Month: January 2013

Genge rapper and breakfast show presenter will be performing at Hot Spot Lounge in Newark, New Jersey this Saturday, 26th January.

He will also perform at the Simba Grill Lounge in Claymont, Delaware on 2nd February. The shows are organized by DJ E’nice and promoted by E Love Entertainment, Umoja Entertainment and Kevo Promotions.

Nonini had performed in Dubai last December and is currently on a U.S. tour for limited live shows. He performed in Dallas on Friday, 19th January at a Backyard Lounge and Africa Connect event.

Recently, we managed to get two Kenyan rap legends, namely Bamboo and Abbas for a Ghafla interview and let me just say that a lot was revealed.

All that and more will be presented to you shortly in articles, along with the videos too, ofcourse.

Meanwhile, check out the freestyle and Ghafla shout-out they did just after we had concluded the interview.

{youtube}Mcn6xpE-aWY{/youtube}

Tusker Project Fame 4 runner-up and contestant in the All Star season, Peter Msechu from Tanzania, will perform at this year’s Sauti Za Busara Festival. The annual festival takes place between 14th and 17th February at Old Fort in Zanzibar.

After Tusker Project Fame, Msechu went to the U.S. to further pursue his music career where he auditioned for talent reality shows, X-Factor and The Voice. Read aboout his experience here.

Other acts at Sauti Za Busara include Khaira Arby (Mali), Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka (Zimbabwe), Atongo Zimba (Ghana), N’Faly Kouyaté (Guinea), Nathalie Natiembe (Reunion), Nawal & Les Femmes de la Lune (Comoros), Wazimbo (Mozambique), The Moreira Project (Mozambique/South Africa), Owiny Sigoma Band (Kenya/UK), Mokoomba (Zimbabwe), Msafiri Zawose & Sauti Band (Tanzania), Mani Martin (Rwanda), Burkina Electric (Burkina Faso/USA), Lumumba Theatre Group (Tanzania), Sousou & Maher Cissoko (Senegal/Sweden) and Super Maya Baikoko (Tanzania) among others.

Though late by a few months since its release was announced, Kenzo’s highly hyped video is out. And as anticipated, the video did not disappoint because its quality is top notch.

Featuring new comer K-mess of the Tuff Shutters crew, seasoned veteran Kenzo brings you this highly symbolic song that denotes loose chics who can’t stay with one man. Already the song has enjoyed a significant airtime and with the release of the video, Kenzo may just be laughing all the way to the bank.

Watch the video below;

Anything to get the song hyped before it is officially released, right? Atleast that’s what most Kenyan artistes have in mind as they get ready to shoot a song’s video.

Now, Shakila has just completed his latest track, ‘Tuheshimiane’ from Jomino Records and is just about to launch its video.

As a teaser, he has uploaded a video that is basically a compilation of random photos that somehow manage to illustrate the lyrics. Some of the photos are however meant to be in the video that is to be released (they will be appearing as cut-outs from a comic book).

Check out the video below.

Last year’s Groove Party went down as, possibly, the biggest of its editions yet. It was very well attended and the artistes gave the fans exactly what they went for. Epic performances.

Kriss Eeeh Baba’s songs sound really good on radio, but just wait till you see him perform them live on stage.

I will be honest and say that I did not attend the Groove Party 2012 concert. I was busy drinking the night away. Now, here I am watching Kriss Eeeh Baba’s performance at the Concert on YouTube and… well, I don’t exactly regret spending my New Year’s Eve where I did, but I definitely think I would have also had a great time at the concert.

Kriss Eeeh Baba killed it on stage. His performance was just too epic and judging by the fans’ reaction, they felt the same.

Check out his performance below.

The remix for Wretch 32’s PepStar-produced POP is expected to drop this Wednesday, 23rd January and it will feature none other than Kenya’s own Stella Mwangi a.k.a STL.

The decision to include the Sweden-based Kenyan rapper was reached by BBC 1Xtra’s DJ Edu himself and producer, Sir Prestige. When it was presented to STL, she loved it enough to agree to appear on the remix.

POP Remix will premiere on BBC 1Xtra and a number of other UK radio stations. A radio edit will be played in radio stations in the UK and Africa tomorrow but Ghafla! will have the dirty, curse-heavy version on the site.

Wretch 32 was named as the Best International Act at the BET Awards in 2012. He swept the Urban Music Awards in 2012 when he won Artiste of the Year, Best Hip Hop Act and his Unorthodox won Best Single and Best Music Video.

After a successful 2012, Grandpa Records want to make sure 2013 is another great year for them and their fans.

They recently announced the remix for Kidis’ Kamua Leo which will feature Amileena, DNA and Wyre. As they wrap up the video for that track, they also announced what else the record label has lined up for the year. Except to see individual tracks from the Fimbo Ya Pili alumni: Pizo, Warda and TL-Moh.

Fimbo Ya Kwanza’s Libby will also have new material coming out soon. Tusker Project Fame contestant and cast member from the Out of Africa musical, Amileena, is also working on a track after the Kamua Leo Remix.

Kenyan rapper, Attitude is still doing it big musically in the States. Unlike most Kenyan rappers who fly out and forget all about their music career or just fail to keep it afloat, Attitude is still hard on his grind.

Attitude’s album has for a long time been in the works, as he has been juggling his side hustles and music at the same time. Now, it’s finally ready and just about to be officially launched.

‘Margaronaz & Marijuana’ will be launched on the 1st of February this year and more information on how to get it will be available here at around that time.

Meanwhile, Attitude has just released his latest video for his track titled ‘Don’t Give Up’.

Check it out below.

The smell of money

But still, despite the fact that Macharia curried political favour with the new government, he was still running a scrappy radio station that did not attract blue chips national advertising campaigns despite the stations high ratings. Citizen FM needed some thorough polishing.

To do this work, Macharia lured Fred Afune, a 28-year old advertising man from McCann Erickson Kenya. Afune as a copy writer had big ambitions to get into radio, but he did not see any decent openings. After negotiations with Macharia, he was hired as a programs manager in early 2003. Macharia also poached Gikonyo Macharia from Kameme FM to head his marketing team. Two years on the job, Afune and Gikonyo have emerged among the best brains in Kenya’s radio industry having overseen the launch of five new radio stations for Macharia and a revamp for Citizen FM. This is the team that stemmed a confidence crisis that almost rocked the station when five of the
prime time presenters for Citizen FM were poached by Quarcoo’s Kiss FM in one evening. All this has also happened at a period when Citizen has been pursuing an ambitious expansion of its coverage. Today, Macharia runs the biggest broadcast network featuring 48 transmitters. It is the only station one can listen on the highway between Mombasa and Kisumu. You can even accidentally catch it in Jinja, Uganda.

In December 2004, Macharia completed the expansion of Citizen TV and he claims that it now has a bigger coverage than KBC’s. Starting this year, he says that Citizen TV’s programming content will be overhauled to a larger audience. When Afune took over the Citizen job, he came into an industry that was dominated by Kiss FM, Nation FM and KBC. These stations seemed unshakeable. However, coming from the advertising side, Afune says that he had noticed the changing media consumption patterns. “Advertisers were increasingly getting wary of running advertising campaigns that were wasteful because all the radio stations were targeting the consumer with same income profile,” says Afune, “We saw this as an opportunity and targeted Citizen FM to the rural mass market.” This is where the majority of Kenyans lived and it was also a captive audience that we could easily sell to advertisers. Given that Afune had good credentials in the advertising circles and he was working as a team with the youthful Gikonyo, this strategy became a winner with clients.

After a while, Afune -who speaks Kikuyu, Luo and Luhya- saw an opportunity in the ethnic market. This led to the launch of Ramogi FM and Inooro FM. These stations became instant hits. In November, Afune led the launch of Y FM, a youth station that specialize in popular street culture and even broadcasts news in sheng. Later, Afune oversaw the launch of Mulembe FM and the next one will be the Kamba station. According to Gikonyo, the ethnic stations have attracted national advertisers because they allow them flexibility when monitoring their sales strategy. “It is easy to notice that sales are falling in western Kenya and initiate an activation on Mulembe FM, instead of running a wasteful national campaign with messages that other regions do not need to hear,” says Gikonyo.

According to Ng’ang’a, radio has increasingly become an important media in Kenya (its share rose from 32 per cent in 2000 to 46 per cent in 2004) because it is cheap, compared to print and television. However, the stations that will win advertising revenues are not those which “try to be everything to everyone”, but those that delivery specific, measurable audiences.”

Today, SK Macharia’s media empire boasts of 11 radio stations (Radio Citizen, Inooro FM, Ramogi FM, Musyi FM, Mulembe FM, Egesa FM, Muuga FM, Chamgei FM, Wimwaro FM, Bahari FM and Hot-96) and 1 TV station (Citizen TV), which currently has the bragging rights for most viewership.

He is arguably Kenya’s Rupert Murdoch thanks to his over a dozen thriving radio stations. But the journey has not been easy for media mogul Samuel K. Macharia. We uncovered a post on the Jukwaa forum that took a look at the bumpy road that the Royal Media Services owner has endured to get to where he is. Here it is;

All that Samuel K. Macharia ever wanted in life was to make toilet paper, until someone messed up with his ambitions. But today, he stands tall as a media mogul who owns the biggest radio network in Kenya with a combined listenership estimated at 70 per cent of all Kenyans-this was far ahead of the next private-owned radio station in Kenya. By the last count, his radio stations included: Citizen FM, a Swahili station, which commands an audience equivalent to 43 per cent of Kenya, Ramogi FM, Mrembe FM, Inooro FM, Musyi FM which broadcasts in Luo, Luhya, Kikuyu and Kamba respectively.

By the sheer volume of the people who listen to his stations, Macharia is now emerging to be the most powerful media and baron in Kenya. Though not much of his television station, Citizen TV is watched compared to stalwarts
KTN and Nation, the transmission coverage is now larger than that of the public broadcasters, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC). With all these media assets and the audiences they command, advertisers are
beginning to pay attention. Though Macharia’s Royal Media attracted a negligible share of the gross advertising revenue three years ago, according to industry data, in 2004, the group captured a 10 per cent market share of the Sh8.4 billion that companies spent on media in Kenya.

In 2005, media planners interviewed by the Financial Standard indicated that Macharia’s stations will increase their market share. The expert argue that with the media market fragmenting the way it has-already 17 FM stations are
featured in radio dials-in the Nairobi market alone, both national and local advertisers are enjoying a freedom of choice to target their customers in ways that they could not do before. “Though Citizen was not a darling of media planners in the past, it is becoming increasingly difficult for clients to ignore Macharia’s stations,” says Lenny Ng’ang’a, director, Seracen Media, “Though other stations have their unique strengths, it is difficult to do a national media plan without including the various stations owned by Royal Media.” “Kenya is moving from media fragmentation to media segmentation,” says George Lutta, Managing Director, Media Initiative East Africa (MIEA), the media buying arm of the Scanad Group, “This means that advertisers will be more interest in buying a specific audience that fits their product profile. For Citizen FM, it is the low income masses in the rural areas.”
But how did a scrappy media group ran by a maverick political operator and business magnate come to dominate an industry that has not traditionally opened its doors to outsiders?

Looking back in anger

Sometimes in mid-1970, Macharia, who was then a senior finance man who had
helped draw a revival plan for the troubled Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC) went on a visit to Italy. The trip was among other things meant to show them how Kenya could improve its beef stock by cross-breeding a cow and a buffalo. Macharia was so impressed, but what really caught his attention were farmer in this little village who were using appropriate technology to manufacture toilet paper. It is then that he caught an epiphany that the masses in Kenya in 1974 were not using toilet paper. When he came back, he went to the Hilton Hotel a got a roll which he took to the head of the Kenya Industrial Estate (KIE) and asked them to study whether making this product-rather than importing from the United Kingdom as the country did then-could be a viable multimillion shilling business.

Indeed, research by KIE has established that making toilet paper was a viable project, but the organization could neither fund the business plan nor incubate the operations because it was too big. Nonetheless, KIE gave Macharia study paper, which he presented to Stanley Githunguri, the then head of National Bank of Kenya. He was saw impressed and gave Macharia Sh7 million to start the business. He did not even put up a penny in collateral. That was the beginning of Madhupaper International Kenya Limited. The company would become a wildly success business that operated three paper production lines. In 1982, Macharia also got so ambitious that he drew up a plan for a pulp producing factory based in Thika. This product made history in the developing world when the International Finance Corporation (IFC) gave Macharia an individual loan worth Sh1 billion without even seeking a repayment guarantee from the government of Kenya. The IFC had never done this in Africa before. However, this recognition boiled over into a political persecution campaign by the former Kanu regime against Macharia that would not only see the project banned in 1982 by the former President Daniel Arap Moi a day after it was signed, but also start the longest running legal battle in Kenya’s business history that continues up to today.

This also marked the beginning of a colourful love-hate political and business relationship between Macharia and Moi. This would later lead to the revolution that would later sweep through Kenya’s media history in the late 1990s.

Continue reading the second part of this series here

Trapee is now officially back. It’s been quite a while since we last heard music from this loyal Ogopa Deejays artiste but now, he has finally released a new track and it’s like he never left the scene.

Trapee’s tracks have always had this African beat flow that might just as well be his signature sound and this track is no different. His are the kind of songs that you can relax with, but also party to.

He has collaborated with fellow Ogopa Deejays artist, Size 8 to bring us this new track titled ‘City Life’ which is all about the hustle that comes with living in the big city (Nairobi).

He starts off with a funny story about a maiden who has different men to cater for specific needs and wants (which is basically the reality we men have to deal with everyday), as a way of survival in the dog eat dog city.

The track is actually really good and has this catchy tune that I just can’t get off my head.

Check out the video below and tell us what you think about it.

The Media Politics

“At no time had I interest in the media before the1992 General Elections,” says Macharia, “I just happened to be a big political adviser and financier of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Presidential campaign.” That year, he not only failed in bringing candidate Mwai Kibaki and Kenneth Matiba into a coalition to trounce President Moi, but he ended up paying expensively for political ads for Jaramogi on Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) that were neither aired or the cash refunded. But meanwhile, Macharia witnessed the power of radio in action. “We were making a lot of noises in the urban areas, but in the country, people did not even know that the opposition existed,” says Macharia, “In the villages, people just believed what KBC Swahili service said.” Of course it never mention the opposition.

In his youth, he had seen the power of radio in spreading propaganda during the Mau Mau war. The colonial government would try to brainwash the freedom fighters in the Aberdares Forest through radio broadcasts transmitted from an aircraft. Three weeks after the 1992 elections, Macharia-ignorantly-wrote to KBC demanding a radio broadcast license in a week. He got no replay. Shortly later, he wrote a threatening letter to the Office of the President demanding for a broadcast license. This letter was forwarded to the right address: the Ministry of Information. Macharia soon got an audience with Minister Johnstone Makau who declined. The next stop was to the office of A.A.A Ekirapa, who was at the time the CEO of the Nation Media Group. He tried to convince the Nation to join him in suing the government for a broadcast license in exchange of a joint ownership deal. This strategy failed as well.

“By that time I had not even registered a media company,” says Macharia, “I
registered Royal Media and gave instructions to Gibson Kamau Kuria to sue the government.” This court battle lasted four years. During that year, he learnt everything about broadcasting and radio licensing. This involved spending six months in Geneva to learn how radio frequencies are allocated to countries by the International
Telecommunication Union and how they are supposed to be distributed to citizens.

This research guided the Court in awarding a winning verdict for Macharia, but he could not enforce the order to grant him a license. This meant that he had to sue Makau and Attorney General, Amos Wako for contempt of Court. Things were looking so bad for the government and it was not surprising when he was summoned to State House and Moi promised him a broadcast license in exchange for political support and dropping contempt proceedings against Wako and Co., which he did. This saw Macharia dabbling in politics with the Central Province Development Group. He acquired a licence to run Citizen Radio and Television. As a reward, Citizen Radio even managed to negotiate an equipment co-location deal and rented transmission facilities for Sh10 million a year. Though his radio and television station was not set up soon enough to campaign for President Moi in 1997, in 1998, he installed transmission equipment in Limuru and at his house in Karen. He also set up a studio at AmBank House.

The honeymoon with the Moi government would however not last for long when Citizen radio went on air because of two programmes, “Wembe wa Citizen” and “Yaliyotendeka”. These two programmes that attacked corruption in both social circles and in government did not endear Macharia to power people. Though the government tolerated the stinging criticism for a while, but on 13 December 1999, a day after Macharia was awarded a national medal for his service to the country, his station was closed down for the first time, but was put back on air. However, on January 4, 2000 after airing a critical story critical of the army top brash, his stations were shut down for a year and re-opened in January 2001. Four months later, another corruption story would see Citizen vandalized by the police and shut down. “I literally gave up,” says Macharia, “They took me to court for not broadcasting without a licence.” The government even assigned a High Court Judge to listen to the case specifically for months, but Macharia lost. Meanwhile, the government was facing a lot of pressures from foreign governments and after a visit to the US, President Moi asked Macharia to go back on air. By then he had learnt the mistake of co-locating his equipment
with the government.

It would take up to January 2002 for Citizen FM to go back on air. By then, KANU was banking on support for Macharia’s stations. “I just turned like a chameleon at the end of 2002.”

Citizen makes a comeback

While Macharia was playing his political games in the 1990s, a new breed of media enteprenuers were busy minting money in the radio business. These included: Capital FM in 1996, Metro East FM, Nation FM, Kameme FM and the biggest of them all as it would turn out was Kiss FM, owned by Macharia’s business rival, Patrick Quarcoo.

For five years, Macharia and his stations was considered a running joke in the industry and with advertiser. However, 2002, by a twist of political fate became his comeback year. Because of his political passions, Macharia invested heavily in supporting President Mwai Kibaki and the ruling coalition using Citizen FM and television. During the campaign, Macharia ran the most vociferous and partisan political coverage that specifically ran a smear campaign against Kanu’s candidate, Uhuru Kenyatta. It turned out that this is what the country wanted to hear and all the radio dials turned to Citizen FM.

In December 2002, not only were the ratings of Citizen FM so high, but because of the investment that Macharia had put in the coverage of the elections, the crowning moment came when the Electoral Commission called the presidential election using the provisional polling results reports from Citizen. Finally, Macharia had come of age a media King maker, a modern day Kenya’s Citizen Kane. Citizen FM was the most listened to radio station that year.

Continue reading the third part of this series here

The weekly Afro music concert usually held at the Choices Pub and Lounge along Baricho Road once again managed to thrill fans with yet another hot concert.

Last Thursday (17th January) saw Sage perform live infront of her dedicated fans, delivering one of the best concerts ever held at this event.

Epic and soulful it was. Check out how the event went down.

Photo props: Quaint Photography

Rarely does an artiste release a song to the public and ask them to help out in coming up with the best and most suitable title for it. Actually, come to think of it, it just doesn’t happen.

Avril is now the first artiste in Kenya to have ever done this. Her new track… which is currently ‘untitled’ has been uploaded on Sound Cloud and is already receiving love. Mambo Mseto’s Willy M Tuva even had her explain live on air, what is cutting with this new track.

Avril explains that her latest track is all about love and all the lovey dovey that she so well puts out in her music and that the most obvious title she could think of was ‘Missing You’.

This title, according to her, would not be original and fresh at all seeing that almost every other artiste all over the globe have atleast one song with that title.

Avril wants something different, unique and at the same time relevant for the title and the fans have the opportunity to participate in the naming of this beautiful song.

Listen to the song below and follow this link to give your suggestions for the title of the song.

You wouldn’t believe what deejays have to go through just to get the money they actually worked hard for. Most clients, according to most deejays (if not all), are always prepared to pay way less than the amount of work the deejays put in simply because, to them, deejaying is as easy as standing next to a music player and punching in some keys.

Disrespectful, really. This is but just a tip of the problems that professional deejays have to go through in their quest of getting shows and value for their work.

So, to everyone who might at one point consider hiring a deejay for their event, I think you should read through this brief letter from one of Kenya’s finest and experienced DJ, Joe Mfalme.

Dear Client,
When I give you a quotation, please don’t talk bad because of how I charged you. Telling me that my work is “only standing and playing music” is an insult. Anybody can play music but, one is fit to be called a professional DJ when they show the art/skill, passion, discipline, professionalism and dedication to his work and that is the package that your paying for, so respect the deejay services. Thank You.

Kenyan musicians are finally getting their international break, a sign that their music has come of age. One of our very own Gospel artistes, Scepta of the NO KULULU NO KALALA hit has been selected to represent Kenya on Blog Talk Radio in the USA as they celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.

And today Scepta’s music was even featured on the world’s largest social radio network. Scepta is among the artistes who selected from Africa with other participants coming from Zambia, Angola and Zimbabwe.

Blog Talk Radio is a leading radio station in America with a wide listenership in America. Being an internet radio, the radio has massive followership on both Twitter and Facebook. Scepta was ecstatic about being featured on the radio terming it another opportunity to grow. “Being featured by these guys was just a dream but it has happened and I am greatful to God,”