nah, scratch that, i’m still a proud Kenyan in Nairobery!

Source for this piece was Stevens Muendo’s Monday Blues.

It tells a lot for a celebrity, even after making loads of money and gaining fame, to still humble and give thanks to his fans and everybody that supported them while they struggled to reach where they are now.

DJ Kamjo surely hasn’t forgotten where he came from and what it took for him to be who he is now, one of the biggest and most successful deejays in Kenya. He now thanks his friends, fellow deejays, artistes and fans for all the love and support. Here is his ‘thank you’ letter.

Dear Fam,

As we begin a new year, I would like to look back and thank everyone who was part of the successes of Dj Kamjo & Discmen Ent in 2012.

Firstly, my biggest thank you is to God – for the heart beat in me, the skills and the opportunities presented to me.

YOU, the guy behind you, and the one behind him for being on the fan page, following me on Twitter, for every gig you came for and for believing in the dream.

In no particular order:
All the corporates who had faith in us to deliver an awesome service (Dj/Sound & P.A/lighting/Karaoke) and the peeps who gave a recommendation– Intel Gala Cocktail at Serena Hotel (Meg & Gakuru); Tujipambe fashion launch at Serena (Meg); L’Oreal Dubai office retreat at Maasai Mara (Katsima); GlaxoSmithKline Myogin launch at Pan Afric Hotel (Xhosi); Martini Cocktail Party at The Tribe (Alakie), Invesco end of year party at Oak Place (Vicky); CFC Life Family Fun day & T.G.I.F party (Kijo & Terry); Citi Bank team building party at Great Rift Valley (Ratemo); CFC Stanbic regional dinner at Amaica; PACT world T.G.I.F (Gillie &  Kambale); Technology Associates end of year party at Eden Square (Ole Bob); Le’Mac building launch at Sarit Center (Alakie & Evelyn), Total end of year party (Steve – PACK & Malik), Rotaract Club Nairobi get together.

Institutions that contracted us: USIU – Cultural week, Campus Awards, Alumni get together at The Tribe, Graduates dinner at Safari Park (thank you Trevor); Brook House Prom Night at The Crowne Plaza (bless Dj Stretch, few people refer a gig to a ‘competitor’) and Miss University 2011 at Carnivore (Leakey Odera).

Event & PR companies that allowed Discmen Ent to provide services at their events; African  Laughter, Y&R, HDI Marketeers, Quintenssial (Irene), Pambazuka, Karen Blixen Camp, Brand Spark Kenya and Bugika Entertainment (the last pool party rocked, people be asking for another one).

2012 also saw me premier a monthly event – THE CLASH – a battle between music genres & deejays. I want to send a big shout to everyone who came thru; every DJ who was part of the concept – Inferno Vjs, G Money, Protégé, Crème, Wesley, Gordo the Rock Guru, Dj Tumz, The Sherrifs; Wilso the unofficial hype man; Pilsner Ice for sponsoring one CLASH (Mworia the brand manger, all the best in your 2013 endeavours. Linda O & Agnes K you made this possible); the management of Secrets Lounge which was our venue and the great team behind the scenes – Lau, Pookie & Jason you kept the fire burning. We are adding flavour in 2013.

Wilso for the Pro Night concept, it can only be bigger this year – every professional who came and Vineyard restaurant for hosting us.

To every bride and groom that included us in celebrating their most important day of their lives – all the best in your marriage. We did over 15 weddings across Kenya and for the peeps that gave recommendations, bless you – Dezi, Sarah, Gillie, Robina, Kaskero, Chris, Tina, Fish +++

Every private party we did, big shout out to the hook up – Ezzy, Wambugu, Georgina, Stretch again, John, +++

My design guy Aggrey for the magic design touch on my posters; Jackson for an awesome job on printing my posters, Robista the polo t-shirts rock and Davie for my company logo as we re-positioned into 2012.

A big shout to the artists who put us in their mailing list for exclusive jams – Juliani, Bamzigi, Keko, Kenzo, Adawnage, Della, Mimmo, Muthoni DQ, Mr T, Avril, DnG, Kijani, Anto Neo Soul ++++. Dj Krowbar and Dj Tony (Capital FM) you keep me updated on the gospel music tip.

The Fourth Estate for the articles and event mentions – Pulse, Zuqka, Buzz, Evegal (RIP), PhatBuzz, Ghafla & niaje.com.

A special shout to ‘Kabuni’ we run this; my family – my three amazing sisters Jackie, Caro & Joan; and the great woman behind this DJ, Tilda – I could not make it without you.

Finally, the amazing team I work with at Discmen Ent – Djs Malik, Harriliance & Deno, Paul on the lights, Liz & Nelson on karaoke and Carol  a.k.a ‘Pookie’ you run this ship quite well – event manager, accountant, P.A, marketing – what should your business card read? Lol!

Let’s do this again in 2013, bigger and heavier. If I forgot a mention, sincere apologies and know I appreciate your input.  Have a blessed and rewarding 2013

“Something that has always puzzled me all my life is why, when I am in special need of help, the good deed is usually done by somebody of whom I have no claim.” – William Feather